21st century EU schools are becoming increasingly diverse. Educators need to have tools which offer a comprehensive and high quality education to these heterogeneous students, while attending the particular needs of each child. The goal of this strategic partnership is, through the exchange of good practices, to strengthen the competences of teachers and other agents in the educational community to favour inclusion and a positive environment, which allows an optimal level of learning and an integral development of students. “Tolerance and quality inclusive education in school” is a 2-year strategic partnership which will train 18 participants from the education community of 2 Schools: Svete Elementary School (Latvia) and Warsaw Montessori School (Poland) and a non-formal educational NGO, Permacultura Cantabria (Spain). The project was designed based on a previous diagnostic study of each entity. Thus, the 4 main goals of the project and the activities needed to achieve them, were established. Main objectives. At the end of the project, participants can expect to have: 1.Exchanged good practices to promote inclusion and interculturality in the classroom. 2.Improved the quality of their teaching methods in maths, natural sciences and literacy. 3.Acquired new tools (emotional management and playful teaching) to deal with disruptive behaviors in the classroom and other barriers to learning. 4.Learned new tools to promote digital learning and linguistic diversity among their students. Main activities: (a) The realisation of 2 on-site transnational meetings (Poland and Spain), in which 2 representatives of the participating entities will review the working plan and evaluate the current state of the project. (b) Three learning activities: b.1.) The first will be a 3-day participatory visit to the Svete Elementary School, in which 2 representatives from each entity will learn about how the classroom functions, its best practices with regards to inclusion and interculturality, linguistic diversity and ITCs. In addition, the Warsaw Montessori School will offer a conference titled "Strategies to address underachievement in maths, science and literacy through the Montessori Method". Permacultura Cantabria will offer a conference "Playful teaching: how to resolve conflicts through connection and play", addressed to the entire educational community (including families). b.2) During the second 3-day visit, 2 representatives of each partner entity will observe the operation of the Warsaw Montessori School. In addition, the Svete Elementary School will offer a talk on good practices related to inclusion and interculturality, linguistic diversity and ITCs. P. Cantabria will offer a lecture on Emotional Management to teachers. b.3) A 10-day course in Spain attended by 6 representatives of the educational community from each entity. The methodology of the course will combine presentations by experts and relevant agents of the education system, non-formal learning techniques and exchanges of good practices. The content will be divided into the following modules (M) and visits (V): M1. Montessori Pedagogy (1st day: maths, 2nd day: natural sciences, 3rd day: literacy); M2. Education and ICTs (1 day); M3. Inclusion and interculturality (1 day); M4. Emotional Management and Playful teaching (3 days); M5.Future collaborations and development of new projects (1 day). V1 and V2: 2 visits to reference schools in Cantabria, Spain (1 day). In order to ensure that the learning outcomes reach all members of the educational community, an internal workshop will be carried out at each of the entities. It will highlight a summary of practices exchanged and lessons learned. To implement some of the acquired skills and tools, a series of work commissions will be created. This will allow members of the educational community who wish to decide, evaluate and collaborate in the implementation of various practices to improve the quality of education, in each center The expected results are a better formation of the educational agents of the 3 participating institutions, enabling an improvement in their quality of teaching. They will see their teaching capacities strengthened in mathematics, science, language, ICTs; as well as their competencies for emotional management, diversity, interculturality, inclusion and conflict resolution. The impact will be reflected in better academic results and greater inclusion of the heterogeneous students who learn in the 3 institutions, a better classroom environment and a greater satisfaction of the educational community The project and its results seek to inspire other EU educational institutions with similar needs, with an outreach campaign, including different Erasmus+ platforms and social networks. After the completion of the project the 3 entities will keep collaborating in the framework of a transnational network of organizations interestested in emotional education (EuroMotional).
In 21st century EU schools are becoming increasingly diverse. Educators need to have tools which offer a comprehensive and high quality education to these heterogeneous students, while attending the particular needs of each child. The goal of this strategic partnership is, through the exchange of good practices, to strengthen the competences of teachers and other agents in the educational community to favor inclusion and a positive environment, which allows an optimal level of learning and an integral development of students. “Tolerance and quality inclusive education in school” is a 2-year strategic partnership which directly trained 26 participants from the education community of 2 Schools: Svete Primary School (Latvia) and Warsaw Montessori School (Poland) and a non-formal educational NGO, Permacultura Cantabria (Spain). The project was designed based on a previous diagnostic study of each entity. Thus, the 4 main goals of the project and the activities needed to achieve them, were established. At the end of the project, participants had: - exchanged good practices to promote inclusion and interculturality in the classroom; - improved the quality of their teaching methods in maths, natural sciences and literacy; - acquired new tools (emotional management and playful teaching) to deal with disruptive behaviors in the classroom and other barriers to learning; - learned new tools to promote digital learning and linguistic diversity among their students. Activities included the realization of 2 transnational meetings in which 2 representatives of the participating entities reviewed the working plan and evaluated the current state of the project. The kick off meeting was carried out in Latvia but it was not possible to travel to Spain for the final meeting due to COVID19 crisis, so the partners decided to have a virtual final meeting instead. The following three learning activities were meeting the project goals: - On March 26-28, 2019, a participatory visit to Warsaw Montessori School in Poland was successfully implemented. The main objective of the visit was learning first-hand the Montessori philosophy and teaching methods. We also took the chance to share our main best practices and know each other better. Spanish and Latvian participants offered a workshop that was attended by Polish educational community. - On May 8-10, 2019, a participatory visit to Svēte Primary School in Latvia was successfully implemented. Main objective of the visit was to share good educational practices to support and monitor the children's development, taking advantage of all the resources that school offers. In addition, our partners presented to teachers the good practices carried out by their organisation. - On 28 June-6 July, 2019, an 8-day training course was carried out in Cantabria, Spain. Aim of the course was to improve the educational competencies of the participants by receiving formation in the Montessori Pedagogy, emotional management and learning spaces. The partners, according with the final participant’s needs, agreed to focus on math teaching through the Montessori method, and the application of emotional management to specific problems arising in the school classroom. In order to ensure that the learning outcomes reach all members of the educational community, an internal workshop was carried out at each of the entities. It highlighted a summary of practices exchanged and lessons learned. To implement some of the acquired skills and tools, a series of work commissions were created in the schools. This allowed members of the educational community who wish to decide, evaluate and collaborate in the implementation of various practices to improve the quality of education, in each educational institution. To summarize the work done in the commissions, the inclusion policy of each school was reviewed and changes were gathered in a specific regulation that will be annually updated. Other project results were: a better formation of the educational agents of the 3 participating institutions, enabling an improvement in their quality of teaching. They saw their teaching capacities strengthened in mathematics, science, language, ICTs; as well as their competencies for emotional management, diversity, interculturality, inclusion and conflict resolution. As project impacts, the partnership expect better academic results and greater inclusion of the heterogeneous students who learn in the 3 institutions in the short and long term, as well as a better classroom environment and a greater satisfaction of the educational community. Through the intensive dissemination campaign of the project results, the partnership sought to inspire other EU educational institutions with similar needs. After the completion of the project the 3 entities keep collaborating in the framework of a transnational network of organizations interested in emotional education (EuroMotional).