Internationalization

The Liceo Scientifico Statale “Angelo Messedaglia” is an upper secondary school for students aged between 14 and 19 years old. It was founded on 6th May 1923, so this year there will be a celebration of the centenary (1923-2023). The school was named after Angelo Messedaglia, a well-known economist and politician from Verona and for decades it has been educating the future generations of academics and professionals of Verona.

The institute bases its educational activities on the following principles: the formation of responsible citizens who respect others and the Environment and the building of a peaceful learning environment that promotes the inclusion of all pupils within the school.

The principal activities are balanced in the branches of humanities and science and enhance autonomous learning skills for university courses. There are three study courses:

• Ordinary scientific high school with an optional improvement course of the English language in the first two years;
• Applied science high school with optional improvement courses of the English language and of robotics in the first two years;
• International scientific high school with physics and biology in English issued by Cambridge International Examination and recognized by several foreign universities.

The steering document that describes the cultural and planning identity of the institute is the School Education Plan (Italian acronym: PTOF). It has a three-year duration (2022-25) but can be reviewed annually and must be made public by the school.

The PTOF document shows how the institute autonomously intends to promote the development of cultural and civic skills of pupils, combined with a growing environmental sensitivity and openness towards Europe through the Erasmus+ programme; besides, it provides the curricular and extracurricular activities and projects aimed at understanding the scientific data, also relating to the climate emergency and environmental protection.

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Starting from this premise, a Strategic Plan for Internationalization is proposed to increase the internationalization of the school, carry out high-quality cooperation projects, foster recognition of learning outcomes of pupils and school staff in mobility periods abroad and participate in the construction of the European Education Area.

THE ERASMUS+ PLAN

Since February 2022, Liceo Messedaglia has been a beneficiary of the Erasmus+ accreditation in the field of school education as a single institution until 31/12/2027 (KA120 action) and it has submitted an Erasmus+ Plan for the period 2022-27. It defines our long-term strategy for implementing pupil and school staff mobility activities to improve the quality of learning and teaching in compliance with the Erasmus Quality Standards. It has the following three specific objectives: 

These objectives are consistent with the policy framework already in place, the Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals and the most recent ministerial guidelines. They will contribute to fulfilling our institute's stated commitment to carry out concrete activities and actions within the key themes of the Erasmus+ programme, which cover 

• Inclusion and diversity: respecting the principles of inclusion and diversity in all aspects of its activities, ensuring fair and equal conditions for all participants.
• Environmental sustainability: promoting environmentally responsible and sustainable behaviour among the participants, raising awareness about the importance of acting to reduce or compensate for the environmental footprint of mobility activities and supporting the use of sustainable means of transport.
• Digital transformation in education and training: using digital tools and learning methods to complement their physical activities, improving the cooperation between partner organizations, and the quality of their learning and teaching.
• Participation in democratic life: discovering the benefits of active citizenship and participation in democratic life. Supported mobility activities should reinforce participatory skills in different spheres of civic society, as well as the development of social and intercultural competencies, critical thinking and media literacy.

With the Erasmus+ accreditation KA120 it will be possible to receive regular funding for mobility activities that contribute to the gradual implementation of the Erasmus Plan by submitting yearly only one budget request as a KA121 action to the Erasmus+ National Agency INDIRE https://www.erasmusplus.it/.

The following activities could be implemented as part of this type of Erasmus+ accreditation: 

Furthermore, during Erasmus+ accreditation, Liceo Messedaglia has committed to the proper management of learning mobility activities, in particular to:

• keeping ownership of core implementation tasks and to not outsourcing these tasks to other organisations;
• ensuring compliance with the principles of non-discrimination, transparency and inclusion that characterise the Erasmus+ programme, ensuring equality and equity in terms of access and opportunities for current and future participants from all socio-economic backgrounds;
• supporting environmentally friendly practices in all programme-related activities, in order to promote civic engagement and encourage the involvement of students and teachers - as active citizens - before, during and after participating in a mobility activity or cooperation project;
• integrating the results of the mobility activities carried out into their regular activities (e.g., knowledge acquired by teachers and administrative staff in the field of professional development) for the benefit of the school community.

The Erasmus+ Plan will last five years and will provide a variable number of mobility activities for pupils, teachers and administrative staff each year.

Monitoring of the activities will be done with the number of students and teachers involved in mobility projects as compared to previous years and with the examination of the final reports of activities for cross-curricular teaching of civic education; besides, it will be possible to determine how many classes have planned and shared their activities with groups of foreign schools and with what level of pupil satisfaction.

Evaluation of progress will take place at the end of each school year using questionnaires administered to teachers and pupils, aimed at detecting the growth in the number of activities integrated with digital tools within the educational teaching paths offered to classes and their impact on pupils' transversal skills.

An increase in hosting and learning mobility activities abroad, cooperation projects and job shadowing experiences in virtual twinning (eTwinning projects) is expected.

THE ACTION PLAN FOR INTERNATIONALIZATION

An essential tool for the implementation of planned activities and also for the assurance of quality of learning mobility and cooperation projects is the Action Plan for Internationalization. It is proposed to integrate the current school planning with the defined Erasmus+ Plan of the school and structured into four action steps for a strategic macro-objective and two action steps for an organizational macro-objective.

Specific attention is ensured to the relevance of the planned activities and the coherence with the objectives and priorities of the Erasmus+ Plan. To coordinate the activities foreseen in the Action Plan for Internationalization, it has been deemed appropriate to proceed with:

• the establishment of a Commission for Internationalization and European programmes with strategic and organizational tasks (e.g. planning and designing the activities into the Action Plan for internationalization);
• the confirmation of the former Erasmus+ Commission with propositional and implementation tasks (e.g. proposing pupil and staff mobility activities, organizing mentoring activities and accompanying pupils in individual short-term and long-term mobility abroad);
• the establishment of a committee to select teachers and pupils for mobility abroad.

THE PLAN OF ACTIVITIES

The School Education Plan (PTOF) already includes a series of activities aimed at the formation of an active and aware European citizen, substantially in continuity with the objectives for internationalization, such as:

• organizing language courses for students and school staff, aimed at obtaining linguistic certifications from accredited bodies;
• collaborating with international agencies specialized in language training, study trips and cultural exchanges for a semester or a school year abroad;
• activating an international course that adheres to the IGCSE Cambridge project and of activities for the enhancement of English language teaching with voluntary participation;
• carrying out cultural exchanges with foreign educational institutions.

Starting from these practices, it is deemed appropriate to proceed with the drafting of a Plan of Activities for the next school year 2023-24 to be submitted annually to the Board of Teachers for its approval.

These planned activities are consequential to a partnership search through the ESEP platform and Scientix (the community for science education in Europe), but the experience of coordinating an eTwinning project (Water Footprint School Challenge 2023) led by the institute was also useful.

Moreover, the above-mentioned timetable will be always evolving and subject to modifications and revisions according to the availability of foreign educational institutions. It is also a simulation of how individual pupil long-term mobility combined with job shadowing could develop.

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

The Strategic Plan for Internationalization sets out the strategies that the school adopts to achieve the objectives it has set itself by approving the Erasmus+ Plan. It aims at expanding the international dimension of the entire school community - students, teachers and administrative staff - and is concretely embodied in the Action Plan for Internationalization and the Plan of Activities, which in turn provide the basic indications for the forthcoming drafting of the School Regulations for teacher and pupil mobility abroad, another fundamental document for the implementation of individual pupil long-term mobility projects.

In September 2023, the “School regulations for teacher and pupil mobility abroad” has been approved by the Board of Teachers and a call for individual pupil long-term mobility and job shadowing activities for the teachers and the staff will be published in line with the objectives of the Erasmus+ Plan.

To sum up, the Erasmus+ programme will play an essential role in enhancing the opportunities for internationalization that our school will be able to offer starting from the current school year. A larger number of teachers and students could take advantage of new educational opportunities, without neglecting the situations of economic disadvantage that would not normally allow some students to access international mobility projects.

Erasmus learning mobility activities will not replace the opportunity for a year abroad, nor the possibility of organising English language courses abroad, educational trips and cultural exchanges, but it will be a new opportunity and, above all, a great responsibility for our school in the future. It is not a funded activity for the cultural growth and disciplinary deepening of single pupils but a dynamic and evolving project for the whole school community.

Long-term learning mobility of one or two pupils, for a minimum period of one month and a maximum of three months, represents the most appropriate combination for participating in mobility opportunities abroad in the 2023-24 school year. It must be customised, realistic, shared and approved by the classroom boards, also to guarantee the participants a clear identification of the minimum knowledge necessary to fill in possible gaps in learning contents upon return and to avoid a de facto doubling of the study load; besides, it could be combined on the outward journey with a job shadowing activity by a teacher for at least 5 days.