Foreign cooperation
Communication with parties outside school, in Iceland and abroad, is an important part of our work in Sudurland College, FSu. This website focuses on the foreign cooperative projects our school is participating in and includes a summary of cooperative projects that we have been part of.
Sudurland College has through the years participated in several cooperative projects with schools abroad. Socrates and Nordplus Junior have among others funded these projects .
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Active projects:
Let stones speak: rocking around our European heritage. 2013 - 2015
Comenius program with Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, France and Iceland. Artners embarked on a journey of their regions in search of rock formations, mining villages and historical, man-made stone constructions. The purpose is of exploring, developing and celebrating the links between that geological heritage and all other aspects of the area's natural, cultural and social history.
SUSI: Sustainable Islands. 2013-2015
Sustainable Islands" involves six countries of the EU and partners: Cyprus, France (Guadeloupe), Iceland, Italy (Sardinia), Portugal (Azores) and Spain (Canary Islands). Taking as an important reference (although not the only one) the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Develoment. The main aim of “Sustainable Islands” is to raise awareness and good practices in sustainability, because islands are more fragile from an economic, social and environmental point of view. Therefore, the three pillars for sustainability will be taken into account: the environmental (energy, water, waste, food), the economic (plane tickets, food, waste) and the social (immigation, students with special needs).
Global warming: I can make a difference - Socrates Comenius 2007-2009
Cooperative project with LiTec in Austria, Lycée La Mennais in France og IES Emilio Alarcos in Spain.
In this project the reasons and effects of Global Warming as well as the opportunities to find solutions for the problem will be dealt with. The European and worldwide dimension of the problems associated with Global Warming will be highlighted. The main focus is though on the necessity of the personal responsibility and the chance to change opinions and habits in consuming energy. It is intended to gain a measurable alteration also visualized in an energy-saving school policy. The students of our four partnership schools (in Iceland, France, Spain and Austria) will be actively involved in approaching the problems, e.g. in answering and analysing questionnaires and in writing articles for the joint, multilingual web site, which will be compiled and housed by FSu. At the end of the project the core information gathered and results obtained will be used to produce a calendar and/or public display material in all the participating languages. Thus content and language integrated learning will be implicit in the project. The working language of the project will be English. Communication will be secured through e-mail and a common discussion forum on e-twinning.
Cooperation between FSu and Börnholm Secondary school 2007-2008.
A NordPlus Junior project with the Secondary school in Börnholm is being planned this winter. Elísabet Valtýsdóttir Danish teacher, Ester Ýr Jónsdóttir and Örn Óskarsson Natural Science teachers are working on this. A visit in September 2005 from a group of students and teachers from Börnholm started the cooperation. In the project mutual visits are planned for the next school year 2007- 2008 with the main theme being on tourism and energy production.
Energy and sustainable development in Iceland and Sweden. NordPlus Junior 2006-2007.
This is a cooperative project on energy production and sustainable development. The partner school is a secondary school in Ludvika in Sweden, VBU. The cooperation involves mutual visits. The students work on projects that will be published in the Nordic school web, Nordisk Skolenet. Örn Óskarsson biology teacher heads the project in FSu.
In September 2006 teachers and students from Ludvika visited Iceland and in March 2007 the Icelandic teachers, Örn and Ester Ýr, will visit Ludvika with their students.
WWW-7: Who are they? Who am I? Who are we? EU Socrates/Comenius School project 2003-2006
This cooperative project deals with prejudice and ways to work against them. Schools involved in the project are from France, Greece, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and Iceland. Þórunn Elva Bjarkadóttir and Helgi Hermannsson sociology teachers head the project in FSu. They attended a preparatory meeting in Sobrance, Slovakia in January 2006 and also the first project meeting in Greece in the autumn of 2006.
In January 2007 Helgi and Hrefna Clausen along with four students attended a project meeting in Reims in France.
The next project meeting is in Iceland in March.
Donims - Drop outs -not in my school. EU Socrates/Comenius School development project 2003-2006
In September 2002 a Contact Conference was held in Borgarnes, Iceland. The theme was Drop outs in schools. The aim of the conference was to establish European School development projects concentrating on drop-outs in primary and secondary schools and ways to confront that problem. Schools from Estonia, England, Italy and Iceland participate in this project about drop-outs. Menntaskólinn in Kópavogur, Iceland, is the coordinator.
Student counsellors and heads of departments take part in the project on behalf of the school.
In the latter part of the cooperation Agnes Ósk Snorradóttir and Björgvin Björgvinsson took over the project on behalf of FSu.
In October 2005 Agnes and Björgvin took part in a project meeting in Cheti, Italy. There the work was reviewed and plans made for the last year fo the project. An outline for the final report was made but the project finishes in the spring of 2006 with a meeting in Iceland.
The final meeting of DONIMS was held 12 - 13 May 2006.
Taking part were two memebers from England, four from Italy, three from Estonia, two from MK and two from FSu.
The final product of the cooperation is a webpage that includes the ideas and approaches that the schools have tried for minimizing drop-out and contribute the the well-being of students. See link above.
Cooperation with Peder Skrivares skola in Varberg, Sweden. NordPlus Junior 2004-2005
In spring 2004 most of the teachers in our school visited Peder Skrivares school while on a study tour. Three teachers from Sweden had also visited us that spring. In April 2005 three teachers with a group of 12 students came to our school. The Swedish students have been working with students in a Social Science course in our school and funding was applied from Nordplus Junior to continue the coopeartion. The main theme of the cooperative project is a comparison of teenage culture in the two countries involved. Mutual visits took place in the school years 2005-2006.
Nordplus Junior - Sustainable development and biodiversity,
a comparison between forests in Sweden and Iceland - 2004 - 2005
A cooperative project on forestry and environmental issues with the secondary school in Ludvika in Sweden, VBU. Students from FSu visit Ludvika in the autumn term 2004 and students from Ludvika visit us in spring term 2005.
Students will work on projects that will be published on the Nordic Schoolweb, Nordisk Skolenet.
EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS WITHOUT VIOLENCE - the Council of Europe 2004
The theme of this project was school democracy. Democracy makes citizens active and it is a positive factor in preventing and combating violence at school.
In order to pull together experiences and achievements of pilot initiatives across Europe in a document which could inspire many more schools to involve their students, the Council of Europe launched a project to develop a European Charter for a Democratic School without Violence.
More than 120 schools throughout Europe expressed an interest in the project. A panel of Council of Europe and educational experts selected the 26 best contributions sent in by schools from 19 European countries. The selected schools were invited to send delegates to a project conference held in Strasbourg from 14-18 July 2004. The delegates from our school were Eyrún Björg Magnúsdóttir og Kristrún Elsa Harðardóttir.
CTJ - Classroom to Job. EU SOCRATES/Comenius 2002-2005.
The main objective of the project is to make IT-training courses more attractive to young women. A homepage will be set up, brochures on ICT subjects in the participating schools will be made and other means used which might encourage girls to study IT subjects and make these more attractive to them.
Partnerschools are Max-Eyth-Schule in Alsfeld, Germany and Secondary Technical School Myjava in Trencin, Slovakia.
La nature mystique. EU Socrates/Comenius - Language project 2003-2004
This project involved mutual student visits between us and our partner school, L.E.G.T. Notre-Dame dEspérance. The student exchange relied on similar and different themes on nature and the relationship between man and nature in Iceland and in France. A lot of things are different e.g. the language, culture, nature and landscape. However a lot of things are also similar e.g. fishing and the ocean, the folk tales and fariry tales about man and his battle with natural forces. English and French were used for communication and the French students learnt a little bit of Icelandic. In their communcation emphasis was put on the importance of language learning and knowledge about other nations.
Nordplus Junior - Sports Project 2003-2004
In Feb. 2003 two sport teachers from Strinda videregående skole in Trondheim, Norway visited our school and a project involving mutual visits between students in the sports line was planned. The Norwegian students visited us in Nov. 2003 and the Icelandic students visited Norway in March 2004.
Leonardo da Vinci - Spring Project 2003-2004
This was a collaborative project involving schools that teach in prisons. Ingis Ingason was responsible for the project in FSu. Five schools in five countries participated in the project. Two Icelandic teachers visited a prison teaching unit in Dublin and learnt from their experience. In June 2004 all the countries involved visited Italy for a week's seminar planned by the Italian school which was the coordinator.
The European Schoolnet - ITALES, Valnet 2003-2004
10 Enis schools in Iceland participated in this collaborative project which involved evaluation and the trying out of an interactive environment for learning, ITALES. Participants were from schools in Slovenia, Sweden, Holland and Iceland. Participants took part in The European Schoolnet Conference in Brussels in February 2003. Sigurður Sigursveinsson, our principle, attended the conference. Kristín Runólfsdóttir took part in this project on behalf of our school.
The European Schoolnet - eSchola 2001/2002/2003
The school has been active within the European Schoolnet and has participated in the eSchola event since the beginning. Several projects have been put in the eSchola Awards and the multimedia web "Life Cycles in Nature" won third price in eTeaching in eSchola 2001. In eSchola 2002 a webpage was made for Open doors:
In eSchola 2003 one project from our school was chosen in top 100: ENS 523 - Autonomy and English Teaching.
We learn from each other - Svona gerum við! 2003
The theme of this project was Local Agenda 21, an agenda for a sustainable develpoment in the 21st century. It was an anniversary project between the Nordic Union (80 years) and The Nordic Counsell (50 years). Groups of teenagers visited Iceland and worked on project on the environment with their Icelandic peers. Two girls, one from Norway and another from Denmark, visited our school and worked on assignments on environmental issues. Two students in our school worked with them, Bjarni Kr. Gunnarsson and Sindri Freyr Eiðsson. Among other things they visited a kindergarten, a dairy factory, the town mayor and took interviews.
A Cooperative project in NAT106- natural sciences.
In summer 2002 a collaborative project was started between the Norwegian Spacecenter (Norsk Romsenter), the teacher Nils Hamre in Maalöy, Norway and teachers in NAT106 in our school. Students in NAT106 and students in a secondary school in Maalöy will exchange information about the weather in their region and make a weather forecast. Information on the Sarepta web will be used. Students' assignments are published on the Nordic
FINLAND/ICELAND. A secondary school in Finland, Imatran Yhteislukio in Imatra, is in a cooperative project with our biology department which started springterm 2002. The department has collaborated with this school in a NordPlus Junior project before. Students from both schools introduce their country through webpages. Students in natural sciences -NAT 106 in FSu make webpages where they introduce Icelandic nature. The locations are sent to the Finish students.
The Forest Project: a comparison between forests in Sweden and Iceland -Nordplus Junior 2002- .
The main objective of the project is to get a practical insight into each others biotopes and ecosystem belonging to the forest. The project invovles exchange visits where the students learn about each others flora and fauna and the differences around plant cultivation and replanting. Icelandic as well as Swedish instituitions collaborate in the project.
The Swedish students from Ludvika visited us in April 2002 and their work has been published on the Internet.
SARAH (Self assessment reports as hallmark) - EU SOCRATES/Comenius project coordinated by our school 1999-2002.
The project deals with self evaluation in schools and one of the proposed outcomes of the project is an electronic log-book, a web based resource that can be used for evaluation purposes. Partner schools in Britain, Germany and Italy.
The European Schoolnet - eWatch
In autumn 2001 we took part eWatch which involved taking surveys concerning the use of information and computer technology in teaching. A web was made introducing the use of ICT in the school.
Interqual (quality of Internet sites) - funded by EU SOCRATES / adult division (Grundtvig) 1999-2001.
The aims of the project are to promote Internet use and evaluation of Internet sites by adults.
Project manager of Interqual was Turid Stanton-Ife in Oxford College of Further Education. Schools from several countries participated in this project.
Water and Eco-tourism - Nordplus Junior 1998- 2001.
The main theme of this project was water, its preservation and recycling, and ecological tourism in connection with water. Great emphasis was put on students to establish communication through the Internet and email. The partner schools were in Sweden and Finland.
Visions of the Future (Framtidsvisioner Vaagval) - funded by the Scandinavian Ministry Commitee 1999-2000.
This was a cooperative project between the National Museum in Iceland and museums and secondary schools in Sweden and Finland. A special course was established for the project and among other things an exhibition was held in the spring of 2000 in cooperation with the Icelandic National Museum.
France 2000, a different culture in a new millenium - Friends of France 1999 - 2000.
The project involved student exchange with a French secondary school in St. Nazaire. The objectives were to enhance understanding and tolerance between different countries and cultures in Europe. The organisation Friends of France was established to strengthen the bonds with France and they applied to UFE, Young People in Europe, for funding.
MATCH - Leonardo 1998-2000.
The main aim of the project was to discuss and establish procedures to connect the wishes of young people for appropriate jobs and the wishes of the job market for qualified individuals. Partnerschools and institutions were in Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Germany.
V comme Verne - EU SOCRATES/ Lingua E 1996-1998.
The project included mutual visits between á secondary school in St. Nazaire in France and our school. Themes were Jules Verne (Leyndardómur Snæfellsjökuls), French fishermen in Icelandic waters, Vikings in Iceland and Bretagne. Additionally the French students studied volcanoes and erruptions, but the Icelandic students put emphasis on France and French culture.
Evaluating Quality In School Education - EU SOCRATES -Education Training 1997-1998.
The main objectives of the project were to raise awareness about the need to evaluate secondary education in Europe, to enchance existing national procedures, to give a European dimension to quality evaluation and to support the exchange of information and experience. 101 school from 18 countries participated in the project.
Life from hot springs - EU SOCRATES/ Lingua E 1996.
The project involved student exchange with a partner school in Baden, Austria and our school. Main emphasis was put on geography and geology, and hot springs and the way they are used, but geothermal water can be found in Baden and also in various places in the south of Iceland.
Water and River Project -Comenius project 1995-1998.
This project involved research into the ecology of water and rivers. Students made maps, analysed water environment, water quality, organisms, birdlife, soil and weather conditions. In FSu the Olfusa River was the research area. Findings were communicated to the partner schools in Sweden and Finland.
Student and teacher exchange- Nordplus Junior 1995-1997.
Mutual visits between students and teachers from Ask Videregaaende Skole in Norway and our school.