HAPPY EUROPE DAY (MAY 9th)

Students from the Leonardo Torres Quevedo School have been working on different European programmes about different issues. Following celebrations of the European Day, May 9^th, some of the students took part in the dissemination event organised by the Directorate General for European Affairs of the Economy department of the Cantabrian Government. Several schools gathered at the Cantabria Parliament as a way to empower their work with European projects and raise awareness on the importance of collaborative work in a united Europe, opening wide eyes to different realities from the education and administration perspective.

The project “European food sustainability vs. food waste” is being developed by students and teachers from five different countries and backgrounds (Germany, Italy, France, Poland and Spain) in an effort to develop positive attitudes, habits and respect towards healthy food and consumers' education contrasting and gaining awareness on the differences and similarities, analysing results with people from other cultures and to promote the concept of European citizenship through intercultural dialogue on health and social issues. The final goal is to help our students to grow a sense of belonging, not only in their own society and culture, but also in a bigger social community – Europe.

Therefore, the key points and outreach of the project is to provide students with chances of widening their cultural horizons, to increase their sense of belonging to a wider community and to teach them to work collaboratively towards specific topics, fostering consciousness as citizens of Europe. Linked to the outcomes of the project, activities, materials and proposals are being created to promote debate, research and the exchange of good practices on the quality of conservation, safeguarding, innovative reuse and enhancement of cultural heritage, and on contemporary interventions in the historical environment. In addition, this partnership adds excitement to the teaching of culture, traditions, and foreign languages and to motivate the students in their learning when they are given the chance to compare different educational systems and methodologies and the opportunity to participate in the daily life of some European schools. This aspect is directly connected to encouraging regional and local development strategies that tap into the potential of cultural heritage, including through the promotion of sustainability. Furthermore, this project is related to the many forms of cultural heritage such as intangible –social practices that people value, natural – associated to the preservation and care of environment (food packaging, sustainable trade and local economies, consumers´ habits, etc.) and digital – with the creation of resources to preserve customs (including text, images, video, records). Finally, the activities promote research and innovation in relation to cultural heritage, facilitate the uptake and exploitation of research results and facilitate the dissemination of research results to a broader audience.

To sum up, participants are working and learning about different cultures, habits, foods and dishes and lifestyles in order to raise awareness of the importance of Europe's cultural heritage through education and lifelong learning by focusing on young people and local communities through the topics worked about sustainability and food habits. Those are some of the reason why the project has been awarded with the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 Label, which is part of the events and press releases concerning the project.