Our Project 'Communication, collaboration and Cooperation for the future with all ' has developed out of work individually in all the primary schools that are interested in developing learning skills of pupils so that they can be risk takers and problem solvers and are equipped as life long learners to feel confident in a yet to be defined future. Each school has been looking at this in different ways - our German partner works hard on cooperation and has some all age Montessori classes, our Spanish partner has been carrying out extensive work on 'Think Based Learning ', our Finnish partner works on a democratic collaborative approach and our English partner works on creativity and Learning to Learn. The German and English schools have worked together during two European Comenius projects and have experience of pupil mobility involving workshops and learning opportunities, this element is very important to them and having seen the confidence developed in participating pupils they were both keen to extend this opportunity. The English school chose both the Finnish and Spanish school to visit for job shadowing as part of Erasmus KA1, due to their pedagogic approach. These visits were both reciprocated. The objectives of the project are two fold. Two encourage pupils that to work in a more cooperative way, where collaborating together will achieve an outcome that may not have been possible without communication between a group. During workshops they will work in mixed groups representing all the schools. The encouragement is, that with these enhanced skills, they develop a lasting positive approach to their learning. The second element involves teacher training and teaching and will involve observation of the workshop activities to monitor how pupils are working and then through discussions and teaching opportunities form models to take back to their own schools. The activities are framed around performing and creative arts, mathematics and other STEM subjects, digital media production and food technology and ethics. Preparation work will happen with a wide number of pupils in each school, with a representative group helping create tangible outcomes whilst at the project meeting eg videos of dance and music, mathematics investigations and simple engineering, a newspaper / magazine and video diaries and to finish a multicultural meal and an ecumenical service. With our final outcome we wish to reflect the increasing diversity in our schools due to refugees and asylum seekers. The outcomes from the teacher training will be further examples of lessons and dissemination of ideas, observations and comments and a continuing pedagogic dialogue both within school , in the surrounding locality and between countries. We anticipate that along with the short term outcomes there will be a lasting affect on the pupils and participating teachers and within their establishments. Through twitter, website coverage and blogs and forum discussions we anticipate that this will become a much wider discussion and therefore have a longer term benefit for a number of pupils and teachers.
Our Project 'Communication, collaboration and Cooperation for the future with all' has developed out of work individually in all the primary schools that are interested in developing learning skills of pupils so that they can be risk takers and problem solvers and are equipped as life long learners to feel confident in a yet to be defined future. Each school has been looking at this in different ways –the German partner works hard on cooperation and has some all age Montessori classes, the Spanish partner has been carrying out extensive work on 'Think Based Learning ', the Finnish partner works on a democratic collaborative approach and the English partner works on creativity and Learning to Learn. The German and English schools worked together during two European Comenius projects and have experience of pupil mobility involving workshops and learning opportunities, this element is very important to them and having seen the confidence developed in participating pupils they were both keen to extend this opportunity. The English school chose both the Finnish and Spanish school to visit for job shadowing as part of Erasmus KA1, due to their pedagogic approach. These visits were both reciprocated. The objectives of the project are two-fold. To encourage pupils that by communicating and cooperating within a group they can produce a collaborative outcome that might not have otherwise been possible. During workshops the pupils worked in mixed groups representing all the schools. By enhancing these skills, the project set out to develop a lasting positive approach to their learning. The second element involved teacher training and teaching and included observation of the workshop activities to monitor how pupils were working and then through discussions and teaching opportunities form models to take back to their own schools. The activities completed featured performing and creative arts including i-films, mathematics and sport combined and robotics, digital and written media production and food technology and ethics/ peace. The number of adults directly engaged during project meetings was nine each time travelling and usually about five or six at the host school. Twenty four children traveled each time and the number in the host school involved eight working in workshops and then at least another 12 in host families. Whenever a school hosted the numbers involved included host families, the school staff not directly involved in workshops and the wider school and local community. Preparation work happened with a wide number of pupils in each school, with groups creating tangible outcomes to take to the project meetings eg learning shared songs, solution to a mathematics problem, creating a newspaper article and preparing messages of wishes for the world. Whilst at the project meeting tangible outcomes were videos of dance and music, joint art work, mathematics investigations and simple engineering, courses for robots, a newspaper / magazine and video diaries, a radio broadcast and to finish a multicultural meal and an ecumenical service of celebration with a theme of 'Peaceful Togetherness'. With our final outcome we wish to reflect the increasing diversity in our schools due to refugees and asylum seekers. The outcomes from the teacher training were one of increased discussion and observation, using observation sheets which were revised during the project as a result of continuing experience. These observations supported pedagogic dialogue within the attending group of teachers, their own schools on return and with other schools. Another outcome for teachers was the opportunity to see different style lessons in action and take these back to their own schools to try, again enabling the ideas to be disseminated further. The effect on pupils and teachers is similar as it leads to greater confidence, for the pupils it provides a unique opportunity to live in a different country for a few days and experience a different way of life whilst still having the security of their teachers. For the adults it was evident that they welcomed meeting some colleagues in different contexts and developed a more confident way of discussing pedagogy during the process of the project. Teachers going back to schools after a project meeting return not only with new ideas but reinvigorated with new challenges and approaches knowing that this style of working, if possible and valuable between children with limited spoken communication must be very beneficial in their own classrooms. Through twitter, our etwinning site and individual school website coverage we hope that this has provoked further thought for other teachers and also given them confidence to involve primary aged pupils in a KA2 project. http://www.blewbury.oxon.sch.uk/about-us/global-understanding/erasmus-key-acton-2