Gymnázium Angely Merici
Trnava, Slovakia
We are a secondary grammar school of St. Angela Merici founded by Ursuline sisters of the Roman Union. Our school offers general education for more than 430 students each school year. The main motto of our school is Serviam - I will serve. Besides offering standard education, in which our students have excellent annual results, we also offer a variety of personal development programmes to our students. We focus on voluntary work as a way to foster empathy in our students. We would like to make them aware of the bigger picture, the reality people around us live in. We encourage them to find the needs of the society, but also to focus on the needs of themselves.
Some of our students are already involved in several voluntary work projects: the organization called "Caritas" (care of elderly people, collection of food for the families in need, ...); the street work with homeless people; in the orphanage, where they help children with homework; they lead creative and formation meeting for younger children; some of them visit the hospital as voluntary workers. We have noticed that the above-mentioned experiences of our students are changing them and their approach to others, as well as their overall approach to society. They tend to be more open for the needs of others and more willing to go out of their comfort zone. We would like to connect young people across Europe and share our experience, lear from them and enrich each other with our different cultural, historical and personal approaches to one common topic. We hope to become more aware of the wider context and needs of people abroad. We want to not only present young people with many different kinds of needs of society but also to give them formation in psychological, social and economical areas. We are called to do not only charitable work but voluntary work: To see and to accept that the service we can offer to others will be a proper one only if we receive full formation and information about the problem in front of us, and furthermore to see the background of it, the roots of it and to search for a real solution.
Lycée Sainte - Solange
Châteauroux, France
Lycée Sainte Solange is a school group composed of a primary school, a middle school and a high school that prepares to the French Baccalaureate (general and managerial skills). The vocational classes specialize in management and administration. The lycée welcomes 215 high school students and 48 teachers. The school has 5 computer rooms with Internet connection, webcams and interactive whiteboards in all classrooms, 2 art rooms, a music room, a library, 3 science laboratories, a conference room and an exam rom. Students have access to the school cafeteria and sport facilities. The boarding school has a capacity of 40 students. The school motivation to join this project is to open up towards different countries and through common workshops and activities to connect around the theme of charity which is very dear to us in these times of general self-orientated activities. There currently is a caritative project in our school called "Bol de riz" (bowl of rice) which revolves around the idea of helping alimentary solidarity in Tchad through an association but we would like to develop other actions that could imply a greater number of students, reach more domains and in which students would themselves be more implicated, more active. The objective is to raise awareness and then act with the help and support of local associations but also including parents who are always willing to join in. We, as educators and citizens feel it's our duty to bring our contribution.
Zespół Szkół Urszulańskich
Rybnik, Poland
Zespół Szkół Urszulańskich is a set of two schools: Primary (for students aged 6/7 - 14/15) and Secondary (for students aged 14/15 - 18/19). About 80 teachers work at the schools, which comprise three separate buildings. There are over 600 students altogether. The schools are run by the Order of St. Ursula of the Roman Union. Our school is interested in the project because it will give us an opportunity to co-operate with other Ursuline schools in Europe which we share the same values and educational purposes with. We are looking forward to working on our common motto SERVIAM - I WILL SERVE, which is also the logo of all Ursuline schools. In this project with the other partner schools we are going to focus on "servIam", that is on ourselves, on our personal development to become even better at serving others.
Bischöfliche St. Angela Schule
Düren, Germany
The school was founded by Ursulines in 1681 for girls only, since 2018 also boys have been allowed to apply and are taught in parallel monoeducation and in 2018 it became an episcopal school as well. The school includes two types of schools: firstly a secondary school from level 5 to 10. The students acquire the General Certificate of Education and secondly a grammar school from level 5 to 12 . The students take their A-Levels at the end of Year 12. All in all there are approximately 1200 students and 80 teachers. The school has different motivations to join this project. Referring to the Ursulines roots we would like to get in touch with other Ursuline schools. Following their tradition we are interested in social projects and think it is our duty to teach social skills. We consider it to be essential for teachers and the students to
- learn about different traditions and cultures
- find out that there are differences between the nations but also many things we have in common.
This will teach students to get rid of their cliches. It will be an eye opener for all of us and will contribute to the European idea and friendship.