The "Differences as a Driver of Change" project within the Comenius REGIO programme

In cooperation with the Secondary School Complex No. 1 in Chojna, Gryfino County, and the Douzelage Association in Chojna on the Polish side, and Dorset County Council, Gryphon School in Sherborne, and the Douzelage Association in Sherborne on the English side, a project entitled "Differences Drive Change" is being implemented. This is an educational project planned for 2009-2011, as part of the new Comenius Regio program. The beneficiary of the project is Gryfino County, and its authors and coordinators are Nicola Dodgson from Gryphon School in Sherborne and J. Cezary Salamończyk from Secondary School Complex No. 1 in Chojna, President of the Douzelage Association in Chojna. The Polish side has a budget of €24,900, and the English partner approximately €22,000.

The project involves learning about the principles of education in the partner country, forms of cooperation between the governing body, the school and the local community; exchanging experiences of local government officials, teachers, education managers, NGO activists and attempting to transfer the best practices that can be adapted to our own country, with particular emphasis on issues related to counteracting the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities and those at risk of social exclusion from the education system.

The project’s objectives are achieved through visits of representatives of the project participants to partner cities, presentations and exchange of experiences in the areas of children and youth education, including:

• The first visit of a seven-person group from England took place from November 29, 2009 to December 2, 2009. The meeting was hosted and organized by ZSP No. 1 in Chojna,
• from 1st to 3rd March 2010, five teachers from ZSP No. 1 in Chojna, together with a three-person delegation from the District Office, visited the partner school Gryphon School in the English town of Sherborne,
• A meeting of project partners implemented under the Comenius Regio program between Poland and Great Britain took place in Warsaw from 22nd to 24th September 2010. The meeting was attended by Polish and English representatives of six projects, including the project entitled "Differences as a Driver of Change," implemented by Gryfino County, Secondary School Complex No. 1 in Chojna, and the Douzelage Association in Chojna, together with Dorset County Council, Gryphon School in Sherborne, and the Douzelage Association in Sherborne (England). The project was represented by Adriana Salamończyk, principal of Secondary School Complex No. 1 in Chojna, and J. Cezary Salamończyk, chairman of the Douzelage Association in Chojna, an English teacher, and project coordinator.
• Another meeting of the project partners took place in Chojna from 17th to 20th October 2010. We hosted a group of nine people from England and the mayor of Marsaskala (Malta), who was the first person invited by the youth from ZSP No. 1 in Chojna, as part of another project implemented at the school, entitled "Local Window to Europe," from the "Youth in Action" program (a project prepared and written by students, members of the school's European Club Douzelage).
• On 4-7 December 2010, a delegation consisting of teachers, employees of the Secondary School Complex No. 1 in Chojna and the District Office in Gryfino, as well as members of the Chojna Douzelage Association, visited the partner school Gryphon School in Sherborne, England,
• On March 26-29, 2011, members of the Comenius Regio team from the Secondary School Complex No. 1 in Chojna, a delegation from the District Office in Gryfino, and members of the Chojna Douzelage Association visited Sherborne in England. The purpose of the visit was to provide another group of people with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the English education system and the ways and methods of managing educational institutions by local authorities in England (photographs from the visit are available in our gallery).