“Manual skills in 3.0 web age “, a heavy title for a meaningful three-year project.From September 2016 to August 2019 IC of Castelcovati led the following primary schools: 4o DIMOTIKO SCHOLIO of Edessa (Greece), Moorfield Primary school of Widnes (England), Agrupamento de Escolas Soares of Braga (Portugal) and Szkola Podstawowa of Pazskowka (Poland), in a project that proposed laboratory paths with the aim of underlining the connection between cognitive development and manual skills through the creation of artifacts, from the simplest to the most complex, in an increasingly digital age.The needs analysis carried out in the involved schools has indeed brought to light the necessity to recover various manual skills, essential to achieve effective personal, social and future professional autonomy. An increasingly evident difficulty in the resolution of simple problems or daily and concrete troubles has in fact been noted in the studentsOn the other hand, nowadays there is instead an innate predisposition to the digital field that in many cases allows a faster analysis and a theoretical solution of problematic situations.We then entered an experimental path, both for teachers and pupils, promoting situations to be faced with the help of digital technological tools to develop and use the key and life competences, in which the experience becomes value and sharing and the manual skills become a cognitive process.The recovery of simple tools and technologies has effectively turned into a powerful inclusive communication channel, where hands and other sensory organs have replaced words and allowed many foreign students to actively and enthusiastically participate in the learning proposals.During these three years the students of our schools have chosen different types of activities in which they have been designers and creators of various kinds of artifacts in artistic, scientific, musical, historical, technological, and theatrical field, in sewing, recycling, disassembly, bicycle repairing and folder bag making.The students were the real protagonists of concrete operative proposals based on problem solving, whose aim was not the product but the path designed and carried out by using innovative methodological techniques, already known but not often used.We are talking about the Cooperative Learning with objective and defined criteria, according to which pupils work in small teams with assigned tasks and for which they are responsible; we are talking about upside-down classes, in which the students personally build knowledge and skills in an active way; we are also referring to educational methods such as the Brainstorming, used to start any operative proposal in order to probe and share knowledge and content; and last but not least CLIL, the acronym of Content and Language Integrated Learning, a methodology that makes use of the English language to teach different school subjects, which allows both the acquisition of disciplinary contents and the learning of the foreign language.For our project the English language also played the role of the vehicular language through which pupils and teachers entered into communication. Needless to say, the more one is exposed to the use of a different language, the more it becomes less unknown and distant.For teachers also, in recent years we have seen an increase in the knowledge of English, thanks to conversation courses and CLIL methodology courses held by native British speakers.All the carried out activities have been planned, shared and proposed in the five partner schools, diversifying according to the needs of the students themselves. At the beginning of each school year, project meetings were organized among teachers from all the five countries in turn in the various school locations, in order to plan annual courses; in the same way in the spring months the short-term mobilities took place to allow the meeting of small representatives of pupils.These were special occasions for the students, certainly not trips for tourists, but intense, tiring days, during which they had the chance to live next to new European friends, attending their schools, staying by their families and showing their own creations, as well as the route taken and the skills acquired.During the last year the schools created together a unique multi-language and multiple-hands theatrical artifact, complete with scenographies, music, dances, costumes, staged in Italy during the last short-term exchange of the students.Particular attention was paid to the inclusion of foreign students in the project, both in school activities and in the selection for mobility.In each partner country the involvement of the many local associations, parents and administrations was essential.

"“Complexus: how the school can have a key role in the current complex reality” is aimed at promoting the sense of belonging to the local, national and European community, by strengthening knowledge and awareness, in the generation of ""European natives"". The partners intend to strengthen the work on the competences of citizenship, in an international dimension that wants to promote the founding values of the European Union. Each partner has been involved for its interest and previous experiences on this topic. The project through students’ mobility and teacher training aims to activate through education future EU citizens. The aim of the project is to re-create among the partners’ schools a EU School Parliament with its committees: in this way pupils will truly understand by acting directly the whole process of representative democracy, a theme always crucial, but especially imperative in these years when the issue of democracy is taken for granted and the value of democracy is at risk. The schools will represent an international body, able to cooperate and work together (with new digital technologies support) on different and vital issues, built on strengths of each school. Each committee will be transnational: the mobility will be the moment in which students (elected in their own school), coming from the countries involved, will act as “experts” on the chosen topic. Once come back, they will transfer to their mates and the all institute practices and ideas born and shared during the mobility activity. These situations will be the opportunity to work with competence-based methodology (and in particular on Training Learning Approach), seen that students will act in real contexts and starting from real problems. The project will be the occasion for teachers to strengthen their professional skills, according to recent pedagogical strategies. The main topics of the project are: democracy, culture, human rights and anti-discrimination, environmental sustainability, eco-tourism. The main goal of the project is the pupils’ acquisition of: - social-civic and citizenship skills- skills in communication in foreign languages and in digital media- spirit of initiative and entrepreneurship- cultural awareness and expression.The specific OBJECTIVES of the project are:1 Building educational communities to develop a sense of belonging to the local, national and EU community2 Understanding and applying the mechanisms of political decision-making in society by electing own representatives/delegates (active citizens)3 Create real life-situations where to actively participate as members of the community with service-learning projects, oriented towards the enhancement of the common good4 Exchanging collaborative experiences of building communities at a distance and comparing the educational experiences of active citizenship achieved in schools.Different TARGET GROUPS will be involved in the project:1.DIRECT BENEFICIARIES, who will actively take part in the activities: n. 72 pupils aged 10/13 years old and about 15 teachers will take part to the international exchanges; at least 500 pupils involved in schools and at least 60/70 teachers from the four partner schools will be involved in the initial training and during the project implementation; about 150 parents and families will host international students or will be involved in the exchanges and will experiment intercultural at home exchange 2.INDIRECT BENEFICIARIES: about 5000 people will be reached through activities’ outputs, events and media; about 80 teachers will develop new educational skills; about 800 students attending the school will get in contact with a new intercultural and international environment; operators of local associations will be involved in the project (social cooperatives, musical and cultural association, museums); schools in the neighbourhood; families of students; local communities: through the variety of activities implemented through the project citizens will get in touch with the projects and its tangible results.The project intends to be a stepping stone into Europe: Schools Partners through the activities will bring their best at EU level, enhancing their strength and reinforce their educational methods by sharing best practices and developing new, effective teaching patterns. The partnership will continue. Thanks to the use of E-twinning and to its own characterization the project has a long life ahead. The potential of the project is to be easily replicated, thereby emphasizing an added EU value. The Committee pattern can be reproduced and transformed internally: new committees focusing of different issues will be implemented.If Complexus is granted, future projects will be planned to continue the collaboration, enlarging the network, in order to share innovative teaching methodologies. The presence of the Serbian school is particularly relevant for the future integration of the Country in the EU."