The project EDINA (EDucation of International Newly Arrived migrant pupils) brings together policy makers, schools and researchers from Finland (Helsinki), Belgium (Ghent) and The Netherlands (Rotterdam and Utrecht). The main objective of EDINA is to provide support to municipalities, schools and teachers in the reception and the integration into the school system of Newly Arrived Migrant pupilS (NAMS). The high inflow of NAMS in and within Europe implies that schools are experiencing a constant increase in the numbers of pupils who do not master the school language. This situation creates a heavy challenge for the European school system. Against this background, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of successful reception of NAMS at their new schools in order to facilitate optimal integration. The three Member States provide education for children and adolescents regardless of their residential status. However, criteria regarding the reception, duration of special schooling, transition to regular or to secondary school, constitution of learning environments, and instructional background of teachers greatly vary within and between the countries. At present it is unknown which of these different approaches are the most effective. There is thus a high need to identify the most successful strategies to improve the education of NAMS and to make this knowledge available in order to empower schools across Europe with the ultimate goal to improve the prospects of this vulnerable group of pupils. Our project will develop a multimodular programme. This programme will include a training module to develop specific teachers’ competencies, a training module to promote active differentiation within the classroom, a toolset and resource base to optimize the reception, observation and transition processes of NAMS. A particular strength of our programme is that it will be developed by an interdisciplinary team including schoolteachers, school boards, municipalities, and researchers from pedagogy, didactic, intercultural communication and second language acquisition and is to be used by teachers, schools, municipalities and policy makers. It is based on a thorough qualitative analysis of the situation of NAMS (age 6-18) in the educational system of the three countries involved. The goals are (1) to reduce disparities preventing under or over referral to specialized care, proposing adequate strategies and activities to help teachers, schools and municipalities to support these children, (2) to increase the efficiency of investment in the education of NAMS supporting the development of management programmes for this group at city level and, (3) to strengthen education and training paths of school staff fostering the collaboration between schools, municipalities, and researchers nationally and internationally. With this programme, we aim to ensure that NAMS may access the level of education that corresponds to their cognitive possibilities in order to reduce early school leaving and to support excellent schooling attainment.
“EDINA created tools that schools seem to find very helpful and EDINA provided insight in best practices and research results that every professional working with newcomers will benefit from. Therefore, I think Edina was a great success.” - Answer to EDINA Questionnaire about the project BACKGROUND The project EDINA (EDucation of International Newly Arrived migrant pupils) has brought together policy makers, schools and researchers from Finland (Helsinki), Belgium (Ghent) and The Netherlands (Rotterdam and Utrecht). The main objective of EDINA was to provide support to municipalities, schools and teachers in the reception and the integration into the school system of Newly Arrived Migrant pupilS (NAMS). The high inflow of newcomer students in and within Europe implies that schools are experiencing a constant increase in the numbers of pupils who do not master the official school language. This situation still creates a heavy challenge for the European school system. Against this background, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of successful reception of NAMS at their new schools in order to facilitate optimal integration. OBJECTIVES The high inflow of newcomers in and within Europe implies that schools are experiencing a constant increase in the numbers of pupils who do not master the official school language. This situation creates a heavy challenge for the European school system. EDINA aims at helping schools, teachers and municipalities with the successful reception of newcomers at their new schools in order to facilitate optimal integration and allowing newcomer students to develop their talents and potential. In order to reach these goals EDINA aimed at: (1) reducing disparities by preventing under or over referral to specialized care, proposing adequate strategies and activities to help teachers, schools and municipalities to support these children, (2) increasing the efficiency of investment in the education of newcomers supporting the development of management programs for this group at city level and, (3) strengthening education and training paths of school staff fostering the collaboration between schools, municipalities, and researchers nationally and internationally. (1) These aims were translated into the following activities, which were EDINA’s main focus during its three year span creation of an online webtool with research based information, good practices, advice and exercises about arrival of newcomer students (including the transition to the mainstream schools of the receiving countries), the background of this vulnerable group of students (in order to improving the reception of these students by the schools), assessment of students (their observation and evaluation), differentiation in divers classrooms, communication with stakeholders (specifically parents and other family members) and intercultural competences of teachers. (2) to spread the content and use of the tools among the teacher community, through the organization of workshops for teachers of the participating schools, through the National Transfer event, and through workshops and presentations given at teacher education institutes and networks (e.g. LOWAN, in the Netherlands). (3) To change attitudes towards the use of the students’ home (and other) languages of teachers and policymakers and aimed at stressing the importance of sufficient funding of newcomer education. This has led to the acceptance by the Dutch parliament of a second year of special funding of newcomer education in the Netherlands. PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS The EDINA project has been carried out by nine project partners from four cities across three European countries, namely Belgium (Ghent), Finland (Helsinki) and The Netherlands (Rotterdam and Utrecht): Netherlands: - University of Utrecht University - Municipality of Rotterdam - Stichting BOOR Finland: - University of Helsinki - Municipality of Helsinki Belgium: - University of Ghent - Municipality of Ghent - Vicariaat Onderwijs Bisdom Gent - Vriendenkring Kleine Icarus Importantly, the project partners represented three different disciplines: schools (represented by school boards), municipalities and universities. UNDERTAKEN MAIN ACTIVITIES AND DELIVERABLES: Taking the goals of the project as a starting point, the EDINA project had 3 targets: (1) to reduce disparities preventing under or over referral to specialized care, proposing adequate strategies and activities to help teachers, schools and municipalities to support these children, (2) to increase the efficiency of investment in the education of newcomers supporting the development of management programs for this group at city level and, (3) to strengthen education and training paths of school staff fostering the collaboration between schools, municipalities, and researchers nationally and internationally. ................. TO READ THE REST OF THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION, PLEASE SEE ANNEX "EDINA Final Report FULL."