The project name STALWARTS stands for ‘Sustaining Teachers And Learners With the Arts’. The subtitle of the project is ‘Relational Health in European Schools’. The STALWARTS project will operate in 5 European countries: Estonia, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and the UK. It is a cross- sectoral project that involves a University and a school working in partnership together in each country. The group of schools comprises one residential special school, two 'second chance' schools and two mainstream schools that ‘prioritise inclusive practice’. The diversity of classrooms, educational settings and European regions represented will enrich the experiences of and learning from this inter-professional development project. The STALWARTS project aims to promote relational health in schools. It builds upon the achievements of the current complementary LINK project (Learning in a New Key) through facilitating collaboration and learning between teachers and music and other creative arts therapists to support vulnerable young people in their transitions into learning. The STALWARTS methodology is based on UNCRC principles that encourage teachers and therapists to investigate the impact of sensory and relational aspects of music and arts experiences on the executive functions of the brain and to explore creative activities that support the development of positive attachments to which vulnerable young people have a right. Through the STALWARTS training programme teachers engage themselves in collaborative music making with the young people while conducting classroom enquiries that draw on observable physiological phenomena. It is through the development of such evidence bases that the promotion of young people’s relational health in the school context becomes recognised as a concern that teachers can address. In this emerging field of interest, practice-based evidence from the STALWARTS project will support shared reflections between teachers and therapists in a way that helps both groups to find synergies between their different professional ways of working. Through discussions like these the LINK project teachers have been developing new knowledge, understandings, skills and ways of being that support them to become music/arts-based therapeutic teaching practitioners. During the STALWARTS project these methodologies and classroom enquiries will be incorporated into new accredited university study programmes. Thus the first STALWARTS objective will be to transform these professional learning experiences into learning outcomes for new Masters level modules in therapeutic teaching practice so as to accredit teachers’ enhanced competences in this field. A common Post Graduate Certificate in ‘Relational Health in European Schools through Music and the Arts’ will be accredited in each of the 5 participating Universities and will recruit teachers and other professionals working in the 5 partner schools during the second year of the programme. The new accredited training programme will be supported by 2 significant resources that will be developed as part of the STALWARTS project. The first, a set of guidelines called ‘A Framework for Impact Studies’ includes guidance on how to conduct small scale classroom enquiries in this new field. It also reports on a significant number of new classroom enquiries emerging from the STALWARTS project relevant to the theme of relational health in European schools. The second document ‘Relational Health in Schools in Context’ provides a European-wide policy context for these initiatives. It is anticipated that the main beneficiaries will be vulnerable young people within the classes of the teachers who will engage in the university-based study programmes. Some will have had adverse childhood experiences that will have resulted in developmental trauma that is not restored or repaired through the prevalent behaviourist approaches of many schools. It is intended that the teachers of such vulnerable children who comprise up to 15% of general school populations in Europe, will have accredited professional recognition for the enhanced competences that underpin their therapeutic teaching practices and be respected for their capacities to incorporate dimensions of relational health into their new educational rationales. It is anticipated that these measures will enhance the learning experience of this vulnerable group of young people and be recognised as contributing to the wider European project 'reducing early leaving from education and training'.
STALWARTS, standing for Sustaining Teachers and Learners With The Arts, was an innovative cross-sectoral higher education project based in 5 European countries: Estonia, Italy, Norway, Portugal and the UK. It brought together 3 inter-disciplinary/professional groups: school-based teachers and educators; creative arts therapists/trainers and university staff. The teachers and educators were drawn from 5 different contexts: one residential special school; one ‘second chance’ school; one ‘production’ school and two mainstream schools that specifically prioritise inclusive educational practice. National partnerships were established between the schools and their local universities involving creative arts therapists, researchers and specialists in inclusive educational practice and music education. STALWARTS built on the achievements of the previously Erasmus+ funded project LINK, standing for Learning in a New Key. As with LINK the main aim was to use more music and the arts to support vulnerable children and young people in the classroom. Three of the 5 national partnerships had been well-established during the LINK project; 2 new partnerships extended the involvement of professionals across all three groups. As in LINK there was much collaborative sharing of experiences and knowledge during the practical workshops and training sessions. New to STALWARTS was the main shift in focus to the higher education context. Here the practical experiences, the developed competences and knowledge base from LINK were transformed into learning outcomes for the setting-up of new Master’s level modules. The successful creation of these accredited modules became the main focus of the first intellectual output of STALWARTS. Teachers and educators in the 5 partner schools and one associate partner enrolled on these new modules: 66 on the first and 58 on the second, with 70 and 40 attendees at ‘trial’ days in one country – a reach of potential impact across 124 (+110) educators. The project’s second main Intellectual Output is: ‘A Framework for Impact Studies.’ This output includes comprehensive guidelines on the planning, implementation and evaluation of small-scale classroom-based enquiries (impact studies) in this innovative field of therapeutically-informed teaching practice. 35 enquiries were conducted by the teachers and educators in the 5 schools during the first year; 86 during the second, as part of the university modules. Another new initiative in STALWARTS was the introduction of theoretical underpinning and relevant measures relating to the impact of music and the arts on affective and cognitive function using a neuroscience-informed approach. The strapline for the STALWARTS project was ‘Relational Health in Schools,’ with the intended impact of embedding policy in learning and practice. Hence, the main target group for the whole partnership was those children and young people affected by adverse life conditions, including early childhood trauma. This related to the project’s third main Intellectual Output: ‘Relational Health in Schools in Context.’ This resource for the modules includes relevant national policy documents and theoretical contexts for promoting relational health and wellbeing in European schools and with an objective to reduce ELET (Early Leaving from Education and Training). There was reference throughout STALWARTS to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in safeguarding young people’s entitlements to music and arts experiences. The three inter-disciplinary and inter-professional groups worked collaboratively within their own national partnerships and at 5-day Joint Staff Training Events for all participating members of the project; 22 participants at the first and 31 at the second (29 for all 5 days). This on-going collaboration exemplifies the Participatory Action Research (PAR) over-arching methodology of the project. 500 participants (338 with no connection to the project) attended Multiplier Events within each of the 5 countries when participants from the local partnerships presented results and materials from all three of the main IOs. These events spread the reach of STALWARTS locally, regionally and nationally, with interest in the evolution of the project from regional and governmental agencies. The transnational project team met on four occasions during the duration of the project. There was one representative from each of the 5 universities, with the coordinator of the LINK project as consultant to the project team, to maintain continuity. Sustainability and further reach of STALWARTS is indicated by the number of publications and presentations – regionally, nationally and internationally - from participants during the project and being taken forward. Plans are in place to develop the modules as part of each university’s CPD portfolio and to extend the geographic reach of STALWARTS to other European countries, e.g. a future module run in Romania.