In 2010 Newpark joined a group of schools in Europe with technical departments, called the European CNC-Network*. These schools had already participated in a Comenius project called Train for Europe (T4EU) which had won the European Charlemange Prize.
Newpark registered as a project school via Léargas and got a PIC number. We then applied to be a partner school in a follow-up project called Train for Europe – RELOADED** (T4EU-R). The project ran for two years 2011 – 2013 with 24 schools involved from almost every country in Europe. We achieved 30 mobilities over 6 project meetings. The minimum stated number of mobilities was 24.
In February 2014 we were a partner school in another Comenius project called Take a Chance, Let’s Dance**** which ran for one year, Feb 2014 – April 2015. Newpark hosted the final meeting with visiting schools from Germany, Italy and Turkey.
In 2019, we were involved in an Erasmus+ project with the same German school as coordinator and different schools from Italy, Poland and Portugal. The project was entitled Kiss the Cook***** and was concerned with healthy cooking, eating and lifestyle. We hosted a project meeting in March 2019.
Newpark has been successful in applying for two more Erasmus+ projects, one as a partner school and another as coordinator. The first meeting of our coordination project has taken place in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, 20 – 26 October 2019, in the same school that coordinated T4EU-R and with four other schools from the CNC-Network from Italy, Portugal, Croatia and Slovenia. It is a technical project entitled Magical Moving Machine for Europe (3M4EU) and will run from October 2019 to September 2021.
The other project is a language-based one entitled Languages to Boost Europeanness (L2BE). The schools involved in this project are from Italy, North Macedonia and Poland. A teachers meeting was held in the Italian school in February 2019 just before the first lockdown. The project activities will hopefully resume in 2021.
Newpark has also recently registered for eTwinning and some project progress and results are available on this platform.
The value to the students and teachers taking part in these European projects is incalculable. The students get to travel to places they might otherwise never go. They meet students from other schools and exchange cultural and educational knowledge. They improve their understanding of the languages they encounter and are usually much sought after for their abilities in the English language. Students get to engage in worthwhile activities while teachers get to network with their counterparts in the European schools. Educational systems are compared, and social, cultural and educational knowledge is exchanged.
https://www.takeachanceletsdance.eu/
https://www.kissthecook.online/
For more information contact john.oneill@newparkschool.ie, Newpark Erasmus+ Coordinator
