The Idães Consortium of schools has invested in pedagogical differentiation and in the school's internationalization. It is also involved in the national project "Flexible Curriculum", whose main theme is “The Romanesque Style”. So, we looked for European partners (Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy) that would enrich the project with their cultural, historical and social heritage, as a key element in the education and integration. The Project “ACHIEVE+" is supposed to become an important tool to create and share practices to improve educational success. In order to achieve this main goal, the partners have set intermediate objectives: increase knowledge about cultural heritage diversity; develop social and intercultural competences; develop competences in English, foreign languages; develop IT competences. We intend to achieve the aims in cooperation with all partner schools. The methods and techniques of working in the project are interesting and innovative for students and for teachers. The work in the project is provided through integrated approaches and is incorporated into partners’ school programme, according to the project plan. 3000 students (aged 10-14) and 300 teachers (all subjects) will participate in the project. We are focusing especially on pupils with learning difficulties, social and economic obstacles and immigrants' children from all partners' schools. They will take part in project activities which are included into regular classes and have some extra classes – drama, language, IT, intercultural. They will take part in evaluating actions and tasks: questionnaires, quizzes and discussions. During mobilities, students will cooperate in international groups, and all the other activities will be held with national groups of students. With the implementation of the tasks, relations between national and international stakeholders will be increased. New synergies will be developed between school and community and add value to promote citizens of the 21st century skills. By developing the project and creating outcomes, participants will increase their competences, motivation and satisfaction in school work. Consequently, students will be more involved on their learning process and their academic results will improve. We are planning six transnational project meetings to provide management trainings and exchange of good practices in the field of teaching and learning to use innovative methods and techniques. Teachers will practise English, will improve IT skills and gather materials needed to effective implementation, dissemination and assessment. The students will face real communication situations during accommodation in families. So, they will learn basic vocabulary/ expressions of partners' national languages. As results, partners will create and publish common products: a project logo and a website (eTwinning Project); mini European language dictionary; an architecture glossary; Cultural heritage Journal; an educational Scratch game; some public presentations; a set of educational materials created in partners’ national languages and in English. The project's final product will be the brochure: "ACHIEVE+". It will be available at the Tourism Office of the partner schools areas. By taking part in the project activities and creating the common products, participants will become tolerant to other cultures. They will better understand the differences and similarities between cultures and break stereotypes. Students and teachers will be able to speak English and use IT at higher level and increase their motivation and satisfaction in their work. They will get acquainted with different methodologies developed in the partner countries, being "Curriculum Flexibility" one of them. The dissemination and the use of project results will lead to the establishment of further partnerships in the future. We want our organisations to become European benchmarks as examples of good practices. By dissemination and use of project results, we want to raise awareness of the opportunities offered by Erasmus + programme. So, we will organize trainings and special meetings for teachers, students, educators in the neighbourhood to give them information about the project (at the beginning) and the dissemination of the results (at the end of the project). We believe that the project will have positive impact at local, regional, national and international level because the products are valuable especially when participants must be prepared to study/work in multicultural and multinational classes and to live in international European society.
The Erasmus+ project “Achieve+ Around Cultural Heritage Investigate European Values with Erasmus+” was implemented for 36 months (2018-2021) by six schools (primary and lower secondary) from Italy, Czech Republic, Portugal, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. The main aims of the project were: improving educational success, increasing knowledge about cultural heritage diversity, developing participants’ social and intercultural competences, increasing competences in English, foreign languages and using IT. The work in the project was provided through integrated approaches and was incorporated into partners’ school programme, according to the project plan. A total of 3000 students (aged 10-14) and 300 teachers (all subjects) participated in the project. The focus were pupils with learning difficulties, social and economic obstacles and immigrants' children from all partners' schools. They took part in project activities which are included into regular classes and have some extra classes drama, language, IT, intercultural and evaluation actions and tasks: questionnaires, quizzes and discussions. Also, pupils cooperated in international groups in mobility periods and all the other activities were held in national groups of students, they felt involved in their learning process and their academic results were improved. Participants increased their competences, motivation and satisfaction in school work. The second target group were teachers who increased English and IT competences, improved knowledge and experience in using new methods and techniques during project activities. Teachers completed one Short Join Staff Training Event and students and teachers completed five short-term students’ exchanges. There were 459 teachers and pupils altogether involved in mobilities. Teachers worked on English and IT skills and gathered materials needed for effective implementation,dissemination and assessment. The students faced real communication situations during accommodation in families. They learnt basic vocabulary/ expressions of partners' national languages. Participants created and published common products: a project logo and a website (eTwinning Project); Multilingual dictionary; an architecture glossary; Cultural Heritage Journal including the European book of legends, traditional recipes cookbook, and Monuments DNA encyclopedia, and activities performed during LTT (about which there were public presentations); an educational Scratch game; a set of educational materials created in partners’ national languages and in English. The project's final product were the brochure: "ACHIEVE+" that is also available at the Tourism Office of the partner schools areas. Moreover, the partner from Portugal demonstrated Flexibility Curriculum and CLIL methodology programme activities which were innovative for others. All participants experienced educational scenarios and became prepared for new challenges. All partners introduced new IT techniques (web 2.0 tools), Learning apps, Educaplay app, Scratch app, Quizlet, Jigsawplanet, Calaméo, Qrcode, storyboard app to create a cartoon, storyjumper app, Atavist.com, tripline, thinglink , a padlet to create our products and presentations. The impact of the project was significant at local, regional and European levels because it was disseminated using many ways: organizing Erasmus+ Days at schools, Achieve+Days, project exhibitions, project workshops for students and teachers from ours and other schools as well as for workers from other institutions. Moreover, it was important the cooperation with parents, local governments, libraries, the eTwinning platform, Portuguese Route of Romanesque, Greek Archaeological Museum of Komotini, Refugees Association, Italian tourism office of municipality of Sala Consilina, the Information Tourist Centre, Bulgarian Municipaity Burgas, Romanian city library "Panait Istrati", in Braila, the institution dedicated to all teachers from Braila, called Casa corpului didactic, the “Turistické informační centrum České Budějovice”. Besides, dissemination was done in the International conference Achieve+ during the visit to Portugal, meetings, trainings, school newspaper, press and school websites articles, a radio broadcast, during the Bulgaria online meeting, a TV interview during the visit in Italy and Greece among others. The project has had a positive impact on participants. Thanks to it, students, teachers and other participants not only acquired knowledge about cultural heritage diversity but also social and intercultural competences. They developed their tolerance towards other cultures, religions and languages. Also, participants improved their English and IT skills. This project was awarded with a national eTwinning quality label in the following countries: Portugal and Greece.