Farstrup Skole
Farstrup Skole is a smaller school situated in a rural district in Northern Jutland in the Municipality of Aalborg. Every day, we welcome app. 150 students in both former and secondary school. The teaching staff consists of seventeen teachers and school management. Farstrup Skole opened in 1957 and underwent extensive renovation in 2012, leaving the school up to date with regards to modern learning environments. A fair percentage of our pupils originate from socioeconomically challenged homes. Consequently, many of them haven’t got the means nor the incentive to visit or learn about the outside world. In addition, some of our students are dyslexic and/or diagnosed with learning disorders. In Denmark, it has for some time now been the official policy to include as many children with learning disabilities as possible in regular schools, thereby avoiding excluding them to specialized schools. We also teach a great number of children with ample opportunities in life, making the school very diverse and including as a whole.
Farstrup Skole has for many years been allowed to fly a Danish flag called “the Green Flag”, indicating that we are a school with an environmental awareness. We are keen to pursue this area even further. We are adamant that being a part of this project will not only be beneficial for the students taking part. We will take the necessary steps to ensure that knowledge will spread throughout the school, causing students and teachers alike to take an interest in the project. We plan to involve local media, all of the parents and the rest of the teaching staff. The project will revolve around our ecological footprint. We want to investigate the footprints that we leave in the environment in order to determine how we can reduce or improve them. To a certain extent, we know what we are doing at Farstrup Skole, but we are keen to learn what is done in other countries. We believe that we must witness it “with our own eyes” in order to fully understand. The participating students and teachers will share newfound knowledge at general assembly, through social media and with local media. All participants will communicate in English. It will stimulate students´ interest in the language and will be an opportunity to put in practice and improve their competences in English and develop their communicative skills. Communication through modern technology and social media will enhance students´ digital skills. Farstrup Skole has no prior experience with participation in Erasmus projects, but the teachers involved are highly motivated. The key people in charge of running the project will be the headmaster, who has some experience in implementation of European projects, the teacher in charge of the environment teaching at the school and the international coordinator who is also the German teacher. In case any of these should leave their position during the course of the project, the school has other motivated teachers ready to take over their roles.