Welcome!

Welcome to enter the world of YES-event!

PROGRAMME OF THE WEEK

Programme of the week:

Monday

The event starts off with a formal opening, where all the participating countries are welcomed. Usually, the mayor of the town and the principal of the school take part and the ceremony requires formal attire. After the official part, the students get to know each other better by playing games.

In the afternoon, the students show their first presentation (10-15 min) in which their country, town, and school are inroduced. This presentation can be a little informal. The format is up to each group, but there has to be a certain level of content. At the end of the day, the students sit down together with their teachers and discuss the different presentations.  

In the evening, students are free to do what they want to do! This includes the participants going to their host-families in order to to get to know them better. The teachers have dinner.

Tuesday

Each school has to make a presentation about the theme of the conference together with a handout. These presentations are approximately 20 minutes long and after the presentations, there is a discussion in the national groups.

In the afternoon, the national groups are divided into international groups. Questions are supplied for debating and discussions in international groups containing one representative from each country.

Finally, the international groups present their results (often in a creative manner).

The programme in the evening is organised by the hosting school.

Wednesday

The organising school creates a nice/social/cultural day regarding the theme of the conference.

Thursday

International groups will debate theses about the central theme.

In the afternoon, each group is expected to deliver a summary including background, proposals, and overall conclusions.

In the evening, there is an international buffet and a farewell party.

Friday

The day starts with a plenary meeting, in which the conclusions of the day before are presented.

The DVD of the week is shown and the certificates are handed out.

The Conference will be officially closed after lunch.

Participants

8 students from each country are invited. The students need to be able to take part in activities and discussions in English.

A student can participate in the conference only once.

At the moment, we don’t invite schools where the native language is English, because their level would be high (too high) for other students.

Most of the students stay with host-families. A youth hostel may be a possibility if we can’t find enough host-families.

From each school, two teachers are invited (they need to be able to speak English, too). The teachers stay in a hotel.

Harry Mulder on the background of the event

The YES-event or Young European School conference was held for the first time from 21^st to 25^th November 2005 in Northgo College, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Its basic idea was to get students from several schools from different European countries together to discuss and debate about a relevant theme in the past, the present, and the future.

We wanted to get youngsters from different European countries together and make them get to know each other and thereby, learn to appreciate different cultures.

Another aspect, which was inseparably linked to this, was that it would be the most efficient way to fight certain prejudices and to broaden the horizon of not only those students who participated, but also those students that surrounded the participants in their home-country by trying to involve them in the conference by as many means as possible.

                                                    

Future events

The next Yes-event conferences will be organised and hosted by the following countries:

2015   - Estonia  (Migration and Integration)

2016   - Slovakia

2017   - Spain

2018   - Romania

2019   - Germany

2020   - Belgium

2021   - France

2022   - Sweden

2023   - Finland

2024   - Netherlands (20^th anniversary)

Past Events

2005

The First YES-event was held in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The first countries that participated were Romania, Belgium, Germany, France, Finland, Poland, and the Netherlands. The theme was"Migration and Integration".

2006

Three more countries - Estonia, Italy, Slovakia - joined and the event was held in Noordwijk again. The theme was"Migration and Integration".

2007

We went to Romania. Sweden joined the conference and  the theme was "Environment and Sustainability".

2008

The conference was held in Germany. Portugal joined, but we lost Italy. The theme was "Environmental Discoveries”

2009

Belgium was our host country. The theme was "Being Young in Europe".
 

2010

We went to France and unfortunately, Portugal didn’t participate. The theme was "Being Young in Europe".

2011

Sweden was our host country and the theme was "Equality".

2012

We all went to Finland. The theme  was "Design Your Life".

2013

Poland was the host and Spain participated for the first time. The theme was "Tolerance and Security".

2014
The Netherlands hosted the event on its 10^th anniversary. The theme was "Tolerance and Safety".

GERMANY

Represented by Elisabeth-Gymnasium, Halle Member since 2005



The German Team 2014