"GOAL! Go On And Lead your team through Europe" is a project for six primary schools in different parts of Europe. The Finnish coordinating school is situated in a suburban area in western Tampere. Many pupils have challenging family situations. Also immigrant children and many pupils with special needs bring a risk of social exclusion near the school life. Icehearts is supporting the school life of those at risk. The Polish partner school is located in a rural area in the centre of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. There is a lot of unemployment and many parents work abroad. Several children have special educational needs. The Irish partner school is located in Kerry in south west Ireland. There has been a large influx of immigrants mainly from eastern Europe and a large increase in unemployment. Problems with anti-social behavior, addiction, social integration and unemployment are constant challenges in the lives of the pupils and the teachers in the school. The Greek partner school is located in the suburbs of Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia. There is a small percentage of SEN pupils with learning difficulties. The school population is predominately white Greek with only a few pupils coming from migrant families. The Spanish school is located in a town Tomelloso situated in the middle of Castilla La Mancha region, Spain. The main economic activity in the area is agriculture. There are some immigrant children and children with special educational needs at school. Some students of the school are children of ethnic minority (Gypsies), and children from families with financial difficulties. The Croatian partner school is a ethnic minority school. It's located in a small, costal town of Umag. Some of the pupils are not part of only Italian minority but have bilingual parents, and need to help to integrate and avoid social inclusion problems. Sports and well-being, and the motivation to carry on the importance of an active lifestyle have been the main inspirations for the project. The schools feel the need to promote and stimulate outdoor and indoor physical activities for the pupils. The correct physical, psychological and emotional development in children also has a connection to learning. By activating the pupils both at school and their free time the schools hope to have a positive impact on the children and their environment as a whole. The practical activities will enable the pupils to understand common values, overcome barriers and unite cultures. By working together in a strategic partnership, the schools want to expand their knowledge with new projects, skills and methods in teaching. They will do this by comparing the good practices of each school, discussing and working together in order to adapt each local good practice to the context and needs of all the schools involved in the project. The pupils will develop their creativity, their critical thinking and their ability to work independently. The project GOAL! challenges all pupils to become active European citizens, emphasizing the use of new ICT skills, and better knowledge of English language.
"GOAL! Go On And Lead your team through Europe" was a project for six primary schools in different parts of Europe. The Finnish coordinating school is situated in a suburban area in western Tampere. Many pupils have challenging family situations. Also immigrant children and many pupils with special needs bring a risk of social exclusion near the school life. Icehearts is supporting the school life of those at risk. The Polish partner school is located in a rural area in the centre of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. There is a lot of unemployment and many parents work abroad. Several children have special educational needs. The Irish partner school is located in Kerry in south west Ireland. There has been a large influx of immigrants mainly from eastern Europe and a large increase in unemployment. Problems with anti-social behavior, addiction, social integration and unemployment are constant challenges in the lives of the pupils and the teachers in the school. The Greek partner school is located in the suburbs of Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia. There is a small percentage of SEN pupils with learning difficulties. The school population is predominately white Greek with only a few pupils coming from migrant families. The Spanish school is located in a town Tomelloso situated in the middle of Castilla La Mancha region, Spain. The main economic activity in the area is agriculture. There are some immigrant children and children with special educational needs at school. Some students of the school are children of ethnic minority (Gypsies), and children from families with financial difficulties. The Croatian partner school is an ethnic minority school. It's located in a small, coastal town of Umag. Some of the pupils are not part of only Italian minority but have bilingual parents, and need to help to integrate and avoid social inclusion problems. Sports and well-being, and the motivation to carry on the importance of active lifestyle were the main inspirations for the project. The schools felt the need to promote and stimulate outdoor and indoor physical activities for the pupils. The correct physical, psychological and emotional development in children also has a connection to learning. The pupils were activated both at school and their free time. This had a positive impact on the children and their attitude to school as a whole, and thus prevented early school leaving. The active breaks have become more common in the project schools and pupils have responsibilities in organizing them. The pupils and their families were given guidance about healthy nutrition together with free breakfast at school. The practical activities like trying out special sports enabled the pupils to understand common values, overcome barriers and unite cultures. The schools expanded their knowledge about new methods and skills by working together in a strategic partnership, and the teachers were challenged to use innovative and more activating teaching methods at school. The visits to the partner schools, discussing and working with others helped the teachers to compare the good practices of each school. The pupils developed their creativity, critical thinking and ability to work independently when doing numerous project activities. The learning activities in a foreign school gave the pupils valuable new aspects of the understanding living in another country. The interest in other cultures has increased among both the pupils and the staff in the schools during the project time, and they feel more confident in working in a multi-cultural environment. The project GOAL! challenged both the pupils and the teachers to become active European citizens, emphasizing the use of new ICT skills, and better knowledge of English language.