Erasmus Project website
Six Spanish chapters of CWA gathered in Zaragoza on February 16. The aim of the meeting was to help each other to implement CWA program, share know-how, and inspire people with similar goals and unstoppable enthusiasm.
Ten representatives of Tarrasa, Barcelona, San Sebastián, Albacete, Corella, and Zaragoza’s CWA chapters attended the meeting, which took place in the best possible location: “La Ciclería”. Thanks everybody for organizing such a fruitful meeting.
Student’s from St. Tiernan’s Community School, Balally Dublin, are preparing for the initial cultural exchange in Spain as part of the Sustainable Mobility, Sustainable Community Erasmus+ programme. Along with Green-Schools An Taisce and Cyclist.ie volunteers, six St. Tiernan’s students will travel to Corella in Spain to meet with students from Spain, Denmark and Lithuania.
The group of six students are part of the Green-Schools programme (Eco-Schools International) and are currently working towards achieving their green flag for Travel. The Dublin based secondary school have excelled throughout the Green-Schools programme and on achieving their previous green flag for Water, they were awarded the title of Water School of the year 2018. The school has already fully embraced the Green-Schools Travel theme, which involves encouraging more students, staff and guardians to reduce their dependence on car journeys and instead travel actively to school. Last year as part of an inventive project, students designed and created a ‘pedal powered smoothie maker’ which promoted an active, sustainable and healthy lifestyle. St. Tiernan’s are currently competing in the Green-Schools ‘Big Travel Challenge’, which sees participating schools aim to increase the number of students actively traveling to schools by one chosen mode of sustainable travel for 10 consecutive days in the month of February.
Almost a month has passed since Green-Schools Travel Manager Jane Hackett and Travel Officer Rebecca Flanagan met with the group of eager St. Tiernan’s students who would be involved throughout the three-year Erasmus+ programme. Sam, Leslie Ann, Sílvia, Liviu, Jakub and Adam make up the students who will travel to Spain, and they spoke to us about what motivated them to cycle and why they were so keen to be a part of this Erasmus+ programme. Sílvia shared with us, that for her, ‘’cycling as an emission free mode of transport can make a huge difference in our world’’ and she also added that she cycles ‘’because it’s fun and good exercise’’. Sílvia expressed that she wanted to participate in the Erasmus+ programme because she ‘’will get to meet and share ideas with people’’ her own age and ‘’with the same interests in our world’’. She is eager to see what international students are doing in their own communities to bring about positive change in relation to cycling. Each of the six students shared many of the same attitudes towards cycling. Reducing emissions, active travel and enjoying time outdoors were common motivators for the students.
In the classroom, we discussed together as a group, the new experiences we might have in Spain. Communicating in Spanish, trying local cuisine and having to cycling on the other side of the road will be a new experience for each of the students. We have as a group committed to learning a few important Spanish words for cycling (and if all else fails, we always have hand signals!)
The group are very much looking forward to hosting their new peers in June this year, where the same group will travel to Dublin for a week of exciting cycling-themed events.
Actividades Erasmus septiembre-diciembre 2018Presentación y actividades realizadas de septiembre a diciembre de 2018 en el IES Alhama como parte del Erasmus "Movilidad sostenible, comunidad sostenible".
Publicada por Biciclistas de Corella en Martes, 19 de febrero de 2019
We´ve just set up a roll-up poster in the main entrance of Alhama High School. Thanks, Cristina, for the great design and the effort you put in these brand-new posters.
We have an English and a Spanish version of the same roll-up poster.
Nuevo cuarto de bicicletasLas bicicletas que muchas personas de Corella han donado a Biciclistas para el IES Alhama han sido reparadas y ya tienen habilitado un cuarto, dentro del centro escolar, para su uso en las clases de educación física.La adecuación de ese espacio y de las bicis se ha llevado a cabo dentro del proyecto Erasmus + "Movilidad sostenible. Comunidad sostenible".
Publicada por Biciclistas de Corella en Domingo, 17 de febrero de 2019
Inés Belahrizi, one of our Erasmus students, has painted a beautiful trishaw on the wall of Alhama High School. We are in the middle of a very long campaign to raise funds to purchase a trishaw. Inés painted a a cute visual beside the trishaw to document the progress of the fundraiser. Currently, we´ve raised 32% of the money we need.
Thanks to all the people who contributed time and money in multicultural markets, festivals, San Silvestre Run, raffles in Fiestas de Corella… You rock!!!
We present today a new Erasmus achievement: Ayuntamiento de Corella, our town hall, has set seven new bike racks at the school entrance for teachers, school staff and Bachillerato students. Thanks to our town hall for these long-awaited and much-needed bike racks.
Jens-Erik Larsen, Foreningen Frie Fugle, February 2nd.
Jacob is teaching students at 8th and 9th level, meaning youngsters of age 15-16 years, and he often takes them out in nature for different activities. He would like to run the same program we have reported from Tjørnegårdsskolen in Roskilde, meaning that the students every week goes to the nearest nursing home to cycle with elderly people in trishaws. We are working to find funds for trishaws for this purpose. We met to discuss these activities and Jacob told that the students support the project. Next step will be that I participate in a lesson and tell the students more about the “Cycling without age” and the Erasmus+ project. In the final stage, the students will meet old people at Helsingegården.
http://nordstjerneskolen.skoleporten.dk/sp http://www.plejegribskov.dk/helsingegaarden/
In November Foreningen Frie Fugle were invited to celebrate students volunteers at Rysensteen High School. It was the community group Vesterbro Frivillig Center that organised the event. One of the activities the students do as volunteers, in their spare time, is cycling with elderly people through Cycling Without Age. Some of the students also help other students from foreign countries and who are learning Danish, with their homework.
As part of the activities that day, the founder of Cycling Without Age, Ole Kassow, came to present the background of the movement and to thank the volunteer students for contributing to make the world a better place. He did an exercise with them, where they all had to close their eyes and think back on their first bike, he walked them through the experience of the sound of the bike, how the wind felt in their hair and asked them which word best describes their feeling. Most of the students said “freedom”. This is the feeling Cycling Without Age wants to promote through cycling and giving elderly people more mobility. Vesterbro Frivillig Center offered this cake to the student volunteers with the text “Rysensteen rocks”
Ole Kassow also told the students that Cycling Without Age is a global phenomenon, and that they should always check out the world map on www.cyclingwithoutage.org to see where they can visit like-minded people when a lot of them go travelling after graduation.
In December and January, Foreningen Frie Fugle (Jens Erik Larsen and Pernille Vedersø Bussone) met with Kira Schlifer and Rikke Torp Villumsen, both teachers from Randersgades Skole, to share ideas about “Sustainable mobility, sustainable community” project and to learn from them as both teachers and Erasmus+ experts.
Randersgades Skole have an international profile, and previous experience with an Erasmus+ project, which Foreningen Frie Fugle can learn a lot from. They dream of improving the number of students who cycle to school and volunteer with trishaw rides at the local nursing home. Our project is an opportunity for Foreningen Frie Fugle to look at the Copenhagen cycling culture in schools with critical eyes and become ambitious about it, rather than leaning back and enjoying the status Copenhagen has as “one of the most bike-friendly cities”.
Rikke and Kira also gave us useful tips about travelling with students, and good ideas about the implementation of cycling promotion. Such as incorporating advocacy into drama and math lessons. We also took the opportunity to train Kira and Rikke in riding a rickshaw, which they learned very quickly.
Toño Peña represented Biciclistas de Corella and Alhama High School in Madrid in a meeting to discuss financing strategies for ConBici on Saturday, 2nd of February. ConBici is a national platform that unites 65 associations that promote urban cycling all around Spain.
Our Erasmus project was presented as a good practice that might inspire other ConBici associations.
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