PUPILS have been learning a little about EU politics on a trip to speak to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Teenagers from the King’s School, Worcester, have been heavily involved in the Comenius Project with pupils from other European countries. They have been studying the positive and negative aspects of their own curriculum and comparing them with other countries’ teaching methods, before coming up with what they think is the ideal learning system.

After two hard years of work by 40 pupils and 12 staff, the project has now been completed and has been hailed as a great success.

The pupils have created links with schools in Luceé Hoche, Versailles, France, and Domgymnasium, Magdeburg, Germany, and learnt more about European politics.

Conferences were held in these schools, as well as in Worcester, which resulted in manifestos on how they would like the education system to be run.

The project culminated with the trip last month, when they each presented three MEPs at the European Parliament in Strasbourg with a 10-point proposal for a unified European education system.

Pupils were given the opportunity to meet the German, French and English MEPs and were assured that their plan would be copied and passed on to the European Education and Culture Committee at the parliament for consideration.

Helen Rowland, aged 17, who is studying French, Latin, English and Drama at King’s, said it was an exciting project to be involved in.

She said: “What we found interesting was how other schools viewed education and how they would want it to go ahead. The Germans wanted the curriculum to be an enclosed system and for their own to be dealt with by the German government, and each country to deal with their own.

“However the French and English wanted the schooling to be centralised and more European, so we all have a similar education.

From all our ideas, we created one manifesto and delivered it to Strasbourg.

“Being able to see European politics in action was a really great experience. Seeing how it works, along with hearing the translators, was incredible.

“It has wetted my appetite for politics and is something I would consider for the future.”

King’s headteacher Tim Keyes said: “I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all the staff who have been in any way involved in this project over the two years.

“It has been a great deal of work for the teachers involved in each of the conferences but I do think that it has also been very rewarding for the students and, I hope, for the teachers, and good for the school in general.”

THE MANIFESTO: HOW PUPILS THOUGHT EUROPE’S EDUCATION SYSTEM SHOULD WORK

1 A European Baccalaureate should be introduced consisting of six subjects, two of which would be compulsory (maths or science and one foreign language)

2 There should be a unified curriculum across Europe for key elements of maths, geography, sciences and technology.

3 The marking for the European Baccalaureate should be standardised and based on points rather than grades.

4 Teaching hours for the European Baccalaureate, the French Baccalaureate, the German Abitur and A-levels should be standardised.

5 A minimum leaving age of 16 should be set throughout schools in Europe, and classes should have a maximum of 13 pupils up to the age of 16.

6 Up to the age of 16, it should be compulsory to learn at least two foreign languages from the selection of French, German, English, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

7 Twinning arrangements should be established between schools to encourage participants in the European Baccalaureate to spend a period of time studying in the country of their first foreign language.

8 A pastoral house system, based on the English model, should be set in which pupils from different years come together for socialising, support, meetings and announcements.

9 Schools should provide a fulfilling range of extracurricular activities, to be chosen by individual schools with funding from the EU or government.

10 Education should be free until the age of 18 including apprenticeships. University education throughout the EU should cost an equal sum, with bursaries to highly accomplished pupils from poorer backgrounds.