The partner countries of Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia all share the experience of teaching English as a foreign language within their schools and have identified common areas of difficulty or similar challenges to be overcome when trying to motivate their pupils and make the most of the language learning opportunities that they have. The Finnish school is the only entirely bilingual setting among the partners (their staff is comprised of English native speakers and Finns with excellent English skills) and their experience in this area makes them well suited to coordinate such a project One of the main challenges faced by the teachers of English in the partner countries is the limited amount of time they have with their pupils each week. They want to be able to maximise the language learning taking place whilst extending the language learning past the end of their lesson time and encouraging the children to play with and experience English independently outside of the ‘classroom’. The teachers in the partner schools also want to make their classes significantly more inclusive without lowering the level for high-ability pupils. Therefore, it can be said that the overall aim of the project is to raise the level of English language learning happening within our schools. We will achieve this through the production of innovative teaching materials and learning resources designed to facilitate communication and play as well as increasing the visibility of English within the partner schools. Providing the children with the tools to play with and expand on their English language skills independently will lead to the creation of more independent learners whose confidence with and motivation towards learning English increases as a direct result. By exposing them to the cultures and children of other countries we will develop both their intercultural awareness and their appreciation for their own cultural backgrounds. Teachers will benefit from having access to materials specifically designed to help them teach English as well as a network of support from fellow educators across the partner organisations. It is hoped that via the eTwinning platform bilateral partnerships will develop that will outlast the duration of the project and allow for the continuation of the work begun during its lifetime. The resources produced during the project will include teaching materials (storybooks, scripts, songs, flashcards, lesson plans etc.), free play resources (puppets, masks, games, costume ideas etc.), display material for their classroom and school (banners, posters, vocabulary displays etc.), tools for observation (videos, observation sheets, survey forms for staff and pupils etc.) along with two training events for staff. These training events will be held in Finland and Portugal with a focus on ‘Learning through play, sensory development and outdoor education’ and ‘Early literacy and storybooks’ respectively. The schools’ wider communities will benefit from taking part in both project activities and dissemination work. Parents and families will be invited to become more involved in their children’s education and their collaboration will be key to the success of the project. The final results of the project, and indeed the resources and materials themselves, will be shared with other schools and institutions in each of the partner countries with the aim of spreading awareness of the project’s work and allowing more teachers to have access to the tools created. Regular feedback from the staff involved in the project will be crucial to ensuring the resources developed are as suitable and effective as they can be. Taking staff actively involved in the project work to the transnational meetings will allow this vital information sharing to take place. Teachers from all of the partner countries will be involved in the planning, designing and creation of the resources and tools based on their individual areas of expertise and experience.
The Playing Ever After project was created with the objective of improving the acquisition of language skills and competences within the four partner schools through the creation of a series of stories in English. Prior to the project, the main challenge faced by the teachers in the partner schools in Portugal, Slovenia and The Netherlands was the limited time available to them to teach English; which meant progress was often slow and motivation to learn was difficult to build upon. As the only bilingual school, the partner in Finland was going to coordinate the project and share their experience in teaching English while incorporating the methodology of ‘Learning Through Play’. To try and combat this, we created four story books over the course of the project featuring four monster characters, one from each of the partner countries and designed by the children in that particular school. Each book took place in one of the partner countries, with a specific linguistic focus. These stories were accompanied by lesson plans and activities geared towards encouraging both teacher-led structured learning in the classroom and the spontaneous use of English during free play. Ranging from plays that could be performed by teachers or children along with specially written songs to accompany them to the creation of dedicated English Learning Areas in each of the partner schools where children were encouraged to play in English with resources linked to the content of the stories. All of the created resources are available on Dropbox via links from the books themselves and our project blog. The stories were written and lesson plans created at transnational project meetings where teachers from all of the partner schools could work together to create resources that would be as widely appropriate as possible. These meetings also allowed visiting teachers the chance to experience differing systems of education and all have taken elements of the systems they have observed back to the schools in which they work and applied their observations to their teaching. We also held training events alongside two of the transnational project meetings, where participants were able to develop their skills in the areas of ‘Learning Through Play’, ‘Sensory Learning’ and ‘Outdoor Education’ in Finland and ‘Storytelling', 'The use of Storybooks in Early Education’ and ‘The creation of English Language Areas’ in Portugal. The project so far has had a huge impact on the motivation of our pupils to communicate more in English and to use English in free play both because of the change of setting (the creation of dedicated English Learning Areas in each of our schools) as well as a change of methodology. The outcomes have far exceeded our expectations in this regard. Even in the Finnish school, where English was already used throughout the school day, there has been an increase in interest thanks to the stories and resources created. Over the course of the project the teachers have observed the children in their classrooms and noted the development of their interest in and connection with the stories. We have also asked parents for their own observations of how their child’s attitude towards speaking English may have changed in the last two years. In many cases, parents reported hearing their children playing in English at home, something which rarely ever happened prior to the project. With this comprehensive set of story-based materials, Playing Ever After is now a toolkit that we feel any primary school could use for teaching English with ready made materials that teachers could easily implement in their teaching. We have already shared our success and the underlying methodology with other schools and educational professionals on both local and national levels via social media - our blog and Facebook page, interviews by the press both in print and on television and speaking about the project at international educational events (such as APPI in Portugal) which we hope will encourage other schools to start their own international projects, starting with simple ideas like our own, which could have a great impact on pupils, teachers, parents and everyone involved. The project will also be presented at an Erasmus+ contact seminar in September 2019 and at an IATEFL webinar in October 2019. In the hopes of building on the successes and impact of this project within our schools, three of the partners applied for a KA229 - School Exchange Partnership to allow them to conduct training events in each country where the methodology and resources could be shared in more detail as well as creating additional stories to add to the pre-existing collection which would provide new and exciting resources for the partner schools to implement into their teaching.This project has been approved and while no longer funded as a participant, the Slovenian partner school fully intends to continue using the stories and resources created in the years to come.