Our guests from Belgrade and Valencia went to our mayor Tim Kruithoff with us. We learned how to drink the eastfrisian tea right 😉 He also showed us the city council. Here is another article in the local newspaper. You can find a translation under the picture.
Here is the translation for the article:
Guest teachers from Valencia and Belgrade
Erasmus project at the Fruchtburgschule in Emden
“We take many new ideas and interesting experiences home with us”. Diego Bernat Clausell from Valencia (Spain) and Ljiljana Rajcic from Belgrade (Serbia) agree on this after their visit to the Fruchtburg School. For four days they were guests in Emden together with three other teachers to get to know school life and, above all, to exchange ideas. For a year and a half, the three schools have been working together in a project funded by the EU that focuses on mediation.
The program
Project manager and teacher Jessica Seiffert and the pedagogical employee Bernd Frikke were in charge of organizing the days. In addition to class visits in various classes and discussions about dispute resolution methods and a welcome show, there were also a city tour with class 4a, a visit to Greetsiel and a reception with Emden’s Lord Mayor Tim Kruithoff.
According to the headmistress Iris Hencke, all three schools have observed that Corona has exacerbated the challenges of aggression and violence in schools. “The project helps us to promote mediation as a fundamental tool for conflict resolution,” says Hencke.
The experiences
Mediation has been established at the Spanish partner school for four years. “We have had very good experiences with it,” reports Diego Bernat Clausell. And in Belgrade, too, intensive work is being done to establish a dispute settlement system. The teachers and employees of the Fruchtburgschule also benefit from this.
“We have already learned a great deal from our European partners and are already implementing some of the experience,” says Helga Gloger, social worker at the Fruchtburg School. Together with Jessica Seiffert and teacher Reena Giesselmann, she completed extensive training as a mediator. Since March she has been running a mediator program with third-grade children. Since then, a so-called class council has been held regularly in each class, in which the children resolve conflicts themselves.