Parliament of Students creates giant games in the playground – EB1 of Gueifães, Portugal

On the 30th of June the playground of the EB1 of Gueifães was inaugurated, a space covered by countless games that will delight the children and students of this school. This ceremony was attended by the Principal of Maia´s School Cluster, Rui Duarte, the president of the Parish Council, Olga Rodrigues and the vice president of the Municipality and councilor for the Education and Health department, Emília Santos, to whom it was the honor of cutting the ribbon that opened this playground.

The paintings in the playground are the result of the project called Parliament of Students from EB1 de Gueifães, started in April, having as members the delegates and sub-delegates of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year classes. These 21 deputies met weekly, by videoconference, at 11 am, 1 hour per week.

As for the work done, the deputies started by asking for improvement proposals, together with their classes, in response to the question “What could we do to make people happier in our school space?” A synthesis of these proposals was made, which was discussed with the deputies and followed the voting (in a google form).

Thus, the proposal most voted for by the deputies (with 15 votes) and in which we started to work on was” Painting games on the playground floor”. Subsequently, each deputy presented their game proposal, identifying the dimensions, the necessary material and the rules of the game to the Parliament. The members of the Parliament analyzed and voted on every proposal, presenting suggestions of improvement or pointing out aspects considered relevant. For instance, regarding the Monkey Game and the Rooster Game, deputies pointed out that having only one would cause some conflicts because they are games they really like, and that is the reason why we have 3 of the first and 4 of the second. They also mentioned the fact that games should not be painted near the buildings to allow students to chat or run…So many relevant proposals and choices…

There is a Padlet Parliamentary diary* in Portuguese where anyone can consult the minutes of Parliament sessions, the proposals presented, their synthesis, the results of the voting, the documents with the information of the games and more.

As we needed help to start implementing what was intended, this Parliament invited an educator, a 1st grade teacher, a 2nd grade parent representative, a 3rd grade teacher, a 4th grade parent representative, the president of the Parents’ Association, a member of the Parish Council and a member of the Municipality to be present at the Co-creation laboratory, during the Parliamentary session where the deputies had the opportunity to present a synthesis of each ones proposal, listen to the opinion of the guests and ask them for help to collect the necessary material.

All the materials were obtained, as well as all the permissions from the municipality, and the deputies, their families and collaborators started painting the playground floor. First we started working on Saturdays. Students were divided in small groups and could bring one of their parents to assist them. They had to disinfect hands and shoes, wear masks and keep their distance from each other. And it was not that simple to wear mask while drawing and painting on the floor when the weather started to warm up. In June, there were two weeks of daily painting and preparation of the materials that accompany the games, and everything was concluded at the end of June. The deputies thought they should have a moment to be able to try and enjoy the games and that was how the idea of doing a ceremony to inaugurate the space and then try it out came about. This moment happened on Tuesday, the 30th of June, where the students were honored in a small ceremony and their hard work was recognized. After that, they enjoyed the space with their families for a couple of hours.

In the evaluation of  these few months of this NEMESIS project, students mention as the most positive point the fact that they were able to make their own decisions and that these were respected. Maria Soares, the representative from the 4th grade, class 11, said that “it was a lot of work but it was worth it”, valuing the “immense teamwork” and emphasizing that what most involved her was “the debate of ideas and the fact she could choose”.

The representative from the 3th grade, class 7, referred that “in the Parliament students decided what was best for the school and then put it in practice”.

Parents also pointed out the fact that students really felt their opinions mattered and that they could make their own decisions.

The Education councilor highlighted that she “wants the motto of all schools to be – to work on happiness”. And she urged parents to not want their “children to be a grade; they should first want them to feel happy at school, because, as for them, they will develop many values and many skills like creativity, a lot of personality and happiness. This is very important for them to become competitive adults in the global world”.

It is certain that the 400 children and students of our school will be happier to be able to enjoy this wonderful playground in the next school year.

And that was how we empowered the changemakers of today.

Aline Santos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*https://padlet .com/pt_alinesantos/Students’Parliament – password Parliament

We want “Best Spaces” in our school – Maia’s Cluster of Schools

We started by meeting a Social Innovator who told us about his project: “Beequal”. This is a youtube channel. A group of people joined in and started creating videos to help students cope with difference and respect it. Its motto is “Be different, treat yourselves as equals.” Then we investigated several projects of Social Innovation and better understood what NEMESIS was about.

Our starting question for creating our Education for Social Innovation´s project was: “What can we do to make everyone at school feel happier?” We used OPERA to get to the subjects we wish to work with, highlighting two categories: the relationships and emotions; the physical spaces. Then we suggest several titles for our project, having selected our title by direct voting: Best Spaces.

In the first Co-creation laboratory we could count on the proposals of the parents, the Parents’ Association, the parishioners and the Municipality who greatly enriched our project, adding several good ideas. One of the proposals presented by Dr. Nuno Gomes, from Maia´s City Hall is to listen to the entire educational community: the students of other classes and their families, teachers, and employees. And that’s what we decided to do, presenting our initial question. Then we also presented our proposals. They were very varied and we built a map of ideas with the proposals that we considered most feasible, which again had to do with the two categories we had selected in OPERA: relationships and emotions; and physical spaces.

In the second Co-creation laboratory we divided the class into 2 groups and each group worked on the proposed activities in each of the categories, exploring the phases of Project-Based Learning. We are now working on a campaign to improve relationships and stimulate positive emotions. The Social Innovator has explained to us what the 7 main emotions are. And we are going to post several phrases that we created through all the school.  We decided that we would share the work with the other classes, asking each class to make with us a cloud with one of the phrases we chose. Then we will expel them for the school, and on each Friday they will change places so that they can be seen by all the educational community. Also in this lab we presented the idea that we wanted to have pickers and little broomsticks in each classroom and the parish council, present in the co-lab, is going to offer them to us.

And as soon as we finish this task, we will begin to deal with the orchard of our school, which is a very naked space, almost abandoned, to turn it into a space where everyone likes to be.

3.º9

https://animoto.com/play/JgyJV63M3XArsqo9Y0Xmmg

Saving Water (II) – Maia’s Cluster of Schools

EB 2,3 de Gueifães is a middle school with 85 teachers and 721 students which belongs to Maia´s Cluster of Schools. Located in Gueifães, a village between the cities of Maia and Oporto, the school is now under renovation.

The Nemesis project “Saving Water” is being developed by a 7th grade class with 28 students. The class identified the problem in an OPERA activity, based on a previous analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Droughts are common in Portugal. However, its frequency and intensity have increased in the last decades. This year the drought is most severe, especially in the interior and in the south of the country.

Until now, two Co-creation labs have already taken place, gathering together students, teachers, parents, municipality and social innovators.

In the first co-creation lab the social innovators introduced themselves and shared the story of their journey through social innovation. Students presented the problem they identified and finally, in small groups, gathering different actors and using a participatory methodology – Empathy map – everyone reflected about a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYnRBlTSZ0 in a collaborative way.

The second co-creation lab took place exactly one month later. In the citizenship classes, the students had already started, in small groups, to design some possible projects about water waste. In the co-creation lab, with the help of the adults and mainly of the young social innovators, they organized their ideas into more sustainable projects using project-based learning methodology.

At the moment different groups of students are investigating things like water consumption and water waste in the school; water recycling and reuse technologies and are organizing campaigns about this issue as well as recycling clothes and growing an organic garden. All in the name of water saving.

Finally, another important aspect of this project is the chance to work with students from the other side of the world. The Portuguese students are exchanging ideas with their colleagues from the Portuguese School in Dili, East Timor. These have shared a small video about water waste in their country and now the Portuguese students are going to write an article about their project and it’s going to be published in the magazine of the Portuguese School in Dili.

The teachers: Ana Carvalho and Raquel Sarmento

https://animoto.com/play/WOiKb5wcnMeA14xHzP0Czw

Bridges between generations – Maia’s Cluster of Schools

“Bridges between generations – teaching and learning”

The students of the 2nd year of the Elementary School n.1 of Gueifães (416 students and 25 teachers), imbued with the spirit of the NEMESIS project, took the first steps in the pursuit of their project “Bridges between generations – teaching and learning”.

The theme of this project came from the students who mentioned the lack that some felt from their grandparents. Building on this idea, together with FreeHugs’ social innovators, students devised a set of ideas and measures that could help and perhaps mitigate the effects of the isolation and removal of older people from their younger counterparts. They realized that they had things to teach, in particular, related to new technologies, to the elderly, and at the same time they had the experience and knowledge to acquire with their elders. The teachers then came into contact with entities that could help in the development of the project: ASMAN, City Hall, Parish Council and Parents’ Association, who showed interest in helping, both in terms of ideas and in activities that were proposed by the students, in a laboratory of co-creation, in which all the protagonists were present. The project is already in the start-up phase, hoping that it will make our students more aware of social issues while promoting the development of innovation and proactivity skills.

Saving Water – Maia´s Cluster of Schools

Water availability represent a growing challenge in Europe. Since 1980, the number of droughts in Europe has increased, and they have become more severe, costing an estimated €100 billion over the past 30 years. According to the European Commission,  the world may face a 40% water shortfall by 2030, threatening social and economic development. An innovative response to this social challenge is needed. Traditional solutions aren’t the answer. Social innovation plays a significant role in combatting these environmental problems, that are always linked in some way to social, economic and financial shortcomings.

The project

Droughts are common in Portugal. However, their frequency and intensity have increased in the last decades. This year the drought has been more severe than ever, especially inland and in the south of the country.

Nemesis project “Saving Water” is being developed by a 7th-grade class with 28 students of EB 2,3 located in Gueifães, a village between the cities of Maia and Oporto. This school belongs to Maia´s Cluster of Schools.

The class identified the problem in an activity based on a previous analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals. Until now, two co-creation labs have already taken place, gathering together students, teachers, parents, municipality and social innovators.

In the first co-creation lab the social innovators introduced themselves and shared the story of their journey through social innovation. Students presented the problem they identified and finally, in small groups, gathering different spokespeole and using a participatory method – with the aid of tools like ‘Empathy map’ –everyone reflected on a video they watched and jointly discussed their thoughts on this.

The second co-creation lab took place exactly one month later. In the citizenship classes, the students had already started, in small groups, to design some possible project ideas to help fight water wastage. In the co-creation lab, with the help of the adults and particularly the young social innovators, they solidified their ideas into more sustainable projects using project-based learning methodology.

At the moment different groups of students are investigating topics like water consumption and water wastage within their schools; water recycling and reuse technologies and are organizing campaigns about this issue as well as recycling clothes and growing an organic garden. All in the name of saving water.

Finally, another important aspect of this project is the chance to work with students from the other side of the world. The Portuguese students are exchanging ideas with their colleagues from the Portuguese School in Dili, East Timor. They have shared a small video about water wastage in their country while the Portuguese students, in turn, will write an article about their project. This will be published in the Portuguese School’s magazine  in Dili.


Teachers

Ana Carvalho and Raquel Sarmento

About the project

https://animoto.com/play/WOiKb5wcnMeA14xHzP0Czw