Members of the Partnership:

Liechtensteinisches Gymnasium - Vaduz, Liechtenstein (coordinating school) Bundeshandelsakademie Lustenau - Lustenau, Austria Norwich School, Norwich

Work undertaken from September 1996-July 1997

During this year's work we have been focussing on the impact on the lives of the citizens of each of the member states of the key issues which dominate our lives. This has allowed students in the three schools to get up to date information and reactions to events in each of the three countries.

At Norwich School, the key curriculum areas which have been covered are the Modern Languages Department, especially German, General Studies and Politics. The students who have been involved in this project are Year 12 and 13 German students, Year 13 Politics and General Studies students as well as teachers from all three departments.

It is possible to divide the Practical Outcomes into subject specific outcomes and into whole school outcomes:

Politics - The EEP has allowed the students to view European politics from a new angle rather than merely from books and has opened up a new channel of research.During the year, the Politics department working with the Modern Languages department has organised various opinion polls whose results have been published in the School newspaper and sent on to the Partner schools in Austria and Liechtenstein. During the period of the General Election, a mock election was organised at the school and we were able to answer questions from the students in our partner schools as well as publish and send coverage from the School newspaper. Indeed electoral systems in the different countries are the final element of the EEP we are going to examine this School Year.

German / Modern Languages - As well as the benefits of communicating in the Target Language, we have found that this EEP has given us access to a whole new range of target language material which has proved invaluable for projects and coursework, which have then been sent onwards to our partner schools for evaluation and comment. It is particularly gratifying to note the amount of projects which have chosen themes which relate to the EEP. This has given the students a chance to use the material and vocabulary gained in real scenarios. The Internet has provided us with up to date topic material with a variety of bias which has improved our students Fingerspitzgefühl for the language. The students have also participated in letter /tape exchanges and had the chance to develop their internet skills.

General Studies - We have been able to develop a discussion programme, which has examined all items of European integration from a historical analysis of the idea of integration as well as particular aspects of integration in specific fields e.g defence or through the ideas of a 'Social Europe' and EMU. Having the EEP has allowed our students to compare their opinions with those of their colleagues in Austria and Liechtenstein, to exchange of material and ideas, to make and receive comments from partners by e-mail which adds a new immediacy and dimension to the Course as well as developing their internet skills, by this browsing the WWW, sending e-mail etc.

Also the FLAW (Foreign Languages at Work) students have used the internet links to find out information both from web sites and by asking the students and teachers in Austria and Liechtenstein about material related to their course such as issues in education and training, employment and Current Affairs.

We have also been considering ways of getting younger students involved in the project.

Meetings with Partners

This took place through a teacher exchange, when in the first stage Mrs. M.C.G.Phillips flew to Liechtenstein and Lustenau in order to meet with the other teachers involved in the project from our coordinating school and partner school namely Herr Christian Beck (Liechtenstein) and Herr Dr Reinhard Hilbe (Lustenau). This meeting took place over a couple of days during her visit which lasted from March 22 to March 251997. It was a very valuable few days as it allowed Mrs. Phillips to meet the other teachers involved in the project face to face (our normal method of contact is via e-mail, fax and normal post) and for all involved to sit down and devise the plan of action for next year, as well as evaluate the work we have done together this year. The most important thing to emerge from these meetings was the realisation that we would need to make the aims of the project simpler and make the title more easily understandable and relevant to all the participants. We hope that this has been addressed in our Action Plan for 1997-98.

This Action Plan was submitted to the Central Bureau in May as we are hoping to continue the project next year. I will also enclose a copy of the plan of action with this report.

Mrs.Phillips visit took place during the Liechtenstein term so that she could also meet other teachers working at the School and make some useful contacts among the staff, especially among the English department and their Senior Management Team as well as at the Liechtenstein Education Ministry - Schulamt.

Unfortunately Lustenau was also already on holiday, but we managed to get an insight into the nature of the School as well as tour their 'business' centre.

The visit also happened during the School's exchange with the region led by Mr. W.H.J. Croston, which meant that everyone involved in the project could get together.

The exchange further enabled the language students participating in the exchange to get a first hand grasp of the country and to meet some of the students who have been participating in the project as well as to prepare some work which has been used in the project.

Interim Evaluation

Here it is possible to add our reflections on how the project has worked to the full report which would have been submitted to the Liechtenstein national agency by the coordinating school in Vaduz. The project leaders there are Herr Christian Beck and Frau Elvira Schoch.

At Norwich School, we have been very pleased to have the opportunity to take part in such a EEP and we have found that it has had a generally beneficial effect on the Curriculum of the School. We have also been very lucky to have the full support and interest of the Head Master who has also had the chance to visit Liechtenstein and Austria at the invitation of the Liechtenstein government.

We have found that the EEP has improved the European dimension of the Norwich School curriculum and has enabled us to deepen our links with one very similar school and one rather contrasting school on the European mainland. Our strategy of carrying out different aspects of the EEP with different classes and over different year groups has meant that many students have been able to benefit from the Comenius project. The EEP has also helped us to strengthen cross curricular development within the School with the work that has gone on with the Politics department.

Major benefits

It is our opinion that the major benefit of the project has been the chance to get to know and to work with new people over the last year. It is good for the students and for the teachers involved in this project to further their contacts and understanding with other Europeans and in such a way contribute more to international understanding. All of the people involved in the project have felt that this is the way to build Europe rather than with abstract decisions and declarations taken a long way away which at the moment mean very little to our students. Further more some of our students have had the chance to visit Liechtenstein and experience life there, which has made the rather abstract nature of the project more real to them.

Secondly without the EEP, the students and teachers involved would not have had the chance to discover the wide range of material on the Internet and the possibilities it offers as a research tool and as a method of communication. All involved have found learning these new Information Technology skills to be very beneficial and as the next stage of our work on this project, we have decided to try and build a World Wide Web Page with the links we have found this year, which will be of great benefit to those students following on with the project and which they can of course make further additions to. We also hope to publish the details of this report and our Action Plan 1997-98 on this page.

Thirdly the linguistic benefits speak for themselves, as this project has allowed us to give practice 'A' Level tasks a sense of realism which they would not otherwise have so easily had. This has fitted in well with the new UODLE syllabus which we are using. A set of 'A' Level exercises which evaluate the programme is enclosed.

'Major' difficulties to date

We have had very few difficulties. The chance to meet our partners in the EEP, both in Norwich and in Lustenau / Liechtenstein has been very helpful and has kept problems to a minimum. The only problems we have had have been in coping with the new technology, though here we have seemed to be a little more successful than Liechtenstein, which have meant the occasional dead period in communication, and trying to match the demands of the domestic curriculum to demands for information from Liechtenstein and/or Austria. Using the General Studies groups to work on these issues has proved to be very useful here as they are less bound by curriculum requirements of the 'A' Level syllabuses.

One small difficulty we have had however has concerned access to funds. All payments have been late and we are still waiting for news of Mrs. Phillips expenses from her trip to Vaduz and Lustenau. I am sure it too will arrive eventually, but we are lucky to have an understanding Bursar at school !

Generally though, we have had very few difficulties and the project seems to have run smoothly.

Suggestions for future development of the programme

We would like to continue to expand our participation in the programme, possibly to encompass younger pupils and would hope in the future to become the leading partner in this or another EEP as we have recognised the value of participating in such a scheme. We would also like to think about involving another school in the project - possibly our other partner school in Linz. One thing we are looking to do in the next stage of the project is to produce a transnational student newspaper.

WHJ Croston Norwich July 1997