"Promoting Inclusion and Motivation Through Peer Support" is a school partnership involving four schools in Sweden, Scotland, Germany and The Netherlands. The aim is to address the barriers of learning which impede full participation in education. We have identified specific barriers at our schools being difficulties in transition between school levels, motivational issues, social exclusion and the lack of peer support. There are an increasing number of pupils not reaching their potential due to motivational, transitional and exclusive issues. We want to investigate how we can reduce these barriers so that more pupils reach success in life both on a social and educational level. We believe that when empowering pupils to understand and overcome these barriers they can act as mentors and support for their peers, thus we aim to develop a functional system of peer support and co-coaching. Within school, our primary objective is to assist pupils to perform the best of their ability, irrespective of social background or disability. Our project aims to address issues which affect all school age pupils with a specific focus on overcoming the problematic transition between school forms, countries and other issues teenagers deal with hindering them to perform in school. The pupils involved in the programme will be aged between 16-18, and each school has agreed to hold one international meeting which will involve workshops and interaction with pupils from other countries as well as organisations and outside parties working with inclusion and motivational issues. The participants will create hands-on activities to learn and implement the knowledge acquired. These activities will be summarized in e.g. leaflets and films displayed on each schools' web page and eTwinning to form the basis of the methodological toolkits which are part of the end products of this project. The project will be launched in September 2017. The official opening event will be held in Scotland in January 2018. Further visits are planned to September 2018 in the Netherlands, December 2018 in Germany and September 2019 in Sweden. Each school has agreed its role in the project by taking ownership of focus areas; Scotland will focus on transitional problems, Holland will focus on motivational problems using surveys and workshops to explore present situation and identify suitable solutions and activities. Germany will focus on peer support through workshops devoted to coaching and the use of peers to engage less able pupils and Sweden will focus on integrational activities through visiting organisations working with refugees and the creation of activities meant to reduce barriers between different groups at school, e.g. refugees or pupils not yet attending national programmes. As the aim is to fully utilise the pupil voice, another vital component of our project is to motivate and enthuse young people. There will therefore be considerable emphasis on the pupils themselves leading their learning using active learning approaches. The activities they have undertaken and the knowledge they have acquired within the learning/teaching/training activities will be presented and implemented in each school's curriculum and development plan and thus be implemented within the whole school. Through these transnational cooperations and visits we will enhance the pupils' linguistic and digital competences but also foster a greater understanding for and response to cultural diversity thus combating discrimination. This means will be reached through home hosting and social activities among other things. We envisage a more positive attitude towards the participating countries, towards the EU as well as equipping the pupils with self-awareness and self-esteem to facilitate inclusion and transition in the different social context they find themselves in. As a proof of the pupils' participation they will be given a Europass to acknowledge their in-service training. This project aims at developing the teachers' ability to meet the pupils' needs through workshops focusing on motivational and inclusive issues based on research within these fields. We will have seminars around academic papers and the learning outcomes will be used during pedagogical discussions at each establishment. Additionally this project aims to continue the work on creating a functional tracker model, inspired by Skills Development Scotland as a continuation of previous Erasmus+ project, where the aim is to see what happens with the pupils in and after school as well as evaluating which measurements need to be taken to help more pupils reach a positive destination. The success criteria of the project on completion will be to develop each school's development plan by using toolkits and peer support to raise the level of success when working with groups of pupils who face these motivational and exclusive dilemmas and to continue the work with outside stakeholders to jointly work for our youths.
"Promoting Inclusion and Motivation Through Peer Support" was an Ersamus+ project involving four schools in Sweden, Scotland, Germany and The Netherlands. There is an increasing number of pupils not reaching their potential due to motivational, transitional and exclusive issues. We have investigated how we can reduce these barriers by meeting different organisations and performing activities in each country before, during and after each mobility performed. We believe that when empowering pupils to understand and overcome these barriers they can act as mentors and support for their peers and reach success in life both on a social and educational level. We have developed a functional system of peer support and co-coaching fitting for our different school organisations as a result of this project. Within school, our primary objective is to assist pupils to perform the best of their ability, irrespective of social background or disability. Through the project, we have addressed issues that affect all school-age pupils with a specific focus on overcoming the problematic transition between school forms, the feeling of exclusion and other issues teenagers deal with hindering them to perform in school. The aim was to address the barriers of learning which impede full participation in education which were identified and we divided responsibility as follows: Trinity Academy led the work on transitional problems between primary and secondary school and the difficulties this can bring for some pupils and how to alleviate these; Gymnasium Beekvliet focused on motivational problems; Waldschule Schwanewede led the work on peer support through workshops devoted to coaching and the use of peers to engage less able pupils and Sandagymnasiet focused on integrational activities through visiting organisations working within this field and the creation of activities to be performed in these groups which were meant to reduce barriers between different groups at school, e.g. refugees or pupils not yet attending national programmes. The project was launched in September 2017. The official opening event was held in Scotland in January 2018. Further travels with pupils were completed in September 2018 in the Netherlands, January 2019 in Germany and September 2019 in Sweden. In between these were project meetings organised in each country to ensure the smooth procedure of the project. 20-30 pupils, aged 16-18 years, from each country were involved in the Learning/Teaching/Training activities, and each school has held one international meeting which has involved workshops and interaction with pupils from other countries as well as organisations and outside parties working with transitions, inclusion and motivational issues. The participants have created hands-on activities to learn and implement the knowledge acquired. These activities have been summarized in e.g. leaflets and films displayed on each school’s web page, our joint project web page and on eTwinning to function as methodological toolkits which are part of the end products of this project. As the aim was to fully utilise the pupil's voice, another vital component of our project was to motivate and enthuse young people. Therefore, considerable emphasis has been on the pupils themselves leading their learning using active learning approaches. The activities they have undertaken and the knowledge they have acquired within the project have been presented and, when feasible, implemented in each school's curriculum and development plan and thus have been implemented within the whole school. Through these transnational collaborations and visits, we have enhanced the pupils' linguistic and digital competences but also fostered a greater understanding for and response to cultural diversity thus combating discrimination. This has been reached through for example home hosting and social activities. We have witnessed a more positive attitude towards the participating countries, towards the EU as well as a noticeable change within the pupils as they are now better equipped with self-awareness and self-esteem to facilitate inclusion and transition in other social contexts, they will find themselves in, in the future. Alongside pupils’ activities, teachers involved in this project have discussed, faced and developed their ability to meet the pupils' needs through workshops focusing on motivational and inclusive issues based on research within these fields, lectures given by guest speakers and visits to organisations. The project has had an impact on our schools’ organisation through the implementation of peer support, buddy systems and cross- or extracurricular activities initiated. Our schools will benefit from this project on a longer-term through the critical approach to the existing value systems which were highlighted through various workshops and analyses performed on both local and international levels.