European Union "Crash Course"

How are EU laws made?

Is the Interrail train pass going to be free?

Will Brexit really happen?

How does a country join the EU?

These were some of the questions posed by our pupils at the start of today's "EU Crash Course", which they were able to answer by the end. The morning-long workshop was kindly provided by the European Youth Parliament España. If you recognise the name of this organisation then it's because our school participated in their Madrid debate session at the beginning of the year. 

Every year over 30,000 pupils from 4ºESO or 1ºBach (or their equivalents in other countries) take part in these debates, but this event was different. Two of their young volunteers, Clara and Laura, came to help our students learn about the EU in a fun and educational way, through a variety of group games and activities, almost all in English, conducted through the peer-to-peer method, in which students help each other learn mutually.

Some of our 4º ESO pupils doing a group activity to learn about the European Union.

We started with an activity in which the pupils had to move to a different part of the room according to their opinion of different questions. For example, the first one: 
Europe makes you think of...
a. a geographical continent
b. lots of cultures and languages
c. the EU
d. Events like Eurovision or the Champions League

This was a great way to break the ice and get thinking about the subject of Europe. Then, split into smaller groups, the pupils had to read into one of the key ideas connected with the EU - prosperity, peace, freedom, law and democracy - and explain their relevance to the other groups. They went on to look more in-depth at how the different institutions - the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers - interact and how we can try to influence their decisions. The pupils then tried to apply their new knowledge to construct a diagram of the legislative set-up of the EU using plastic laminates. At the end we went over the answers to some of the questions posed by the pupils earlier.

We'd like to thank Clara, Laura and the EYPE for their time and interest, and for hopefully inspiring a new wave of future EYPE participants!