The school is situated in Tirano in the Province of Sondrio in Lombardy in northern Italy, it is 25 km far from Sondrio, 100 km far from Lecco and 160 km far from Milano (well connected by train, bus and car). The nearest airports are Linate (Milano) and Orio al Serio (Bergamo). The Swiss border is 1 km far.
Tirano has got 9.000 inhabitants and its principal resource is winter and summer tourism in Italy and Switzerland. The local economy is based on small firms and tourism.
Tirano is set in a valley called Valtellina, very well known for its beautiful landscape, its ski resorts as Aprica (15 km from Tirano), Bormio (40 km), Livigno (80 km) as well as the mountain trekking paths in the Stelvio Park.
Valtellina offers many attractions, especially winter and mountain sports (cross country skiing, alpine hiking, trekking and mountain bike cycling).

RULES AND CONDITIONS

At the end of the Voluntary Serivice the flat, completely furnished, must be cleaned, in order and the equipment provided must be left in a suitable condition.

The volunteer is given the opportunity of attending Italian language classes with specialized teachers one hour per week. The course takes place in the library in the afternoons or evenings. The volunteer is also given the opportunity of taking part in some learning tours in Italy or abroad organised by the school, which provides also further activities (skiing, movies, debates, theater, visiting exihibitions). Free entrance at swimming pools, cinemas and theaters is also provided.
The role of the volunteer is very creative, in order to offer a more European perspective to our students with a wider learning plan, more exciting lessons, additional activities to help students with less opportunities and more extra curriculum activities in collaboration with the local library.
After the first phase in which the volunteer becomes familiar with the different actvities carried out at school, the second phase involves the choice of the activities the volunteers will carry out in the school on the basis of their personal attitude and of the general situation. For their choice the volunteers are helped by the tutor. The activities are:
1. Language laboratory: it has the main objective of improving the students foreign language communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in real life situations proposed as extra curriculum activities. Those activities consist of partnership projects organised by the school using English to communicate for a variety of purposes; pen friendship with students of other European countries, exchange of ways of life and personal and school experiences, the release of a mutual school magazine.
2. Furthermore the vulunteer has the possibility to take part in the project Help front desk. The basic education must be aimed at the development of the abilities of the students in relation to and in respect of the individual difficulties, coping with difficult situations and preventing premature school leaving. For all those reasons teachers help students individually or in groups, throught the Help front desk, with the aim of giving equal opportunities to all the students.
The front desk is particularly useful for those students who are not sure of their learning strategies and have learning problems in preparing for assessment tests. Some teachers, specifically trained, are available for supporting the students and their families in case of difficulties in their learning path.
The volunteers are not asked to carry out specific activities with the students, but the participation in this project could be a good learning opportunity for the volunteers who would like to work with young people with difficulties in the future.
3. Exchange project: supporting the teachers in designing specific school projects such as cultural exchanges among EU countries.
4. Spazio Giovani: learning project based on a bar run by the school with young people and teenager as target.
5. Sport: the students are given the opportunity of taking part in excursions organised by the school and also of working out in the gym and fitness centre.
6. IT and multimedia technologies: IT classes (video lab, IT lab, Internet lab, etc).
7. Creativity project: theatre, painting and music lab.

Learning opportunities:

The volunteer will

learn or improve the knowledge of a second language to communicate with local young people
learn how to cope with a different culture being open to the school environment as well as to the local community.
learn how to interact with students in different context
learn basic teaching strategies thanks to the specific pedagogical skills of the teachers involved in the project
learn how to find and develop real life material using it to let the students discover new different cultures
learn how to use new technologies.
learn how to emphasize his/her country's culture providing information about its history, tradition and food.
learn how to file books and magazines and to search useful material for workshops and exhibitions.

Role of the volunteer

The volunteer

helps students to fill in questionnaires in English for partnership projects and to write letters and email for their pen friends.
carries out follow-up activities for little groups of students, reads and makes the students read second language tests highlighting new vocabulary, proposes songs and game sto improve vocabulary learning.
provides help to foreign teachers and students during the exchange projects (tours, sightseeing, conferences, dinners…)
helps the other teachers with supervision
attends students during sport days (skiing, San Siro project)
uses with the students writing softwares and Internet resources useful for carrying out school curriculum activities.
designs useful material for the painting workshop.

The role of the volunteer will never substitute the teachers in their job, but it is intended as a teachers support activity aimed at stimulating openness and tolerance.

Activities objectives
Encouraging the spread of the knowledge of your own culture and of other cultures
encouraging the acquisition of second language communicative skills
the use of IT tools for the exchange of information
encouraging the students to take into consideration new methodologies belongig to other countries.
learning how to work in team

The working hours in the school will be scheduled in accordance with the week timetable of the teachers involved in the project.
Here is an example of the daily timetable of a volunteer

Morning

8.00 am - 11.00 am language laboratory with newspapers articles discussion, newspaper reading, communicative games, songs etc.
Ore 10.00 am - 11.30 am break
Ore 11.30 am - 12.30 pm. Help Front desk

Afternoon

Labs and workshops: creativity project, sport, IT or planning of the scheduled exchange (after a period necessary to become familiar with the different activities provided, the volunteer will be asked to choose among the labs given with the help of the tutor)
The activity in the library is scheduled from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm twice a week
participation in planning the children labs with storytelling and creative painting
Participation in the planning of events and exhibitions, filing and arranging books on the shelves, filing of books and magazines, archive work.


The volunteer will have a better experience if

is really motivated and likes working with teenagers even in a difficult context
likes to meet new people and to interact with younger and elder people
is flexible and available
is ready to put herself/himself to the test

Selection criteria:

The candidates will be assessed in relation to the above mentioned requirements. Anyway, during the selection the maximum transparency is guaranteed without any discrimination of sex, social class, language knowledge and geographical origin.

The tutor will be always available and in constant touch with the volunteer, in order to support her/him psychologically. All the possible efforts will be made in order to solve any problems.
The flat is provided according to the law and was restructured in 2003.
The teachers are responsible for the students during the school and extra school activities.
Students and teachers are provided with an insurance.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=42000496216