Small briefing on the Project “Life Skills & Values for the Pupils of the E.U.”

Children’s social and emotional well-being does not only affect the mental and physical health of the pupils of E.U but it is also a decisive factor in their academic success.

Literature indicates that it evolves in a framework that ensures the presence of a culture, ethos, and environment that promotes dynamic, optimal development and flourishing for all in the school community,

The European school is an important institution for the promotion of pupils’ well-being since its role is to promote the moral, spiritual, social and personal development of students in a safe and supportive environment where, apart from learning, certain life skills and resilience can be developed.

What are Life Skills?

Life skills are a set of basic skills that enable a person to effectively manage the challenges of daily life. They include critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, the ability to communicate and collaborate, along with personal and social responsibility and empathy.

Educational experts stress that any attempt for the development of “Life skills” without a parallel highlighting of the underlying European values that construct the strong foundations of them cannot bring the expected results.

Despite the above mentioned well-acknowledged point of view, EU educational systems focus more on academic achievements and set aside the aspect of well being. Therefore, a clear necessity for immediate action in order to promote pupils’ well being by assisting them to develop “Life Skills” and resilience competencies clearly arises.

Which is the main objective of the Project?

The project, responding to the above mentioned need, elaborates an intervention that focuses to “School as a whole” and the main objective of which is to design, develop, apply, test and promote methods, processes and educational tools that will assist EU pupils to develop life skills for their social and emotional well being and resilience.

The activities of the Project

The partnership, which consists of schools from Greece, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain, countries with differentiated cultural, economic and educational backgrounds, in order to achieve the above-mentioned objective, have cooperatively designed a set of activities which include:

A. A joint in-school mapping study of risk factors that adversely affects students’ well-being,

B. The design and development of educational activities and related teaching aids, and structures for monitoring factors that negatively affect the “well-being” of the student population in the school environment.

C. Five (5) Transnational learning activities, in the form of Short-Term Joint Staff Training Events, have been implemented with the main aim of supporting the teachers of corporate school units.

D. Transnational meetings to monitor and fine-tune the progress of the Project.