According to the Eurydice Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Europe 2014 report, 25 % of children under the age of six in the EU are at risk of poverty or exclusion. This number is likely to become higher with the current influx of refugees into Europe. To reach the aim of 95 % attendance for ECEC set out by the European Commission’s Strategic Framework for Education and Training 2020, we must develop and strengthen capacities to meet the extra demands of this vulnerable group. Family and community engagement is a necessary component in any strategy to tackle this challenge. As highlighted by the OECD report on Encouraging Quality in ECEC, strengthening links between ECEC programs and community services is an effective way to engage with disadvantaged groups. Through already established contact and cultural sensitivity they are valuable partners in developing and implementing strategies to improve attendance and quality. Furthermore, evidence suggests that family engagement is key when addressing exclusion. The cognitive and socioemotional skills necessary for achieving success in schools are developed before children enter the formal pre-school environments. Enriching family environments for disadvantaged children will proactively improve the possibilities for them to succeed (Heckman 2008) Therefore, the project will go into detail on the possibilities of cooperation among informal education settings with the pre-schools aiming to support the inclusion of children from socially disadvantaged or culturally different environments. The project builds on the outputs of the Strategic Partnership implemented in 2014-2016 focused on the support of social and emotional competencies of pre-school children. The goal of the current project is to draw out innovative recommendations based on the best practices in partner countries on how they work with families and children from socioeconomically disadvantaged or culturally different environments such as migrant and Roma families, in order to prepare children to enter formal education and sustain. Accordingly the project is intended to prevent early school leaving (ESL) through engaging with socially and economically disadvantaged children at an early stage. In cooperation with partner organizations from five EU countries, the project will identify the main activities, methods, programs and strategies that are currently used to support pre-school children and parents at risk of social exclusion. In order to facilitate effective exchange of best practices, a platform will be created, which will work on the selection of the methods, which proved to be successful and compile innovative inclusive practices to be used by the informal and formal education settings across the EU. The project will start with data collection in partner countries focusing on the specific tools and strategies employed in various settings in which our partner organizations operate. This will be done through a survey conducted by partner organizations and other relevant stakeholders. Additionally, the partner organizations will submit independent reports where their practices will be thoroughly described. Based on the data collected, the most effective elements and components of each strategy will be used to put together a set of best practices and develop a new inclusive approach to education of children at risk of social exclusion. Gathering of best practices in different countries and different domains of partners will enable to developed new or improved practices to cater for the needs of children from disadvantaged environments. Subsequently, training program for pedagogical as well as non-pedagogical personnel (45 in total) will be implemented for participants from every partner country in order to facilitate an effective exchange of best practices. Piloting stage of the project (15 non formal educational settings in partner countries, involving approx. 120 children and parents) will provide information on the transferability of evidence based practice into different cultural environment. As a result a Good Practice Guide for effective inclusive ECEC will be compiled describing the methods and strategies of involving children and parents from disadvantaged environments into mainstream education and the conditions needed for their implementation. Furthermore, if will elaborate on the possibilities of cooperation between non formal educators and pre-schools in supporting equal access for all children and preventing their drop out from school. The identification and exchange of best practices will equip organizations and professionals with new methods and a larger toolbox to tackle issues surrounding socially disadvantaged children. A strengthened cooperation and coordination among stakeholders such as families, pre-schools and informal educators is paramount to achieve a higher quality ECEC and to identify and support vulnerable cases at an early stage.
According to the Eurydice Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Europe 2014 report, 25 % of children under the age of six in the EU are at risk of poverty or exclusion. This number is likely to become higher with the current influx of refugees into Europe. To reach the aim of 95 % attendance for ECEC set out by the European Commission’s Strategic Framework for Education and Training 2020, we must develop and strengthen capacities to meet the extra demands of this vulnerable group. Family and community engagement is a necessary component in any strategy to tackle this challenge. As highlighted by the OECD report on Encouraging Quality in ECEC, strengthening links between ECEC programs and community services is an effective way to engage with disadvantaged groups. Through already established contact and cultural sensitivity they are valuable partners in developing and implementing strategies to improve attendance and quality. Therefore, this project focused on the possibilities of cooperation among informal education settings with the pre-schools aiming to support the inclusion of children from socially disadvantaged or culturally different environments. The project built on the outputs of the Strategic Partnership implemented in 2014-2016 focused on the support of social and emotional competencies of pre-school children. The goal of this project was to draw out innovative recommendations based on the best practices in partner countries on how they work with families and children from socioeconomically disadvantaged or culturally different environments, such as migrant and Roma families, in order to prepare children to enter formal education. The project also intended to prevent early school leaving (ESL) through engaging with socially and economically disadvantaged children at an early stage. This project was carried out by six partner organisations, each of which has rich experience in areas related to formal and/or informal education. Partners first conducted research into the current policies regarding ECEC in their respective countries (IO1), and then identified examples of successful inclusive strategies applied in their countries (IO2). Subsequently, training program for pedagogical as well as non-pedagogical personnel was implemented for participants from every partner country in order to facilitate an effective exchange of best practices. The practitioners were able to gather information on the methods and strategies used by various organisations in partner countries and bring this information back to pilot in their professional environments. The identification and exchange of best practices equipped organisations and professionals with new methods and a larger toolbox to tackle issues surrounding socially disadvantaged children. A strengthened cooperation and coordination among stakeholders such as families, pre-schools and informal educators is paramount to achieve a higher quality ECEC and to identify and support vulnerable cases at an early stage. Finally, a Good Practice Guide for effective inclusive ECEC was compiled describing the methods and strategies of involving children and parents from disadvantaged environments into mainstream education and the conditions needed for their implementation (IO3). The intellectual outputs were achieved successfully and were disseminated among the partners' broad network of contacts. In particular, the Good Practice Guide for effective inclusive ECEC (IO3) was translated into partner countries' languages (English, Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Swedish) and was printed out in 500 copies per partner to be distributed among relevant stakeholders and the general public with an interest in the topic. It was also planned that a large international conference would take place in Prague in May 2020. However, this was made impossible by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the partners organised an online conference instead, and are further working on dissemination of the results in order to ensure far-reaching and long-term impact of the project.