European Citizenship

VIDEOCONFERENCE European Pupil Jury

What did we do on Europe Day? Visser ‘t Hooft Lyceum from Leiden, the Netherlands VHL Website and VHL Internationale Leeromgeving, is one of the Elos Comenius III Network Schools for European Citizenship. We organised a videoconference in which European pupils acted as jury for a contest. Pupils from Bulgaria website Bulgarian school, Italy: Liceo Linguistico Internazionale “Grazia Deledda”, Turkey: TED Ankara College Foundation Schools and Romania: Grup Scolar Industrial Constructii De Masini Sibiu joined our pupils and presented themselves in English! Read the rest of this entry;

Flexicurity is the magic word.

If you believe having a job for life is a thing of the past, then you are like three quarters of European citizens. Today’s fast-changing global economy is the culprit.

To make more and better jobs possible, the European Commission is getting behind the active labour market concept of flexicurity. This combines security both for workers and companies.

One of its main principles is to narrow the comfort gap, say between someone with a steady longterm paycheck and the person in and out of the job centre, whose life feels more like walking a tightrope.

A spokeswoman in Brussels:
“What are the next steps? Basically, we are looking at establishing common principles which can then be adopted at the European Council in December.”

Flexicurity’s aims include ensuring that more Europeans enjoy income support between jobs or have opportunities to start their own businesses. It is also to prevent companies being mummified in red tape.  (Source Euronews )

I would like to hear what you think of this idea of setting up E-Citizenship as part of a new European curriculum? Would you like to become one of the teachers / co-editors of this new European webbased subject? What are your ideas on content?

Created on a European level by pupils and their teachers from all European countries, using high-tech means of international communication.
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Monday 21st May the Dutch national cabinet of Ministers have invited 200 citizens to share a dialogue with them. All the people invited play active roles in education, social services or companies. In groups of 8 the Dutch citizens exchanged opinions. Each group could ask questions or share opinions with one of the Ministers. The Pedagogical Advisor Spring Day 2007 for the Netherlands, Mrs. Marleen Spierings, brought Spring Day to the Prime Minister’s attention. The Dutch Prime Minister also discussed the importance of educating youth to develop an open and respecting attitude towards people of different cultures and backgrounds in Europe.. “European and international education might very well be one of the answers to the problems of integration Dutch society is facing�, is the opinion of the Pedagogical Advisor Spring Day 2007 for the Netherlands.

The Stichtse Vrije School Zeist has won! The group of pupils have worked on a podcastsong on the collaboration of 50 years, centred on the multicultural society. Names: Devi Brands, 19 years old, Zonne Hofman, 17 years old and David Verbeeck, 18 years old. With special help from: KKdesign.nl, Kieran Klaassen. Promotion: Together we thought about the future of Europe and made it work on music. Three languages, one wish, a tolerant society. The Prize Winners will spend a Day in Brussels.

  A Revolution for Communication? Implications and Challenges for Communication Management and PR

More than 400 communication experts from all over Europe participated in the second major study dealing with the way weblogs and social software are changing organizational practice.

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                                      School Competition on Europe: 50 Years Together 2007

The competition is open to young artists and only one entry per person/group is allowed in one of the two categories:

primary education / lagere scholen

I - ‘Design a Stamp for 50th anniversary of European Union’

secondary education / middelbare scholen

II - Digital Product on Europe: the next 50 Years

The deadline for sending in your projects will be the 1st May 2007 Read the rest of this entry;

The integration of Europe’s immigrants through schooling should become a major policy priority by the end of this decade. The EU education ministers have agreed to ramp up investment. Recent OECD data showed many countries are failing to help children of immigrants integrate.

The ministers decided that language support has to play a key role. They also agreed to make vocational training more market responsive. The number of students who leave school early was also discussed. Read the rest of this entry;

Europe: the next 50 years!

Pupils working in a group of 3 can post their ideas for a better future in Europe, in the categories:

Theme 1: globalisation

Theme 2: climate change

Theme 3: Europe in the world

Theme 4: My country, a democracy

Theme 5: Working together, Living Together

  Elos School Visser ’t Hooft Lyceum wins Prize for Learning Environment and gets the European Language Label

This Dutch secondary school received the European Language Label with its digital learning environment Vreemdetaal.nl  The site was an initiative of teacher Marleen Spierings, and is unique as it was created by teachers and students from across Europe.
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