The over arching question that Dunkirk Primary School, Nottingham, UK and Rastaala School, Espoo, Finland will explore over the next 24 months is: ‘How do we develop Pupil Voice in our schools enabling young people to become active and responsible citizens?’ Both schools have identified the need to develop Pupil Voice within their learning communities. In order for pupils to be effective and successful European and global citizens they need to be able to communicate with confidence. The project will focus on improving the attainment of all pupils who are not reaching expected levels in multi-literacy . This has been identified as an area of concern in both schools. The ability to speak, listen and communicate through different media is an essential skill for all pupils to have. It has been identified in each school that pupils cannot achieve the best in basic reading and writing unless they are confident speakers and communicators. This project will enable and encourage all pupils and teachers to investigate different ways of communicating their ideas, thoughts and opinions using both verbal and non-verbal techniques and strategies. This area has emerged from our current Comenius project. The Erasmus+ Partnership opportunity enables us to jointly explore these issues and deepen our practice further . Pupils must be able to communicate, discuss and debate beyond the comfort zone of their own classroom. They need to be flexible communicators, have the ability to adapt and empathize across both local and European/Global contexts. Working with the partner schools in Europe provides us with the opportunities to develop global dialogues where a deeper understanding of each other’s cultures, perspectives and opinions takes place. The project, 'Pupil Voice' will look collectively at the Big Question 'What Kind of a World would we like to live in? Each year one theme will be explored, taken from the Pupil Charter that was developed by the schools in the previous Comenius partnership which ends in August 2014. Due to the global themes the students have identified, the project will give all participants an enhanced sense of their ability to affect change on an individual and collective level. The two themes selected from the Pupil Charter are Greed and Power Equality and Racism There will be 6 transnational project meetings where senior managers, coordinators and teachers appointed to each schools Erasmus Team will work together on project planning, implementation and continual review and reflection. Throughout the whole two years classes in both schools will work jointly and independently on the two themes. This will involve Skype, email, video conferencing and letter writing. Both schools will hold events, special days and ongoing classroom activities linked to the Erasmus themes. Many pupils in our schools will have little or no opportunity to ever take part in European travel. The project will see two 'Pupil Camps', one in Finland during winter and one in the UK. Pupils from both schools will take part and live together in a neutral venue for one week. Both Pupil Camps will be facilitated by a Theatre and Drama specialist who specializes in Ensemble Theatre, a style of theatre which involves communities working together in an equitable way which engages all participants voice. She will work with the camp participants on the process of creating a performance that responds to the theme that is being explored. During this week they will explore the range of strategies for engaging Pupil Voice and will look at a Big Question the project has developed over the previous months. These pupils (and staff) will develop close and long standing relationships with each other and will be able to address some of the key issues identified through the months prior to the camp. The host pupils will be engaging in an opportunity they will probably never get in their lives again (low socioeconomic backgrounds). A specialist Media Artist will also attend both pupil camps to film and document all the activities, process and outcomes. The film will be edited professionally, capturing the whole experience, as well as the final outcome and this will become an essential dissemination tool .This film will be used by many key stake holders to disseminate the project, it's methodologies, results and impact. Improvement of the curriculum in both schools provides another rationale for the project. Both schools have identified the need to improve their way of engaging Pupil Voice and are keen to explore together the different strategies each school currently uses. The legacy of the project will be a refined and tested way of engaging Pupil Voice which both schools can integrate into their own curriculum. This will be disseminated in many ways including a project website, Erasmus+ Dissemination Platform, E-twinning, leaflets, brochures, seminars and sharing/training events , both internal and external.
Context/background of the project; In an increasingly complex world, where societal and global tensions are growing, we seek to nurture future citizens who have a sense of Global Citizenship and pride in promoting and shaping a future plural society. In this context both partner schools in the UK and Finland seek to resolve the question of: ‘How do we develop Pupil Voice in our schools enabling young people to become active and responsible citizens?’ Objectives; We set out to (i) Plan and design a suitable platform on which we could (ii) Share our experiences and (iii) discover and learn from best practice whilst (iii) developing novel teaching approaches to answer this key question. In order for pupils to be effective and successful European and global citizens they need to be able to communicate with confidence. Multi-literacy was identified as an area of concern in both schools. It had been identified in each school that pupils cannot achieve the best in basic reading and writing unless they are confident speakers and communicators. Number and profile of participating organisations; Dunkirk Primary School is in an urban city setting with 42 staff to 420 pupils from diverse social backgrounds, predominantly local children with a high proportion of non-english mother tongues (36 nations and 42 langauages spoken) and those from transitional migrant families, with social mobility from poor through to privileged. Rastaala School Espoo-Finland by contrast is in rural/suburban setting with 50 staff to 580 pupils from predominantly upwardly socially mobile professional families, coping with a recent influx of non-Finnish pupils from settling and transitory migrant families. Description of undertaken main activities; (a) The country coordinators planned the curriculum with a view to supporting the project but also to scale up across whole school Curriculum wide integration; (b) Coordination of staff and pupils in readiness for the exchange visits to maximise opportunities for target pupils and staff that had most to gain; (c) Conducting the exchanges as planned and leveraging of emerging opportunities for increased learning; (d) Reflection and dissemination Results and impact attained; Both schools successfully identified the need to develop Pupil Voice within their learning communities. The project focused on improving the attainment of all pupils who are not reaching expected levels in multi-literacy . The ability to speak, listen and communicate through different media was achieved as an essential skill for all targeted pupils and also had a profound effect on their families and the community at large across both UK and Finn school communities. This project successfully enabled and encouraged all pupils and teachers to investigate different ways of communicating their ideas, thoughts and opinions using both verbal and non-verbal techniques and strategies. Pupils are now able to communicate, discuss and debate beyond the comfort zone of their own classroom. They have become flexible communicators, with the ability to adapt and empathize across both local and European/Global contexts. Working as partner schools in Europe provided us the ideal opportunities to develop global dialogues where a deeper understanding of each other’s cultures, perspectives and opinions successfully took place. Data analysis of targeted pupils shows significant improvement in their actual literacy scores. Of the pupils monitored: Reading - 80% of pupils made more than the expected progress Reading - the pupils involved made, on average, 3.4 points of progress. The expected progress was 2.0 points Reading - average progress from KS1 to end of KS2 of last year's Y6 pupils involved in the project was 1.2. National average was 0 so puts us well above average Writing - 60% of pupils made more than the expected progress Writing - the pupils involved made, on average, 3.2 points of progress. The expected progress was 2.0 points This data has confirmed that the involvement in such projects is crucial to help pupils attain the very best they can in all areas of development . Longer Term Benefits The project, 'Pupil Voice' looked collectively at the Big Question 'What Kind of a World would we like to live in? Due to the global themes covered the project gave all participants an enhanced sense of their ability to affect change on an individual and collective level. The two themes covered were Greed and Power(Year 1) and Equality and Racism(Year 2). Their engagement with issues such as the treatment of Refugees has developed an acute awareness of injustice around the world and how things must change. In total 42 pupils 20 staff were able to participate in European travel, some had never stepped out of their own country, this has developed a confident European identity for all who took part and has raised their aspirations significantly not only academically but in possible options for the future and also made friends for life.