Istituzione Scolastica Autonoma n.11 Vezzano Ligure/Italy

The ISA applying to the project is situated in the suburbs of La Spezia in a mountainous area. The residents commute to work,  and therefore school plays an important role as a cultural unifying centre. We  have got 670 pupils and they come also from the surrounding areas and together with the Council we work to integrate migrants and pupils at risk of social exclusion.  There are 5 schools and we've got 3 smart boards, three ICT labs , a canteen in each school and 3 gyms.
It is our belief that the children are growing up in a difficult world where conflict is central to the world media and in which friendship with other nations is often outweighed by negative attitudes to racial and cultural diversity.  We want to offer the children opportunities to work with others in the international communities, not only to increase respect and tolerance but to celebrate our differences through a variety of creative media. It's a valuable experience for our students to be in contact with students from other countries. It's also of outstanding importance the fact that our students can share their feelings and their dreams in English, the language they study at school. This is a highly motivating issue to get our students utterly involved in such an experience. All the pupils ranging  from 3 to 14 years old are involved in the project together with the great majority of teachers. The methodology chosen is prevalently lab based: children play an active role, they work mainly in groups using techniques of cooperative learning.
To sum up our main objective is to  increase awareness of other cultures within the EU through a multimedia and personal approach. This should include geographical, historical and cultural awareness.