The partners in the project Inspire me! Motivate me! have come together as they are all committed to a view of learning as an active and progressive path with a need for new and innovative strategies to be tried and tested to improve and inspire our pupils learning of ICT and the basic skills in both numeracy and literacy. We aim to ensure an innovative project where each partner country – Wales, Poland, Denmark and Italy - contributes valuable learning experiences that our pupils will enjoy and aspire from using as techniques to enhance their learning. Through working collaboratively together as schools teachers, schools, local schools and the wider community will benefit from sharing good practice and as practitioners, learning new techniques and strategies from each other to ensure more effective learning experiences for our pupils which will motivate our learners to learn and succeed at work in the 21st century. Working together we will allow us to strengthen the delivery of education on an European level.The aim of the project is to combine collaboration of expertise from around Europe with the use of ICT to develop our pupils into Global Citizens who are open-minded, critical thinkers who are not afraid of the challenges which they face in the 21st century, instead they face them with confidence. We aim to develop an open and innovative delivery of education in our schools for pupils between the ages of 3 – 11 year, which is embedded in the digital era. Our priority will be sharing and developing a program that addresses under-achievement in the basic skills of mathematics and literacy through more effective, innovative teaching methods which we will develop together. TThere are a variety of activities planned for the three years, but the main activities will ensure the following outcomes.Year 1 - Problem solving - By the end of the first year we will develop our pupils as independent mathematicians with strong problem-solving skills as we know how important problem-solving skills are for 21st century life and work. An end product will be a book on problem solving techniques to use, examples of problem solving questions and posters to help pupils solve problems independently. Year 2 - Reading - During year 2 we will tackle developing basic skills in reading. Reading is a basic skill that is essential for our pupils to learn to live and work effectively in the 21st century. They need to be independent readers who identify: why they are reading; what they want to get out of the material, and how thoroughly they need to understand it. The end product will be a collection of the pupils favourite short stories from each country. Year 3 – Oracy – develping critical and open thinkers - We will use books to discuss issues and develop their roles as active and thoughtful global citizens. This will ensure that pupils develop to be critical thinkers through being taught how to create their own philosophical questions which they then explore together to open their minds so they can live interdependently in the 21st century and face any obstacles or challenges thrown at them in life by having an open mind and ability to discuss with appropriate vocabulary. This will allow pupils an opportunity to create their own philosophical story to promote thinking and discussion based on The Unicef Children's Right's Charter. The final product will include a published ibook of stories.The project will have a great impact not only on professional development our own schools, but also on local schools in the surrounding area and local authorities as we will share the practices with them. It will raise the quality of teaching and learning and impact on the future of our pupils by raising standards of attainment in basic skills as well as developing them as ethical and informed young Global Citizens. The long term benefits will be far reaching! The opportunities that our pupils will have faced will be invaluable to supporting them to become global citizens who realise their roles and responsibilities. It will also allow us to work collaboratively on an European level, becoming much more knowledgeable practitioners to impact on our pupils learning. The resources created and shared will be available to use and download for free on a hub, website and blogs and will therefore have impacted education.
The aim of the project was to combine collaboration of expertise from around Europe with the use of ICT to develop our pupils into Global Citizens who are open-minded, critical thinkers who are not afraid of the challenges which they face in the 21st century, instead they face them with confidence. We worked together to develop an open and innovative delivery of education in our schools for pupils between the ages of 3 – 11 year, which is embedded in the digital era. Our priority was sharing and developing a program that addresses under-achievement in the basic skills of mathematics and literacy through more effective, innovative teaching methods which we will develop together. Five partner countries participated in the project and each country did at least 18 mobilities and sent at least two partners to each project meeting. Our objectives were reached as all activities planned enabled us to develop pupils' motivation and inspire them to develop in the basic skills for future employment and to recognise their roles and responsibilities as Global Citiizens. Through the project they developed a variety of essential skills; literacy; numeracy; ICT; communication, peer development, decision making and critical thinking. The range of activities planned broadened the learning opportunities for our pupils whist providing both students and staff opportunities to develop and learn new methodologies and teaching strategies, giving opportunities to learn best from each other new and innovative teaching strategies for an effective curriculum to motivate our learners to support them in the future when working. In the first year we focused on Problem solving. A teaching and training event took place in Denmark whereby our Danish co-ordinators trained us on innovative techniques to improve Mathematics of pupils. Following the training pupils worked on these new strategies, all schools developed 'active maths' and shared learning techniques and problem solving strategies to support and develop our pupils mathematical ability. By the end of the first year we had succeeded in the journey to developing our pupils as independent mathematicians with strategies to complete problems. A collection of mathematical questions were put together as an end product and posters created to help pupils solve mathematical problems. In the second year we focused on raising reading standards. We looked at the Pie Corbett technique to develop pupils vocabulary and interest in books and shared traditional tales getting pupils to create digital animations of these stories. We visited Poland and learnt more about their reading strategies and shared reading strategies together to implement back at our schools the ideas which would be most effective. From the activities pupils developed confidence and interest in becoming independent readers and began to identify: why they are reading; what they want to get out of the material, and how thoroughly they need to understand it. The end product was a digital animated video of the pupils favourite traditional tales re-told by the pupils. The final year of the project focused on develping critical and open thinkers. A training event was held in Wales where the UNICEF charter was looked at in detail and what it meant to be a Rights Respecting School. Training was given by Sue Lyle leading philosophy for Children co-ordinator and each partner country gained tools and strategies to implement philosophy for children successfully in their schools. All pupils gained an opportunity to develop to be critical thinkers through being taught how to create their own philosophical questions which they then explore together to open their minds so they can live interdependently in the 21st century and face any obstacles or challenges thrown at them in life by having an open mind and ability to discuss with appropriate vocabulary. Also the end product was a book written and illustrated by pupils from each partner school promoting a UNICEF right through a philosophical book. These books were shared in Poland at the final meeting for pupils to enjoy and read back at their schools. The longer term impact of the project will be sharing of good practise via our website to raise the quality of teaching and learning and impact on the future of our pupils by raising standards of attainment in basic skills as well as developing them as ethical and informed young Global Citizens. All resources created and shared are available to use and download for free on our partner website inspire2motivate.org Also the opportunities that our pupils will have faced will be invaluable to supporting them to become global citizens who realise their roles and responsibilities. It will also allow us to work collaboratively on an European level, becoming much more knowledgeable practitioners to impact on our pupils learning.