ARTIE partners
1st Primary School Čakovec
1st Primary School Čakovec is the oldest and biggest primary school in the region. Besides the regular classes, pupils can expand and develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes in additional classes and various extracurricular activities. There are 86 employees and 800 students. The school is very well equipped with various teaching aids. There are also two interactive classrooms equipped with smart TVs, interactive Samsung Smart School classroom with 30 tablets, iPad lab and many robots. School employees regularly develop professionally through various seminars and conferences at a regional, state and international level. The sustained quality of the teaching process is displayed in numerous successes of pupils in various competitions, awards and recognitions that teachers get for their work and in numerous professional and scientific articles our employees publish in Croatia and abroad. The school has a great cooperation with the parents, local community and representatives of local authorities. The school is often highlighted as the regional leader in primary education. The school takes part in the e-Schools project: Establishing the system of development of digitally mature schools, which is financed by the EU, and conducted by the Ministry of Science and Education and Carnet with associates. Through the project we aim to develop the efficient and transparent school management, develop digitally competent teachers more prepared to incorporate innovation into their teaching practice and digitally competent pupils more prepared to continue their education and be more competitive in the labor market. We regularly encourage the development of digital literacy and skills in our pupils which is why we actively participate in celebrating the Safer Internet Day, Hour of Code, EU Code Week etc. We regularly develop innovation, creativity, cooperative learning and team work. We continually encourage pupils to be active citizens and to observe their surroundings, identify and solve problems, take initiative. Through various activities we aim to strengthen responsibility, communication skills, leadership skills, develop creative thinking, critical thinking, metacongition and nonconformity in pupils. We offer our pupils the possibility of exploring new areas of interest, develop experiential learning and accomplish the transfer of knowledge. It is our mission to develop the lifelong learning skills and prepare our pupils for further education and the future labor market. The school has a European Commission certificate of the excellence in coding. Our school has a very good cooperation with Microsoft and Apple; thus, our school has the status of Apple partners in education. Great importance is attached to the mathematics, programming and robotics. The pupils in our school consistently performed great success in competitions in this area, and informatics teacher Ivana Ružić is the EU Code Week ambassador for Croatia. Our teachers and pupils’ works are regularly presented in public, at various regional, state and international conferences, for which the pupils and their mentors have won many awards and acknowledgments. School in its project activities enjoys great organizational and financial support of local authorities, industry and the wider community. As you know, Croatia is now the youngest member of the EU and we are very open to Europe and would like to be more open to new ideas coming from educational staff from all over Europe.
Croatian Robotic Association (CROBOA)
Croatian Robotic Association (CROBOA) is a non-profit umbrella association in Croatia in robotics. It was founded in 2012 and currently consists of 19 entities (robotic clubs) in different cities of Croatia. CROBOA current staff is comprised of two employees who coordinate the work of more than 150 volunteers and approximately 30 top educators in various fields related to robotics. Primary goal of CROBOA is development and promotion of robotics in Croatia.
Other goals include:
- building and raising public awareness of the robotics importance in society;
- facilitating and/or enhancing lifelong learning and education for all age groups in the field of robotics, through particular curricular and extra-curricular educational activities for children and young people;
- facilitating and/or promoting inclusion of socially vulnerable and marginalized groups including persons with special needs in robotic activities;
- contributing to the development of its associate members and promoting their rights and interest;
- participation in the development of public policies related to technical culture and civil society;
- contributing recognition and visibility achievements of robotics abroad.
Majority of activities is supported by Croatian Ministry of Science and Education providing necessary funds for equipment and human resources. To additionally increase the budget, CROBOA is in constant search for donations and sponsorships. Due to its proactive approach, there is a steady increase in the number of programs and users.
Nefinia
Nefinia aims at serving as a best example of bottom up Institution Building effort towards EU Integration and regional competitiveness, playing a key role, contributing in the implementation of EU Regulations and Directives through its participation in EU funded networks & projects, at interregional level. Mainstreaming EU project recommendations into National & Regional policies is its ultimate goal. Nefinia’s staff members are experienced in implementing local development actions in remote, marginalized and difficult accessed areas. Our network is formed by specialists from various sectors of the civil society and European Member States. Nefinia’s mission is to encourage human resources to participate in decision making, entrepreneurship and sharing local development concerns, supporting and promoting experience sharing between its members and partners for sustaining international cooperation, contributing to the integration of the whole areas in a more balanced way through economic, social, and environmentally beneficial initiatives, think Globally & Act locally, increasing employment opportunities for segments of the population that are excluded or “not facilitated” to take active approach towards responsible positions in Public & Private sector, attracting talents, innovation and business development, protecting the less favored and accessibility. Nefinia have a long career in the ICT world, run based on new digital technologies, jobs in addition to an extensive use of social networks, mobile apps creation, Gamification games combining also with Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Applications, Web 2.0 tools and the world cloud computing projects for all types of public and private clients.
Agrupamento de Escolas do Barreiro
Barreiro is a Portuguese town in the district of Setúbal, Lisbon. It is a small municipality of 77,893 inhabitants. Bordered to the east by Moita, Palmela to the southeast, Setúbal andSesimbra to the South, west and north by Seixal, Tejo river. On the other margin lays the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal. The school, belongs to a large group of schools in Barreiro. It is a unit of public and the headquarter integrates both Primary School and Elementary school. There are also several pupils with learning difficulties of different type (dyslexia, disorders). The school is presenting this project in order to improve school's “educational offer”. We have some students who need special education. These children don't have a specific class at school. It means that they also go on their lessons in the their own classes. They don't have much possibilities to develop their skills. Our students are really interested in using the foreign language "English" in their daily lives but they don't have any chance to go to abroad for this because of their families' limited budgets. This ERASMUS project will help them use English in their daily lives and our pupils will learn about different countries and their cultures. Being part of ERASMUS PLUS is the best way of learning about other countries, it’s a breakaway for our students to have contact with a new common Europe. European projects are essential to develop key competences for lifelong learning and, according to European guidelines, to improve key competences: communication in a foreign language, digital competence, interpersonal skills. The variety of countries and geographical location will provide an opportunity to share experiences to promote their participation in an efficient and constructive way in social life, to explore the European dimension using various aspects of curriculum areas, encouraging creativity.
I Społeczna Szkoła Podstawowa
I Społeczna Szkoła Podstawowa (I SSP) is an independent primary school, run by a citizens' association (about 300 students aged 6-15, over 70 teachers). It is located in the predominantly rural area near the Polish eastern border, characterized by scarce economic activity. The unemployment rate is high and young people tend to leave the region because of poor employment perspectives. That is why students and their parents appreciate any educational activities from the earliest stage aiming at training and improving qualifications as they can be an investment in their future. Our students are very open-minded, interested in personal development despite quite poor school facilities. The school has been regularly ranked as the best primary school in Zamość and one of the best ones in the region for its students’ national final exam results. To meet the students and parents’ expectations the school offers a wide variety of educational activities, aiming at broadening the students’ competence in the fields of maths, science, history, literature, music, sports, art, IT and foreign languages. The institution gets involved in projects at local, national and international levels. The school perceives international cooperation as an opportunity to provide its students, teachers and parents with the newest educational solutions, unavailable at such level without international cooperation. While the school has already got involved in the projects concerning programming and information technologies, the students and teachers still lack practical knowledge concerning making proper use of newest technologies in everyday life and for educational purposes. The students’ parents lack proper guidance on how to support their children in technology-oriented world. Participation in the project concerning Artificial Intelligence will meet the demand for education in that field and will fill the gap in the national core curriculum which lacks practical guidelines on how to teach AI-related content. International cooperation with institutions of varied experience and expertise in the project related fields is the only and unique chance to create innovative curriculum which other institutions, locally and nationally, will be able to follow and benefit from. It will provide them with necessary tools to introduce innovative methods of teaching into the school curriculum. International cooperation overlaps with and complements everyday activities which result from the following priorities of the school: providing high standards of teaching services, arousing students’ interests in various fields of education, increasing their sense of initiative and digital competence.