CONTEXTThere are many traditional approaches taken to teaching and learning for those pupils in schools that have special educational needs. These approaches vary significantly within the European Union, from isolating those with special needs into schools that have no main stream children, to fully integrating those with profound and multiple needs. The concept of what special needs are within the school context also varies, those with profound and multiple difficulties, those with academic obstacles, pupils who are disaffected with school and those who are meeting obstacles because of language or cultural barriers. PARTICIPANTSThere are 4 schools each with a strong management team, all of whom will be included in all stages of the project. In addition to those involved in the planning part of the project, we will spread the impact as far as possible within our settings so that as many participants as possible will benefit from the opportunity to learn from each other. This includes teachers and support staff specifically working with Special Educational Needs pupils, as well as those who have experience or expertise to share or who would gain knowledge and professional development from being involved in the project. In other words- we envisage that all members of our staff will participate and benefit from involvement which means an average of 30 staff per institution - 120 in total.OBJECTIVESThe intention is to share thoughts on all these aspects and form an amalgam of best practice across the participating European countries, thus making us more informed and able to form a "European" approach to Special Needs teaching.ACTIVITIESActivities will be based upon two main principles* The working with teachers and children in Special Needs classes in the respective schools.* Additional training in aspects that are seen to be of particular interest after classroom observation.METHODOLOGYThis would be along the lines of a research model. in this respect particular lines of enquiry would be agreed prior to teaching observations which would include ethical considerations, conduct of observers and how observations would be recorded and reported. The research aspects will strongly include listening to the views of the pupils both Special Needs pupils and those who work along side them, and also the parents perspective for we strongly believe that these will make a significant contribution to our findings.RESULTSThere would be empirical results in terms of professional development and a sharing of best practise in terms of pedagogy, resources, understanding and practical strategies. In this way both staff and pupils in all institutions would benefit directly as well as being able to cascade the learning outcomes to other professional communities.IMPACTIt is intended that with the financial, energy and time commitment given to this project that the resulting impact should be significant. With the shared belief that we can learn from one another and develop what's good and import what's new into our practices and philosophy. The impact then would prove to be two fold: firstly on the way that we approach and deal with Special Educational Needs and school disaffection and secondly the impact on the pupils themselves as we take these ideas forward. As far as the pupils are concerned indicators of success would come in the form of improved attendance, greater engagement, improved attainment and probably the most important thing the development of better attitudes in these children towards school and towards their own self esteem. As a whole project aim we want to upskill all the professionals involved and raise the horizons of the young Europeans who are experiencing such hurdles in their early lives. LONGER TERM BENEFITSPart of the idealism of forming a cohesive and forward thinking Europe is to encourage and nurture the idea of our own worth and to have such attitudes towards education and society so that we become life long learners in a positive, secure and friendly culture where education is accessible to all, regardless of ability, gender, economic background, age or creed. The aims of our project are indeed a tall order - we are considering some of the most needy youngsters in European society. Europe and its ideals should be available for all and it is vital for a successful and caring broad community to be inclusive to all its members. Our project will at least go part way to considering and meeting that idealism.
In the context of the Erasmus Plus Project, k219, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria and Spain worked according to a monthly calendar of activities on a project related to students with special educational needs, from 2016 to 2018. All the partners were really competent people and reliable. As a group, we were very motivated and interested in our project. Two years, they have given rise to methodological, teaching and evaluation practices of great importance. Specifically, the first stages of the project have been aimed at a first approach to the knowledge of the different partner countries with the implementation of relationships: creation of logos, exchange of letters in English among students, creation Erasmus Corner and Erasmus Team, presentation of the different educational systems and schools, creation of the website, e-mail relations between the teachers of the association, project creation in e-twinning ... The first meeting was held in Marki, Poland, where it was possible to carry out a process of exchange of experiences on educational management, process evaluation tools and detailed planning of all future activities based on the analysis of the project's objectives. We participated in four transnational meetings, which took place in the four partner schools. In each one of them, the same work scheme was carried out: the essential results of the project were presented and evaluated and the main points for our future work were fixed. The general objective of this project was to create an eternal and international friendship throughout the world and share national and traditional values, working on a common theme, such as students with special educational needs and their inclusion in our educational system. The main points of our work were: • Make several materials to work with these students and display them (for example, book of traditional recipes, book of stories, calendar, newspaper, photo album, album of drawings, power point presentations, skype conferences, work materials, legislative reports ... ). • Improve communication in the foreign language (students and teachers discussed culture and daily life with other countries to compare their lives and improve their personality skills and had the opportunity to visit other countries, transmitting to their students the life experiences... • Looking at the topic "Inclusion of students with special educational needs" from a cultural, historical and friendly perspective (in our country, these students play an important role in the personality of our children.) They love each other and children learn many things from them because we have a lot of knowledge and experiences to share, through the activities of the Project. • Decreasing segregation among students in schools and increasing communication between them (students learned the songs, games, learning strategies, stories and, had the opportunity to share and compare those values with other countries). To achieve those goals, we share ideas, approaches, methods, as well as a variety of activities. Students, teachers, parents participated in these activities ... In addition to the transnational meetings, there were also email contacts between the teachers of the participating schools. This project gave us the opportunity to exchange experiences and teaching knowledge, develop methods that meet our needs and test and put into practice the most effective organizational and pedagogical approaches with our students with special educational needs. In addition, it helped to improve the quality and reinforce the European dimension of school education by supporting the use of foreign languages spoken in European countries, promoting equal opportunities in all schools and improving knowledge of different cultures. The achievements of the project are having an importan influence in the teaching staff of the school and the students, which is one of the main objectives that we expected from it, either in the improvement in working with students with special educational needs such as in the process of learning and assessment of these students by the entire educational community. Our main benefit is to have learned new methods in the teaching-learning process of these students and to exchange our way of working with other European countries and thus enrich each other. Another of the main benefits of our project, apart from giving an international vision to the school, is to open it to the entire educational community, to make known teaching practices, characteristics and needs of students ...