Many of you who coordinate projects at your schools must be familiar with the feeling that you could do with a little external help in how to find cheap but suitable accommodation abroad, where to print your project products in good but affordable quality, who to turn to at a local museum, for example, if you want to take your visiting project partners there for a visit. In Debrecen, a free-to-copy solution was conceived: they founded a local Comenius Coordinators’ Club.

 

No sooner had the second semester last year begun than questions started to arise about, for example, the implementation of the Comenius project of Vörösmarty Primary School and Basic Art Institute of Debrecen; it turned out, however, that other schools in Debrecen were also facing similar challenges. What seemed the most practical solution was that the teachers coordinating the projects should regularly meet in order to discuss their problems and support each others' work. For each school involved to participate in these meetings was the result of a conscious decision. Today the benefits of having partners to share your doubts and questions with are obvious, as not very far from you others are facing the same questions, and some may even have their own answers, too.

The first questions, mainly concerning the use of the financial support, were followed by many more, such as how others organised project meetings, where they printed manuals meant to be the project products, which short videos were used at project meetings abroad to present Hungary to the partners, where others booked accommodation when their partners happened to stay in the same city or town, and so on, endlessly.

The club has considerably outgrown the initial plans; the members are familiar with each other’s projects, and when there’s a connection between two projects, they leverage the connection to support each other. The only kindergarten involved in the club, for example, will present its project at the project meeting of another club member school in Debrecen, and then they will participate in a joint zoopedagogical programme. Members will share any information with those who can’t attend a session or a project management seminar, and they will also present their project products to each other – thus opening up new dissemination opportunities for themselves, too. The ideas born at the club are also welcome by the foreign partners. Thus, for example, when members in various countries were faced with the problem that they could only promote their projects in the print media at considerable expenses, the club came up with the idea of relying on local online newspapers to publish articles. At their suggestion, Comenius coordinators in other countries now do the same.

The existence of the club is now so obvious that it’s needless to think about its future. According to plans, the club membership will be expanded to involve Erasmus+ programme winner local project coordinators or even ones from the broader neighbourhood. It will provide an opportunity to learn from colleagues with experience in the new programme.

The club is not a copyright idea – please feel free to adopt it!

We wish to thank Ibolya Seressné Barta teacher for the idea and for this article.

Last modified: 16-10-2017