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DECEMBER 2019 PRESS RELEASE

With intensive preparations, activities, work, hospitality and endless creativity we are continuing enthousiasticly the third and final year of the European Erasmus + Programme / KA2 Key Action / “Collaboration for Innovation and Exchange of Good Practices” 2017-2020 entitled “European Schools Go Green” 2017-2020 at the 2nd Junior High School of Amaliada!

After two exceptionally creative years, we reached the third and final year of this European collaboration, having already exchanged visits and hosted students and teachers from both schools abroad with success and excellent results. Our students and teachers have already also traveled and have been warmly hosted in Genoa, Italy, and in Kassel, Germany, returning with life experiences and spiritual and mental resources. A collaboration with great dissemination of our work and a particularly warm response from the local community, the school and family environment of the students, the numerous collaborators and local authoritiew and many institutions we are working with, with publications and extensive articles in print and digital Greek, Italian and German Press, a tribute from local television, the website of the Directorate of Education of Western Greece which posted articles about our collaboration and our digital products on the “best practices” website and more.

Even before the schools opened we started with excitement. Since August, the teachers’ pedagogical team has been preparing our partners hosting for October. Also, our digital journal was published with the presentation of work and products from all three schools of the second year “Science Year” 2018-2019.

In September before our students came to school for the new school year the first harvest was made by the Photocycling company of small appliances and lamps that we collect in our school’s special bins. After our first year in this important recycling network, it was a great pleasure to see the full bins emptied and sent where everything the pupils, educators and sensitized citizens collected would be recycled safely.

As Mrs Salvanou, the IT teacher and member of our school’s Erasmus + pedagogical team that has been in charge of organizing the small appliances recycling, writes :
“We all can!!! Small daily habits change, recycle with us starting from home and school … One by one, class after class, home after home ! At our school we already recycled 82kg of electrical appliances and 3.2kg of lamps . Through Photocycling SA actions (approved of the Greek Ministry of Education, Research & Religions) at the 2nd Junior High School of Amaliada pupils and teachers collect old – damaged electrical appliances in special bins. The company cooperates with the Greek factory – recycler Eco Circle so that the appliances are not disposed of in an environmentally unfriendly manner, but undergo a special withdrawal process. Only 65% of the devices disposed in Greece are recycled, mainly through hospitals, companies, municipalities or affiliates, motivated by other financial or planning objectives. In schools this action is still rare, which does not mean it cannot be expanded. ” says Mrs Salvanou.

At the beginning of October we completed the mural “Erasmus + – European Schools Go Green 2017-2020” which will now adorn the multipurpose room “Erasmus” that has been designed and equipped by our program, and will remind us of our experience over the years and how much Erasmus has changed us and connects Europe’s students , schools and local communities.

In front of the mural are also displayed the models of our school created last year by our students under the guidance of their teacher Mr. Spyropoulos Professor of Technology, with modifications to the energy profile of the building and the addition of renewable energy sources, together with the energy study they did with their professor Mr. Vassilopoulos Professor of Physics for a more “green European school” as is the goal and title of all our cooperation with schools abroad.

During the week of October 21st – 25th 2019, our school enthusiastically welcomed the Italian delegation of teachers of our partner school Galileo Galilei Technical High School (5 Italian teachers, also having the great honour of having here Mrs Monteforte Headmaster of Galileo Galilei Technical Genoa High School) for a week of conferences, work and cultural visits and activities.

That week we had a series of meetings in our school’s specially designed Erasmus multipurpose room, we evaluated the second year of collaboration and organized this year’s work and final products.
With our guests we visited the City Hall of Ilida where gifts and souvenirs were exchanged. The Italian teachers expressed their joy for the cooperation and their thanks and greetings by presenting gifts to the Mayor of Ilida Mr. Yiannis Lymberis, while receiving warm welcome from Mr. Kapsis, Counselor of Culture of the Municipality of Ilida, Mr. Ioanna Stavropoulou, Chairman of the School Committee for Secondary Education of the Municipality of Ilida, Mr. Christos Nikolopoulos Chairman of the School Committee for Primary Education Chairman of the Public Council “Elios”, Mr. Eugenios Asteris, in a ceremony relayed by local television and has been published in print and online media. The Municipality of Ilida also culminated hospitality by offering a working dinner in the town of Amaliada.

We also visited the city of Pyrgos as well, where on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 we were guided to the Archaeological Museum of Pyrgos, the Merkouri estate, and finally the historical Katakolo Lighthouse having a special permit from the Hellenic (Greek) Navy Military Office.

It was a great pleasure and honour for us to have lunch with Head of Directorate of Secondary Education of Ilia, Mr.Vasileios Dimitrellos, who warmly congratulated the participants on the successful course and results of the cooperation. He exchanged gifts and souvenirs with the visitors and discussed many educational issues of our schools in both countries with our Headmasters and olus schools’ teachers.

We were also honoured to be accompanied by Mrs Tita Terzi, who as a School Activities and Culture Officer in previous years has supported our partnership, as well as all the activities of our school morally and practically, Mrs Harbali Iulia, a representative of the European Programmes Group of the Directorate of Secondary Education of Ilia, who was also close to us from the start of the programme, our eTwinning’s Ambassador awarded with 1st European eTwinning and other educational prizes Mrs Sofia Kouzouli, who warmly welcomed our guests and donated to our guests important works of Greek literature in English translation.

In Ancient Ilida, the ancient town which organized the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece, on the morning of Thursday, October 24, 2019 we all enjoyed the magnificent archaeological site and Museum with a guided tour by the archaeologist in charge Mrs Panagodimou.

All the above important representatives of the Educational Community and the State, despite their overwhelming workload, were extremely welcoming hosts and gladly participated in the organizational meeting work with the Italian colleagues and as a result our guests returned excited about their welcoming by the representatives of Greek authorities.

At the end of the week’s work, the conclusions and timetables were finalized and details were discussed about the upcoming trip of the Greek and Italian students to Kassel, Germany, hosted this time by the German Goethe Gymnasium.

Finally, the certificates of attendance were awarded and commemorative gifts were offered to Italian colleagues and their school. In the Erasmus Room of our school, the guests as well as the students and teachers of the Erasmus team left their message and signature in our mural so that the wall of the room would be filled with the positive emotions that brought us close.

In November and December informative and presentational meetings with the parents of our students took place, as well as a special briefing for the parents of the students who will be travelling to Kassel, Germany in April 2020.
Informing parents of Erasmus students.

The last year of cooperation is already in the middle! For two and a half years, during which we have had the great pleasure of meeting and collaboration of the students of the three schools, the
satisfaction and pride of our best ambassadors, who linked Amaliada with Genoa, Italy, and Kassel, Germany, we are glad we are building a strong and productive bridge of communication between our educational communities, families, cities and countries. But it is also important the fact that we have been able to reflect, inform, inspire first mentality changes and promote ideas and present the work of the students who have communicated with perseverance and enthusiasm, creating products by studying renewable energy, sustainable development, climate change and cultivating the social consciousness of the modern citizen.

Students are leading and continuing to zealously promote the change of our mentality and daily life, enriching it with the use of new technologies with low energy footprint and a more established ecological consciousness. We have come to this third and final year to complete our programme, which seems to be also successful.

Our project on Twinspace: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/34044

Highlights Website with selected products and activities: https://europeanschoolsgogreen.wordpress.com/

Our digital magazines: https://issuu.com/europeanschoolsgogreen

Our programme in various articles in Greek and foreign press:

https://blogs.sch.gr/samiamidi/?page_id=504

Dissemination and Promotion of our project 2017-2020