I. C. S. “A. Fogazzaro” (Italy)

 ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO STATALE

"A. FOGAZZARO" DI NOVENTA VICENTINA

    Our school is located in Noventa Vicentina (province of Vicenza) between Vicenza, Verona, Padova and Venezia, surrounded by the Berici and Euganean Hills. Noventa Vicentina is a country with a deep agricultural and mechanic industry tradition, which also preserves significant historical evidence. Our area is worldwide famous for its Palladian Villas, belonging to the UNESCO World Heritage. 

    Our Institute includes three school-levels: Infant, Primary and Lower Secondary. The school involved in the project is the “Antonio Fogazzaro” Lower Secondary school. It has 233 pupils, aged 11 to 14. There are 25 teachers working in this school. 15% of our students come from non-EU countries, in particular Morocco and, more recently, China and Senegal. The intercultural issue needs care both inside the school and on the territory, along with the relational problems it implies, especially among teenagers. In addition to this, we are noticing a growing process of digitalization of the communication, namely by means of social networks, among pupils who use their devices without control and safety system, to the detriment of a possibly healthier relational modality and exposing them to serious risks at a time. Therefore, we chose to work on two main directions in our school: the prevention of bullying and the promotion of differences. As for bullying prevention, we project specific activities from the first to third class: education to the use of social networks (pupils use Google Classroom for communicating among them and with the teacher on cultural, educational and practical school topics); conferences with an expert Lawyer to beware of the illegal use of social networks; conferences with postal police. 

    We are currently working with a psychologist on a specific activity focusing on fighting bullying also by means of technology. In order to and value differences we work a lot on activities such as Ensemble Music (a successful Music Course active in our school since 1988), Theatre, Green Lab project; 2.0 class, where each student is given electronic devices for everyday school learning. Most of the teachers in our school are strongly motivated to work on inclusion as the only effective way of overcoming many of the problems bound to a multicultural and digital-oriented community. Coming to know and deepen ways, means and strategies for facing such issues in other countries, by other teachers working in different school systems and dealing with territories with different characteristics would help a lot. This is the main reason why we decided to commit on this Erasmus project. All these teachers allow us to commit to the project, aware that even if some of them should leave the school, other experts from the language department will carry on the project activities. All the staff involved in the project are largely qualified and can share experience in planning and designing activities and innovation. And technology. This will make the project be successful.