Newsletter Migration & Urban Growth

8/17/2019 Newsletter Migration & Urban Growth

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c

Global Citizenship steps in Europe

Migration &

Urban Growth News

Index

Migration .…...1

Ernst-Hansen School .….2

1st Primary School of Asvestohori .….3

St. Michael’s School .….4

Agrupamento de Escolas Templários .….5

ZS sv. Cyrila a Metoda .….6

Escola Les Acàcies .….7

Storkyrkoskolan and Björngårdsskolan .….8

A pr i 2 01 6

3

The twenty-first century has been called

“the age of migration”, essentially because

there are more migrants in the world todaythan ever before, about 232 million

international migrants in 2013. In general,

however, it is expected that the number of

international migrants worldwide will

increase in the future, with demographic

factors, economic disparities and

environmental change continuing to be

major drivers of migration.

We are experiencing at local levels the

effects of migration because the schools of

our partnership in recent years have

enrolled many pupils from international

countries. These pupils have many

language difficulties and need extra

support and resources so that they can

more easily adapt to their new situation. It

is necessary that our schools should be

welcoming and accommodating to thesenew pupils. And it is our common goal that

we teach all pupils to be tolerant and

respectful of others, and to appreciate

cultural diversity. We view this multi-

cultural aspect of our schools as a very

positive development.

The theme of global citizenship is

especially important for our multi-

cultural schools. It engages pupils in

meaningful learning processes, and

gives them an understanding of the

dynamics of migration. Moreover, it

gives them an overview of the impact

of climate change and the importance

of sustainability. The development of

pupils' citizenship skills is an important

element of global citizenship. These

skills ensure that pupils can participate

in society and give them confidence to

voice their opinions. Pupils feel that

they have reinforced their sense of

identity, enhanced their self-esteem,

and engaged and participated in

political discussion and debate. Theyhave learned that their contribution to

society is important.

Migration

http://gcstepseu.weebly.com/

Every country is home

to one man

And exile to another

(T.S. Eliot)

http://gcstepseu.weebly.com/http://gcstepseu.weebly.com/


2/8

Ernst-Hansen School, Bielefeld

3.400 refugees arrived in Bielefeld in 2015,

many more came to register and were send to

other cities and counties. Bielefeld has about

34 000 inhabitants and is not allowed to take

more immigrants than that 10 %, so we are

full! There are still refugees arriving in

Bielefeld, but it is just for the registration

before they are being sent to another city.

Some of our student’s families hosted refugees

in their own homes, since members of their

own family members were among the

refugees.

In class we watched movies and looked at

photos of the refugee’s situation in their home

countries and their situation in our town. We

discussed about war and other reasons for

fleeing.

We also planned on getting involved and

helping. First we collected donations of clothes

among families and teachers and brought it to

the place of first accommodation/initiate on in

Bielefeld. We also baked cakes and gave them

to a Coffee Shop called „Cafe Welcome“ that

spreads free coffee, tee, water and cake to

migrants that have to wait for registration. The

waiting time was tremendous, especially in

November, it took days.

The year 8 of our school works for the so

called „students firm – kiosk & Coffee

Shop“. Within that firm we started

different fund raising campaigns by making

and selling Hotdogs and Cup Cakes as well

as just collecting money from students and

school staff with a charity tin. We used the

money to buy socks for children, games,

balls, crayons and sweets for children who

live in the schools former building (Maybe

you remember, that our school had to

move two years ago. That building is now

used for homes for refugees). Some kids of

our school went to play with the refugees

living there. Some were very kind end very

eager to learn German from us.

Just now at Easter we repeated the

fundraising and buying of items. It was

very interesting to talk to some of the

refugees. Since some of our students

speak Kurdish, we were able to talk to

them and translate it to the rest of the

class. We also donated a box of books,

puzzles and a pool table to another homeof refugees in our part of the town.

One part of the money we collected will

also go to the organization „ doctors

without borders“.

Keep up the good work!

Germany

2

Project from class 8b: „Refugees in my town“

A refugee from Syria in front of her new home, our former schoolbuildung.


3/8

1st

Primary School of Asvestohori, Thessaloniki

Hellas

Refugees

I paid a ship to take me all over the world

For refugees and all uprooted must hit

upon a land.

The route is short, they said, and before the

sun goes down

Another corner of the earth will gift us with

redemption.

Yes, the route was short, and in the light of

the moon

We could single out welcoming shores and

villages.

We had already arrived when suddenly we

found ourselves in the water

And it was like the sea had opened in two.

And then a thick heavy fog covered us!

-The road, where is the road? Waves are

approaching like beasts!

-The wave...how can we pass through it

and land safely onshore across?

The sun had set and we remained alone

Skirmishing with the waves like rocks,

Those among us who stayed alive…

For we could see around the dead bodies of

our children

And on their side the screams of our

parents…

And then, we kept floating in the waters of

the Mediterranean

Some people rushed to our rescue late…

Τhey had come to collect death instead of

life!

D’1 class(Translated into English by Erma Vassiliou, Melbourne)

Migration

In the beginning of school year

visited responsible Migration Policy

Department competed for Mitilini’s Hot

Spot, Mr Papathemelis Athanasios. He

informed students for the followingprocedure when refugees and immigrants

coming in reception centers. He specifically

talked about the importance of

identification of migrants and refugees and

the progress followed to reach the

countries of their choices.

The pupils of 4th grade decided to

write a story, with the title "The

Adventures of a Refugee Family". The

children separated into groups and wrote

different parts of the story (in order of

time). The parts of the story were: Our

Country, The War, The Journey, Crossing

the Aegean Sea, Welcome to Greece, and

Leaving for Europe. The children wrote the

texts and drew the respective images.

Pupils of 6th

grade wrote “The Diary

of Refugee” with duration a school year and

the culmination of the project will be an artexhibition by the refugee’s issue.

In May there will be ademonstration dedicated to the immigrant

and refugee history of Greece as well as the

influx of the immigrants and refugees

arriving in our country in the last few years

with historically referenced video footage,

photos, songs and dances.

3

atastrophe of Asia Minor

th grade dealt with the

myrna Disaster, which

ook part at 1922. This

atastrophe led to

migration 1,5 millions of

reeks. The students read

ooks, gathered material,

hotos and videos and

arned some songselevant to this subject.

the end of this effort,

he pupils organized a

heatrical play that showed

l the desperation and

tterness of the refugees.

http://blogs.sch.gr/dimasves


4/8

St. Michael’s School, Galway

The Blue Star Programme is an

education initiative for primary school

students across Ireland. The idea of the

Programme is simple: to foster better

understanding and knowledge of the

European Union and how it affects the

lives of Irish citizens among Irish primary

pupils through classroom projects and

activities. The Programme is supported

by the office of the Minister of State for

European Affairs, the Department of the

Taoiseach, the European Commission

Representation in Ireland and the

European Parliament Information Office

in Ireland.

Pupils of sixth class signed up for this

programme. They explored European

themes through four key areas:

historical, geographical, cultural and

institutional.

They learned about the devastation of

the Second World War and about the

Holocaust. They learned about the

functions of The European Council, The

European Parliament and The European

Commission. They examined the

impacts that these institutions have on

Irish citizens. They learned about

European elections and about Irish

Members of the European Parliament.

Ms Marion Harkin MEP visited our

school. She answered pupils questions

about the European Parliament, and

stated that the formation of the EU has

made Europe a more peaceful

continent.

As well as teaching about the

democratic processes of the EU

throughout the year teachers were very

proactive in developing the citizenship

skills of pupils.

https://www.mervuebns.com/

Ireland

4

At the outset of our project we completed

an audit of pupils in our school. Almost 40%

were either international newcomers, or

did not use English as the first language in

the home. In fact, we had pupils fromtwenty different countries attending our

school. These countries were mainly in

Eastern Europe and Africa. Ireland also has

a long tradition of outward migration and

there is a strong feeling that the integration

of migrants is important for both the

migrants and the receiving country. It has

always been an important objective of our

school to welcome pupils and to integrate

them into our school community. To do this

effectively we believe it is necessary that

we appreciate and respect the culture of

the migrants. It is also important that pupils

should also appreciate their own culture

and ethnicity. Migration without

integration has the potential to create

problems in the future.

The celebration of Europe Day provides a

great opportunity not just to showcase the

work of pupils but also to develop an

appreciation of cultural diversity. Pupils

created an exhibition of their work detailing

the countries of the European Union,

highlighting their projects on World War 2

and The Holocaust, featuring some of their

artwork based on paintings of Vermeer and

Picasso, and further works on theNetherlands, Slovakia and Germany.

Every pupil in the school visited this

exhibition and each pupil marked his

country of origin on a map of the world

with a coloured pin. Selected pupils also

detailed other pupils about our past and

ongoing eTwinning and Comenius/Erasmus

projects.

The creation of this body of work and the

subsequent exhibition of this work was so

successful in raising pupil awareness of

cultural diversity and developing respect for

different ethnicities that next month we

will extend the exhibition of work to a

week. We will also develop the scope of our

work this year. As well as celebrating

Europe Day we will celebrate ethnic

diversity in general. We will invite parents

from Poland, Nigeria, and Lithuania to

speak to different classes about life in their

countries. We will invite parents to visit the

school to see the pupils' exhibition of work,

and we will have food from different

nations available for pupils to sample. We

will encourage pupils and parents to wear

national costumes. We will fly flags of the

different countries represented in ourschool.

Migration and Integration

e integration of international

wcomers is always a priority

bjective of our school.

https://www.mervuebns.com/https://www.mervuebns.com/https://www.mervuebns.com/https://www.mervuebns.com/https://www.mervuebns.com/


5/8

Agrupamento de Escolas Templários, Tomar

Portugal

5 http://www.aet.pt/

We can hear and see. We can’t ignore!

We also have a head to think; because of it,

many questions are real if we get attentive

to whatever surrounds us.

On our school (Santa Iria School, Tomar,

Portugal) there are many pupils with

migrant relatives. Some of them are, or

have been, apart from them because they

have to look for work elsewhere abroad.

To think properly about the reasons that

led people to travel leaving behind their

families, roots and springs, pathing an

unknown adventure full of risks and

uncertainties has something to do with all

of us.

We, 6th graders from class D, were thinking

about migrations.

After a huge debate, two were the main

reasons we found:

- Many of them leave looking for jobs and a

better life;

- Many others run away from war and

persecutions.

Of course, we all reviewed those terrible

images of cities in ruins, boats loaded of

people crossing the sea, floating bodies,

crying people crashing against each other

just to get a place in a train towards

unknown destinations, barbed wire that

kills the walkers’ dreams, tents into the

mud, despair in children’s eyes…

Some of us remembered what we have

learnt on History classes and reminded

ourselves about us, Portuguese, always had

been a migrant people, used to cross eachand every continent, taking and getting

influences to and from all of those places.

Iberian Peninsula itself, since ever, was a

passing point and a place to other far away

peoples to settle here.

Others have thought about the cities that

call people from their home rural areas,

leaving them almost deserted and only with

aged persons. We see this in our villages

and many of those who are still there

dream on travelling to the big city to study

and work…

After this so interesting debate, we have

prepared some art work to display outside

the classroom so that everything we

thought about and discussed might be shared by the whole school.

Here we leave some images of our worksand the working process.

6th Grade, Class D - Santa Iria School

http://www.aet.pt/http://www.aet.pt/http://www.aet.pt/http://www.aet.pt/http://www.aet.pt/


6/8

ZS sv. Cyrila a Metoda, Kosice

Slovakia

Our school is Saint Cyril and Method

Primary School in Kosice, Slovakia. It has

got about 600 pupils aged from 6 to 15,

almost all of them of Slovak nationality. We

have not got any migrants in our school but

because Kosice is a city with over 250,000

people and a popular tourist destination,

children are used to seeing people of

different nationalities.

About 10 of our pupils study abroad and

only come to our school once a year to

write a test in Slovak language and to have

some contact with their Slovak classmates.

Since Slovakia is not among the countries

where immigrants tend to go, we have not

been confronted with the phenomenon of

migration much yet. However, we teach

children solidarity with people in need –

the poor and the persecuted. We have

raised money for children in Kenya, Syria

and Ukraine. Every year pupils and

teachers bake gingerbread hearts, sell

them at school and send the money to help

build new schools, hospitals or shelters.

Every year our pupils also have a good

opportunity to learn about and accept

different cultures. In cooperation with

AIESEC we welcome a group of foreign

university students who spend one week at

our school and give presentations about

their countries in our English lessons. We

have had young people from Brazil, Hong

Kong, Taiwan, Ukraine and Indonesia. It is

good for children to compare the different

cultures and lifestyles. This way they can

learn to appreciate their own culture as

well as to be tolerant to others.

There is one new phenomenon especially

in the east of our country and it is

connected with high unemployment. Many

women who cannot find an appropriate job

here decide to go and work in Austria as

carers (Pflegerinen). They leave their

families (often small children, too) to look

after elderly people in their homes for 2-4

weeks and then they have 2-4 weeks off

here in Slovakia. They do this for months,

even years. This gives them a financial

benefit but often has a negative influence

on the stability of their marriages and the

upbringing of children. One of those ladies

says that she does not earn more money

now in Austria than she did in her previous

job but she did not want to be unemployed

so this was the best option for her.

We have got a pupil in our school whose

father had some experience with migrants

and he would like to share it with you:

My dad works as a lorry driver. He drives to

each country in Europe and he stays there

for two or three weeks. After that he

arrives home only for the weekend. He can

drive up to eight hours a day. After eight

hours he must have from nine to eleven

hours long break. The lorries can not be

seen on the roads from Saturday afternoon

till Sunday evening. So he must stay at one

place almost for two days. He usually drives

to Italy, Germany, and France. He has done

it for a very long time and it means that hegot to know almost all countries. If it is

needed, he uses GPS while driving. He has

got many experiences with driving. One of

them happened a month ago. He heard

some voices coming from a semitrailer. It

was dark outside, so he had to take his

torch. When he opened a door, he couldn’t

believe his eyes. There were some

immigrants inside. He asked them to go out

and he continued driving. I am always very

interested in all his stories, but I miss him

very much.

6http://www.zscamke.sk/sk/projekty

http://www.zscamke.sk/http://www.zscamke.sk/sk/projektyhttp://www.zscamke.sk/sk/projektyhttp://www.zscamke.sk/


7/8

Spain

Escola Les Acàcies, Barcelona

Les Acàcies school is located in Poblenou

neighbourhood in Barcelona. It’s a

neighbourhood in full urban growth.

Barcelona is a city in constant motion

where many cultures and different

nationalities live together with one

another. For that reason newcomer

children often arrive to the school.

With this multiculturalism at the school

there are more than 50 different

nationalities.

Is because of that that children grow up

and develop in an environment where

equality and tolerance are values thatthey work with since the very first day.

During the Erasmus+ project this course

we have worked the migrations and

urban development block and how our

daily life is enriched by this coexistence

with the different cultures and

nationalities of our students families.

Here you can see a little summary of the

activities we have done.

Students have chosen the name of every

class according to the major nationality of

the families of every group. In the starting

stage they propose to choose based on the

continents. In the medium stage and 5th

grade based on countries and in 6th

grade

the democracy.

During the course children have

brought information of their family

countries: books, photos, maps, typical

objects, coins, etc.

In the school we collaborate in some

different projects like: food and clothes

collection, plastic caps collection to help

for the research of unknown diseases. In

this year we examine also the global

problem with the refugees crisis. This

topic has been worked repeatedly in the

school, so we have done different

activities related to it. One of these

activities was the celebration of the day

of Peace, where every boy and girl of the

school wrote a message of sympathy and

their desire of a better world.

7 http://xtec.cat/ceipacacies/

http://xtec.cat/ceipacacieshttp://xtec.cat/ceipacacieshttp://xtec.cat/ceipacacies/http://xtec.cat/ceipacacies/http://xtec.cat/ceipacacies


8/8

Storkyrkoskolan and Björngårdsskolan, Stockholm

http://xtec.cat/ceipacacies/

Sweden

Migration

We made a work about migration and

particularly thought of what people bring

to our country when they live here. We

saw a lot of pictures before we started

our “Roma embroidery”. We got our

inspiration from the roman people. There

are about 40 000 Roman people living in

Sweden. Katarina Taikon is one of them,

known for her children’s books about a

Roman girl Katitzi. We saw lots of

pictures of how they are dressed when

they give performances as well as how

they are dressed in ordinary life. They

have many beautiful colours in theirclothes.

The romans dresses have a lot of flowers

and that was my inspiration, said Nikita in

class 5, when I asked her.

I myself chose many different colours but

mostly pink. The embroidery became

nearly as I planned from start. I thought

of different ideas while doing this

embroidery. That’s why it got a little bit

different. I have drawn this pattern

before, about a year ago. I´m satisfied

with my work. Here you can see a bit of

it.

Niamh Madden, Class 5 Björngårdsskolan

Migration- a project in class 3-5

In Sweden we have lots if students that

either come from other countries or some

of their parents do.

We have tied ribbons from all those placesto Stockholm to show where we originally

come from. This is a project that students

from class 3-6 have made.

Just a few of the students were born in

other countries, two in USA, one in China,

one in Vietnam and one in Poland. Most

parents come from Sweden but nineteen

were born abroad for instance in North

Korea, Australia, Ireland, China, Israel,

Peru, Germany, Russia, Poland, Ethiopia,

Latvia, Cuba, Greece and Bolivia.

http://bjorngardsskolan.stockholhttp://storkyrkoskolan.stockholm.se/ 8

The Town – it grows a work by Class 2- the

Squirrels

(Björngårdsskolan)

Families can have very

different situation in a

town. Some can afford

everything and some

families have to think a

ot how to use the moneythey have. We decided in

each group how our

family would look like.

We made a plan for our

house or apartment

before we build it.

People move to our town

every day.

n our class everyonemade a choice about bath

house or a football arena

n our town. By that we

earnt how an election is.

t is important to clean

the water we use so we

can have fresh water the

next day too. There has

to be a fire brigade, a a

police, a hospital and

some food stores in a

town.
http://bjorngardsskolan.stockholm.se/http://bjorngardsskolan.stockholm.se/http://bjorngardsskolan.stockholm.se/http://xtec.cat/ceipacacies/http://bjorngardsskolan.stockholm.se/http://storkyrkoskolan.stockholm.se/http://storkyrkoskolan.stockholm.se/http://bjorngardsskolan.stockholm.se/http://xtec.cat/ceipacacies/http://bjorngardsskolan.stockholm.se/

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