by Luisa Forte

“Le Filandiere and Europe” has been a memorable moment spent together with our school partners, recollecting activities, events and the European projects our school has been involved for a long time. We are really grateful for the effort taken to share memories, experiences and thoughts.

Our most sincere thanks to our international guests for having been with us:

  • Mr Yngve Omenås and Ms Merete Årvik from Norway
  • Mr Konrad Woitag and Ms Marie-Luise Olbricht from Magdeburg
  • Mr Wolfgang Kösters and Ms Deborah Goldstein from Stadthlon
  • Mr Rudolf Elpelt and Ms Ulrike Wogrin from St Veit an der Glan
  • Ms Monika Ruszina and Ms Giulia Galambos from Budapest.

We remember with pleasure the experiences and the European projects we have enjoyed with them and with the other friends from Winterswijk, Mallorca and Ankara and we are sure that our partnership will continue for a long time!

Heartfelt thanks also to four of our teachers – Ms Annamaria Tramontin, Ms Beatrice Crosilla, Ms Grazia Santarossa and Ms Macle Gnesutta – who let the international dimension of our school grow in such a way that now it is embedded in our curricula.

A special thank you to all the students, teachers and friends for taking the time to celebrate with us the 30th Anniversary of the institution of our school!

Abstract of Ms Tramontin speech

The necessity of collaborating with European schools has been part of the educational objectives since the early years of our Liceo; to achieve this aim the school introduced an experimental course including German in the curriculum in order to empower the communicative competences in foreign languages and learn and relate to other cultures. Moreover, the student-exchange projects offered by the European Community were a meaningful tool to develop the social and cultural skills of our students.

Talking about the different exchange projects is like telling the history of the school together with the role of the town of San Vito in the local and the European context.

What follows is an outline of the different projects the school has been involved into and how the number of contacts and collaborations has increased over the years.

1994-95 Sokrates Lingua 4 exchange project with the Danish city of Varde and twinning with the Hungarian town of Szekesfehervar 1995-96 Sokrates Lingua 1 exchange project with the Norwegian high school Fagerlia Videregaende of Aalesund involving not only languages but also various school subjects.

In the following years and thanks to the Norwegian partners our Liceo participated in the first Socrates Comenius European project managed by the German high school Humbolt Gymnasium of Magdeburg. This project was the springboard for a twenty-year-long cooperation and collaboration which involved new European partners over numerous themes and topics.

Another step has been the collaboration and student exchanges with San Vito’s twin towns Stadtlohn in Germany and Sankt Veit an der Glan in Austria. All this has been possible thanks to the support of the Town Councils of the twinned partners.

In 2001 the “Progetto Canada” started thanks to the availability of associations and educational agencies like E.F.A.S.C.E. – the Friulian Agency for Cultural and Social Assistance to the Emigrants of our region. Some years later the project was extended including contacts and exchanges with the Friulian communities in Australia, Argentina and South Africa.

In conformity with the new EC “Comenius – Lifelong Learning Programme” more European partners – like Winterswijk in Holland, Budapest in Hungary, Ankara in Turkey and Mallorca in Spain – joined in the exchange programme, further widening the opportunities of collaboration.

Still in conformity with the new EC programmes, in 2010 our Liceo was one of the first schools in our region to start the project MIA (Comenius individual pupil mobility) which offered to some students of ours the opportunity to attend three / two months at the partner school in Aalesund. The participation of the representatives from some of the schools we have been working with for the past twenty years in the celebrations for the thirtieth anniversary of our Liceo is a testimony of the importance of our exchange projects. Precisely, they emphasise their meaningful educational value and their contribution to let our Liceo as well as the town of San Vito share a larger educational experience.