Title: PACT- Partnerships Achieving Communities Tackling early school leaving. Community-based efforts make up the scope of this project as a way to create inclusive models for schools and communities. This is in the context of the EU2020 headline target to reduce early school leaving in 18-24 year olds to 10 % across the EU. This target ultimately led to an EU Council Recommendation (2011) on early school leaving. The Council Recommendation, together with the Council Conclusions (2015) and a number of related EU Commission documents on early school leaving, child poverty and social inclusion (2011, 2011a, 2013, 2013a, 2015), form the basic overarching framework for early school leaving prevention in general, and also led to particular attention on inclusive systems in and around education. European cities share a focus on neighborhoods which are characterized by unstable demographic development, social tensions among ethnic groups and a challenged public service due to limited economic funds and fast changing public needs. Research shows how these factors influence everyday well-being for families, and this has a proven impact on the learning situations for children and increases the risk of early school leaving. The activities and outputs of this project will concern itself with three factors: 1. The development of a student- to- student mentorsship method to support talented students in at-risk conditions 2. Promoting active participation of parents and communities, as well as after -school activities, as the resources needed to promote well-being conditions in and around the educational institutions and 3. reports and video material to describe methods for community –based home-work programs with parents for students. The impact of PACT will begin to address that which is needed; flexible models for community collaborations in and around schools to motivate learning and tackle early school leaving. The complexities of the contexts concerning factors for ESL are larger than what the traditional mandate of educational institutions alone can do something about. EU policy documents describe ten key principles for inclusive education which is a main thematic context for this project. The Nordpolen primary school will develop activities to promote student identity and belonging and activities will be integrated into the school as a center for the neighborhood together with parents. In Riga, there are targeted efforts to meet the children’s emotional and cognitive needs early within the primary schools. The models for support aim to empower students through targeted municipal resources within the schools easily accessible for the teachers and a renewal of how the arts, crafts and ethics in after-school activities can play a part in implementing policies for what is called virture education. In Rotterdam, the targeted efforts will focus on “student- to-student mentorship” in the upper school levels, and are established in collaboration with the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Our project PACT, will explore how the public services, schools, NGOs, parents and children experience how to act as the “village” for children. The project will assess what structures for collaborations must be in place to allow successful outcomes for the well-being of families and improved learning results for children in fast changing European communities. The development of these practices are methods to the implementation of indicators from the publication; “ Structural Indicators for Inclusive Systems in and around Schools”(Downes, P.; Nairz-Wirth, E.; Rusinaitė, V., Structural Indicators for Inclusive Systems in and around Schools, NESET II report, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2017. Doi: 10.2766/200506.) ....inclusive systems in and around schools, concentrates on supportive, quality learning environments, on welcoming and caring schools and classrooms, and on preventing discrimination. It addresses the needs of students in a holistic way (their emotional, physical, cognitive and social needs), and recognizes their individual talents and voices. It is open to the voices and active participation of parents, and also wider multidisciplinary teams and agencies. Inclusive systems in and around schools particularly focus on the differentiated needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups, including those at risk of early school leaving and alienation from society. The practitioners and community particpation in the project will bring forth nuances for expert’s assessments and methods. The target groups will function as a reference team for experts as, as well as for the practitioners. The methods developed will have transnational transferrable knowledge. This will be qualified by the use of a specific format for each transnational meeting and workshops. The long term impact is hope for increased community participation and possibilites for social inclusion and a sense of belonging.
Title: PACT- Partnerships Achieving Communities Tackling early school leaving. Background: Community-based efforts make up the scope of this project as a way to create inclusive models for schools and communities. This is in the context of the EU2020 headline target to reduce early school leaving in 18-24 year olds to 10 % across the EU. This target ultimately led to an EU Council Recommendation (2011) on early school leaving. The Council Recommendation, together with the Council Conclusions (2015) and a number of related EU Commission documents on early school leaving, child poverty and social inclusion (2011, 2011a, 2013, 2013a, 2015), formed the basic overarching framework for early school leaving prevention in general, and also led to particular attention on inclusive systems in and around education. European cities share a focus on neighborhoods which are characterized by unstable demographic development, social tensions among ethnic groups and a challenged public services due to limited economic funds and fast changing public needs. Research shows how these factors influence everyday well-being for families, and this has a proven impact on the learning situations for children and increases the risk of early school leaving. The complexities of the contexts concerning factors for ESL are larger than what the traditional mandate of educational institutions alone can do something about. The inspiration behind creating the PACT- project was to develop new methods for increasing students well being and motivation in order to prevent early school leaving. Results: The activities and results in this project were: 1. The development of a student- to- student mentorship method to support talented students in at-risk conditions 2. A development of vitue education and after school-program 3. Report and video material to describe methods for community based homework programs The Nordpolen primary school developed activities to promote student identity and belonging, and these activities wiere integrated into the school as a center for the neighborhood together with parents. In Riga, there were targeted efforts to meet the children’s emotional and cognitive needs early within the primary schools. The models for support aimed to empower students through targeted municipal resources within the schools easily accessible for the teachers and a renewal of how the arts, crafts and ethics in after-school activities play a part in implementing policies for what is called virture education. These effeorts led to the development of different moduls in a virtue education program. In Rotterdam, the targeted efforts focused on “student- to-student mentorship” in the upper school levels that was established in collaboration with the Erasmus University Rotterdam. These efforts led to the development of a mentor program. The purpose with PACT was establishing flexible models for community collaborations in and around schools to motivate learning and tackle early school leaving. PACT addresses the needs of students in a holistic way (their emotional, physical, cognitive and social needs), and recognizes their individual talents and voices. Inclusive systems in and around schools particularly focus on the differentiated needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups, including those at risk of early school leaving and alienation from society. The practitioners and community particpation in the project can bring forth nuances for expert’s assessments and methods. The methods developed can have transnational transferrable knowledge. The long term impact is hope for increased community participation and possibilites for social inclusion and a sense of belonging.