Devon and Spain lead innovative Erasmus+ project with Latvia and Italy

Offwell Primary from Honiton, Redhills Primary in Exeter and the ACE MAT have been successful in gaining Erasmus+ funding to take part in an Erasmus + project which will be coordinated by the English teacher, Enrique Ruiz from CEIP Andrés García Soler in Spain.

This project, therefore, includes these two Primary schools from Devon, the MAT, the Spanish school, Scuola Padre Pio from Altamura, Italy and Rigas Classical Gymnasium from Latvia as well as Antonio de Nebrija University from Madrid.

This is one of the very few projects in the EU which will involve such a significant number of English institutions, all originally from Devon. It is the second Erasmus+ project for Redhills Primary in Exeter and the very first one for Offwell and the ACE MAT which was originally set up by Redhills Primary in Exeter and Shaldon Primary and Pre-Primary from Teignmouth. Stuart Busby, is apart from the head teacher at Redhills, the MAT leader and will coordinate the work and research the University of Sheffield and the University of Exeter develop during this project.

It is worth highlighting this project will place emphasis on CELT (“Content Enhanced Language Teaching”) for English language teaching both as a mother tongue or foreign language, depending on the country, development of pupils´ sociocultural competence, Inclusive Education and Multiple Intelligences. It will involve both transnational project meetings in the different countries to ensure face-to-face communication between the teachers and/or lecturers involved and visits with children to each school´s country.

In fact, children from Exeter and Honiton will be going over to Spain at the start of February together with Italian and Latvian students to carry out different activities related to local heritage and Spanish history after Mrs Anne Billington head teacher from Offwell and Mr Stuart Busby visited Spain last week with a lecturer from the University from Madrid, and Italian and Latvian school staff.

A few months later, in June 2017, Devon will be hosting pupils and staff from the other three countries to develop further activities together. The whole project will aim, apart from enhancing the teaching practice in the different schools and carry out some research at an University level, to raise pupils´ sociocultural awareness of Europe and the world and help them get to grips with the challenges the 21st century will lay ahead.