Expand the teachers’ English level and harmonise teaching practices around the school

Summary

Our students are aged three to six. At our school, we teach English through a CLIL (content and language integrated learning) programme. The school serves a socio-economically disadvantaged community. Many families in the neighbourhood speak at least one language other than French, so we offer children the opportunity to develop their language skills. The courses we attended during our mobility enabled us to achieve our teaching goals. 

“This experience has been a great asset for the team as well as for our students. The project has allowed us to keep learning new skills, harmonising our practices and teaching in English on a daily basis.   

Without the Erasmus+ project, we would never have achieved that much: teaching very young children in a disadvantaged area.” 

Topic(s) addressed

• Literacy 
• Numeracy  
• Art  
• Physical education 
• Language 
• Sciences  

Target group(s)  

• 8 teachers from our school have participated in our project so far. 

The project remains open to any member of the school staff who would be interested in taking part in a mobility experience.  

Methodologies used

As we teach pre-school children, we use a multidisciplinary approach (CLIL): we teach English as a language and use it to teach mathematics, science, art and physical education. Content supports language, and language supports content.   

Our students are active in their learning process: they use the language, play games and participate in peer learning. 

We use English, a neutral language for all our students, to reduce language inequality:  none of them initially speaks it, so no one starts with an advantage over the others.  

Innovation environment

Organisation: an English teaching assistant, open classrooms and the same subject areas taught at all levels.  

We use ICTE: chat boards, iPads, touch screens and computers.  

The entire school uses the same tools.  

We have a school garden, and we use it to teach English outdoors. It supports the wellbeing of the students.  

Teachers’ role

The Erasmus activities are chosen during team meetings according to team members’ abilities, projects planned for the school year and students’ needs.  

We choose activities linked to wellbeing, emotional management and bullying prevention. These activities also have a positive impact on teachers.  

All the teachers improved their language skills. We met other teachers from different countries who used different approaches.  

We had the opportunity to learn about European school systems, practices in other countries and different pedagogies. We bonded over our shared experiences as well as our difficulties. 

Impact and output

Since we started the Erasmus courses, our students and the staff have  improved their English language skills. Another impact is a better understanding of Europe among both adults and children.  

Some students have been encouraged to attend an international school.  

• Tolerance of differences 
• Differences are a strength 
• Creating a sense of belonging to the European community 
• The cultural dimension helps our children understand and view differences among people as strengths.