Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises the right to education of persons with disabilities. Education plays an important role in promoting the personal development of our pupils and is the basis for self-determined and active social participation. The project “Europe on a plate” is aimed at fostering social participation and equality of opportunity and at developing human resources. All of the three countries involved in the project consider education a lifelong process. The young people we work with are, despite their mental disability, able to learn and develop, and learning processes are possible for them throughout their lives. These are the main goals of the project: - Pupils practise organising and implementing a project. - Pupils strengthen their key competencies such as the willingness to learn and perform, creativity, resilience, openness, perseverance, concentration. - Pupils are motivated to actively shape their lifestyles and to acquire the skills that they need for entering a profession. - Pupils eat healthy. - Being in an intercultural community enables pupils to acquire the ability to stick to rules, to develop social skills and to experience being in that community as a stimulating learning opportunity. Achieving these goals will have a positive effect on pupils’ lives and on partner schools. The young people develop competencies such as the willingness to learn and perform, creativity and intercultural skills. Thanks to the project, pupils will understand themselves better in their living environment and be able to master future challenges of a European model more successfully. The pupils involved in the “Europe on a plate” project will learn how to eat more healthily and control their weight. They improve their mobility and their physical fitness. They learn how to cope with stress and disappointment, thereby also strengthening their sense of self-esteem. This can be achieved by teachers involved in the project reducing the complexity of Europe to action-oriented contents and methods in their teaching approach. The topic “Europe on a plate” addresses the basic need of “eating”, which is a motivating topic for all pupils throughout Europe. In terms of methodology, different worksheets and recipes at various levels of abstraction are developed and put to use (text, text-picture, picture) and pupils at the respective skill level can practise reading in a concrete situation, with the teachers demonstrating the action steps that need to be performed. The pupils’ joy in moving and physical activity will be stimulated by different excursions that offer motivating opportunities for physical activity. The expected results of the projects for pupils with a focus on “mental development” are mainly in the areas of knowledge acquisition and the development of communication skills. Pupils will go food shopping and prepare a meal together, thereby learning more about new food products and methods of processing them. The outcome of the practical activities will be a buffet. In addition to healthy nutrition, physical activity and fitness will also play an important role during the entire project. In the field of communication, pupils will broaden their vocabulary and will have the opportunity to actively use it abroad. Simple words of welcome and rules of politeness will be applied in Portuguese, English and German language. This will boost the self-confidence of our young pupils. The final products of our project will be a cooking book, an image film, t-shirts and ceramic bowls carrying the project logo. The most important potential long-term benefit will be for the European idea and concept to remain present at the schools even after the end of the project. Through the experiences and memories that were made during the project, the knowledge about the European Union and the opportunities and possibilities the EU offers will stick in the minds of both pupils and teachers.
Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises the right to education of persons with disabilities. Education plays an important role in promoting the personal development of our pupils and is the basis for self-determined and active social participation. The project “Europe on a plate” was aimed at fostering social participation and equality of opportunity and at developing human resources. All of the three countries involved in the project consider education a lifelong process. The young people we work with are, despite their mental disability, able to learn and develop, and learning processes are possible for them throughout their lives. These were the main goals of the project: - Pupils practise organising and implementing a project. - Pupils strengthen their key competencies such as the willingness to learn and perform, creativity, resilience, openness, perseverance, concentration. - Pupils are motivated to actively shape their lifestyles and to acquire the skills that they need for entering a profession. - Pupils eat healthy. - Being in an intercultural community enables pupils to acquire the ability to stick to rules, to develop social skills and to experience being in that community as a stimulating learning opportunity. Achieving these goals had a positive effect on pupils’ lives and on partner schools. The young people developed competencies such as the willingness to learn and perform, creativity and intercultural skills. Thanks to the project, pupils understood themselves better in their living environment and be able to master future challenges of a European model more successfully. The pupils involved in the “Europe on a plate” project learned how to eat more healthily and control their weight. They improved their mobility and their physical fitness. They learned how to cope with stress and disappointment, thereby also strengthening their sense of self-esteem. This has been achieved by teachers involved in the project reducing the complexity of Europe to action-oriented contents and methods in their teaching approach. The topic “Europe on a plate” addressed the basic need of “eating”, which is a motivating topic for all pupils throughout Europe. In terms of methodology, different worksheets and recipes at various levels of abstraction was developed and put to use (text, text-picture, picture) and pupils at the respective skill level could practice reading in a concrete situation, with the teachers demonstrated the action steps that need to be performed. The pupils’ joy in moving and physical activity was stimulated by different excursions that offer motivating opportunities for physical activity. The expected results of the projects for pupils with a focus on “mental development” are mainly in the areas of knowledge acquisition and the development of communication skills. Pupils went food shopping and prepared a meal together, thereby learned more about new food products and methods of processing them. The outcome of the practical activities was a buffet. In addition to healthy nutrition, physical activity and fitness were also important roles during the entire project. In the field of communication, pupils expanded their vocabulary and had the opportunity to actively use it abroad. Simple words of welcome and rules of politeness were applied in Portuguese, English and German language. This increased the self-confidence of our young pupils. The final products of our project are a cooking book and an image film.