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Parliamentary Landmarks

and CitizenshipVol1 March2013

Our Project Logo

Our logo was created by the Hellenic Team.

The logo consists of the frame of an ancient temple

that symbolizes democracy and refers to most par-

liaments. We also added two children from ancient

Greece where democracy and citizenship were born.We named the boy Phidias after the well-known

Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in

the 5th century B.C and is regarded as one of the

greatest sculptors of classical Greece. We named

the girl Athena after the goddess Athena - the god-

dess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, law and jus-

tice, warfare, and arts, crafts and skill.

She is holding an olive branch, the symbol of peace,

hope and calmness. According to Greek mythology,Athena offered the olive tree to the city of Athens as

a gift. At the top of the building there is the flag of

the European Union, which is the roof of the 27

countries that compose it aiming at peace, freedom

and democracy.

In todays society there is an increasing dis-

connect among young people to politics and

activism. Our project seeks to heighten

awareness of political processes, and to en-

courage active citizenship in our school com-

munities.

To achieve these aims our schools plan to

bring pupils to city halls, and regional or na-

tional parliaments, to understand how they

function and to learn about the electoral proc-

esses involved.

We hope to focus on integrating citizenship

to all areas of the curriculum encouraging

collaboration, and developing social compe-

tence and basic values among pupils - and

facilitating pupils reaching out and engaging

with the wider community.

Pupils council at Bjrngrdsskolan

All classes have a meeting once a week where

pupils bring up issues that concern them. This

kind of meeting where all opinions are collected

w e c a l l t h e p u p i l s c o u n c i l .

The principals meet the board of the pupils

council a couple of times each year. There we can

express the pupils matters and we also discuss

problems to be solved for the future. We try to

find solutions to different problems. We discuss

school rules and how we can help all children in

school with the environment in the schoolyard as

well as rooms indoor.

This year Tova from class five is our chairman

and Andor from the sixth class is the second

chairman. Our secretary Thomas or Josephine

write and hand out the minutes and more ques-tions to discuss to the classes. The pupils council

is often asked to be guides when we have visitors

or to be responsible for ceremonies we have in

the assembly hall. Every class has its representa-

tive in the council and it is a special honour to be

chosen.

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News from Ireland, Italy, Portugal and SpainYoung Citizens meet the Mayor

The students of the 6th class 1o Primary School of

Asvestohori visited the headquarters of our munici-

pality in Panorama.

They were initially given a tour in the Town

hall and were informed about the various ser-

vices which are housed in the Town hall. Then

the Mayor Ignatios Kaitetzides accepted the

students in the conference room of the city

council, had a conversation with them and

listened to their questions and their thoughts

with great interest. The students asked the

Mayor about the difficulties of running and

managing a large municipality, the admini-

stration bodies, the number of the municipal

counsellors, the Vice Mayors and the local

councils.

They mentioned problems relating to school

buildings, cleanliness , green and recreation

areas and traffic issues. The Mayor character-

ized these issues as priorities of great impor-

tance for the municipality. He said: Thechildren are asking for something which is ob-

vious in every organized, qualitative society:

good schools, a clean city and areas to play.

All these are our every day struggle too. I had

a very nice discussion with some young citi-

zens, who have great dreams. I am really glad

to see that our children show their interest

and love for our place.

Democracy in Germany

The task of legislating is split between the 16

Land Parliaments and the German Federal Par-

liament (Bundestag). For all matters which di-

rectly affect the Federal Republic as a whole -

such as, for example, foreign policy and defence

policy, currency issues, atomic policy, the postal

and telecommunications services - the German

Federal Parliament (Bundestag) in Berlin hassole and exclusive authority to legislate.

Officially opened on 2 October 1988, North

Rhine-Westphalia's Landtag building is the first

completely new parliament building to be built

in the history of the German Federal Republic.

It was the first time that a German parliament

had designed its future home itself and the first

time that a parliament's own view of itself had

been translated into architecture.Tieplatzschule was invited to visit the Landtag.

Students from classes 8 and 9 have had the big

opportunity to make a discussion about the

theme: What is better for students, economy

and society: 4 or 6 weeks summer holidays?

The President of

Ireland, Michael D

Higgins addresses

pupils in Galway.

The President of the

Portuguese Parliament,

Lady Assuncao Este-

ves, welcomes our

teachers to the Parlia-

ment in Lisbon.

Escola les Acacias links with many outside

agencies and is featured on Catalonian TV as

project is integrated to Christmas concert.

Pupils are also invited to Sagrada Familia

and Tarragona

Comprehensive School of Gottolengo studies

the European parliament and examines its

architectural history.

Pupils collaborate to research and illustrate

a book featuring local monuments.

Escola Basica 1 dos Templarios has a weekly

debate on ethical issues relating to citizen-

ship

Pupils from St Michaels produce a newslet-

ter after their visit to City Hall. They also

plan to visit the Dil or National Parlia-

ment.