Context and background : "Building Bridges through Games" is to be a two-year bilateral project between the Comprehensive School of Lyseon peruskoulu in Joensuu, North Karelia, Finland and IES Miguel de Cervantes in Fuenteálamo, Albacete, Spain. The schools have been cooperating in a non-official way since 2013 interchanging students’ presentations on cultural aspects of both countries. Objectives: Through this project we seek to: introduce new pedagogical practices, for example by implementing cross-curricular activities, into our curriculum; encourage team work; reinforce the European dimension in our school curriculum; lay the basis for continuous and more extensive cross-border cooperation; increase the motivation for teaching and learning; increase the professional competences of teachers regarding management of international projects, ICT skills, English language skills; improve the digital competence, English language skills and learner motivation of students; promote students' awareness and appreciation of cultural heritage and diversity Number and profile of participants: The various activities during the different stages of the project will involve, in one way or another, the whole student bodies (400 + 290 students aged 13-16) of both schools. As for short-term exchanges of groups of pupils the Finnish school intends to include 24 students and the Spanish school 20 students. As regards teacher mobilities, there will be two short-term joint staff training events involving 3-4 teachers from each school. In the Finnish school the project activities will be implemented and supervised by 1 Teacher of History, 1 Teacher of Technical work, 2 Teachers of PE, 2 Teachers of English, 1 Teacher of IT, 1 Teacher of Maths, 1 teacher of Art. In the Spanish school the teachers involved are 1 Maths teacher (teaching maths in English), 2 maths teachers (not involved in English classes) 2 English teachers, 3 Spanish language teachers, 1 Classical language teacher. Description of activities: The project focuses on some popular and traditional indoor and outdoor games in both countries. Students will carry out research in various subjects and produce and exchange presentations on their findings. The games of each country will be compared and historical aspects and the background of the games will be discussed together with the partner school. New board games will also be created. Subject teachers will cooperate with language teachers to help students to produce materials in English. Through online sharing and during student mobility events the games of the partner country will be learned and played together. The findings, materials and project outcomes will be shared online between the two schools but also made public to the whole European educational community. Methodology to be used in carrying out the project: The project activities will encourage and require cross-curricular team work amongst teachers. A learner-centered approach will be employed in class: students are to plan and organize project activities by carrying out independent research, by using their imagination, by bringing forth their artistic vision and by working and cooperating in groups. The emphasis is on learning by doing. English will be used as a tool. Students' ICT skills will improve during activities such as shooting videos, producing PowerPoint presentations, sharing, communicating and negotiating online. Learning and communicating will take place in an authentic international setting. Short description of the results and impact envisaged: Tangible results: Students will learn to play new games of each other's countries; new board games will be created and published online; face-to-face student interaction will take place thus allowing a substantial improvement of both their written and spoken communicative skills. Intangible results: The project is expected to inspire teachers to try out unprecedented pedagogical practices, increase the professional competence and motivation of teachers involved, encourage and facilitate continuing and expanding cross-border cooperation, improve the digital competence of both students and teachers, promote students' awareness and appreciation of cultural heritage and cultural diversity, increase the motivation of lower-achieving learners, increase the communicative competence in English of students and staff, and provide an opportunity to familiarize the whole local community, as well as a wider European public, with different cultures. Potential longer term benefits: The project may establish new pedagogical practices in the regular school curriculum, increase international cooperation in local schools, attract and inspire a wider European network of schools to engage in future cooperation, increase appreciation of and interest in learning foreign languages, have a lifelong impact on the attitudes towards different cultures and towards language learning of all students and staff involved.