According to Europe 2020 Strategy, one of the main targets is to reduce the share of ESL to 10% from the current 15%.In the current context,the government, international organizations consider education to be one of the most effective means of reducing and preventing various negative impact phenomena on SS and to offer alternatives for solving crisis situations.On the other side,school bullying is a widespread phenomenon. The EsPeer consortium is interested in developing a Peer Mediation program as in all participating countries,the phenomenon of bullying is increasing,the consequences being ESL,lack of motivation or extreme gestures. Also, project-based learning and problem-solving activities will be developed.The partnership is also interested in carrying out a Peer Tutoring program.Considering the information collected after applying questionnaires to 40% of Ss in each partner school,there has been found a low level of academic preparation at the majority of Ss coming from disadvantaged groups, rural areas or single parent families,that many times leads to ESL.Flipped and blended classroom techniques will also be included in the program. With this project our partnership's role and concern is not only to prevent ESL of the less motivated Ss but at the same time integrate them in our school life, sharing work and activities with the most motivated Ss to make them feel integrated and part of a successful school. The present project aims to achieve the following objectives: 1.Reducing with 15% the level of early school leaving at high secondary levels, found in at least 50% Ss from all the 5 participating schools coming from disadvantaged groups in 2 school years. 2.Promoting social inclusion of at least 15% of newly arrived migrants and students from at least 2 different ethnic and disadvantaged social backgrounds in the school life in 2 school years. 3.Reducing negative social stereotypes, ethnic controls and legislation affecting the freedom and rights of group members in all the 5 schools and local communities represented, on a medium and long term. 4.Increasing the quality of education and the European dimension of the schools collaboration in terms of skills and competences by developing personal and professional abilities to 250 Ts direct beneficiaries (50 per country) and at least 100 indirect beneficiaries per country (500 per consortium): Ts, parents, local decision-makers and school stakeholders, during the project life. 5.Creating an international network of resources centers and helpdesk starting with the consortium schools, in order to improve the educational process by counseling and exchange of best practices in peer learning for at least 10 schools per country yearly. A number of 812 Ss(312 are at risk of ESL, 500 are interested in taking part in the volunteering activities on PL) and 250 Ts (50 /school) from all the participating schools will be involved in the project activities as direct beneficiaries. The students in the target group fall into the 14 to 17 year old category. The selected Ss, targeted in the partner schools policies regarding social inclusion, attend high secondary education;they are at risk of ESL and come from the following categories:disadvantaged groups,lack of school motivation reflected in low school results,students coming from migrant and ethnic groups,victims of school bullying.The selected Ts will be actively involved in the fundamental activities of the project, coordinating:the production of the PT and PM Guides, putting together the Toolkit, the LTT activities involving Ss and mobilities. The overall management of the project will be provided by the Ro school. It will also gather all the information concerning the monitoring and evaluation reports, the intermediate and final reports.The Toolkits will be presented by the same school as common final results of the project. The TK school will be responsible for the Eu project logo. The GR school will set up the project website design and permanent update. The LT school will create the project e-booklet. The BE school will provide the Communication and Cooperation Plan and the Quality Plan of the project.1st LTT activity involving Ss and Ts will be hosted by the Ro school, which will provide the Pm training for Ss. 2nd LTT - Greek school; the S-T activities on Peer Instructed Flipped and Blended Learning techniques. 3rd LTT - BE school;the PT training for Ss. 4th LTT activity - Lithuanian school which will coordinate the writing of the PT Guide. The host school will settle the main points to be included in the project e-booklet. 5th LTT activity - TK school which will coordinate the writing of the PM Guide.The last LTT activity will be a final Conference coordinated by the Romanian project team, where the host school will launch the EsPeer Resource Centre and Helpdesk and the LT school will present the e-booklet of the project, which will contain all the relevant outputs of the project.
The EsPeer consortium was interested in developing Peer Learning programs, such as:peer mediation, peer tutoring, project-based learning and flipped and blended classroom techniques. With this project our partnership's role and concern was not only to prevent ESL of the less motivated Ss but at the same time integrate them in our school life, sharing work and activities with the most motivated Ss, to make them feel integrated and part of a successful school. According to the objectives of the project, within the 2-year implementation, the following were successfully achieved: 1. Due to the constant organization of the PL activities, in all of their forms (EsPEER clubs, PM sessions,PT lessons), the project consortium managed to reduce the level of ESL in highschool students by 15% (found in at least 50% Ss coming from disadvantaged groups (people at risk of social exclusion, families with low income, single parent families) in all the 5 participating schools 2. Social inclusion was the key priority and 15% of the Ss coming from disadvantaged groups were primarily targeted in the PM sessions and PL activities on project level. 3. Throughout all the implementation phases of the project and its designed specific activities, the reduction of negative social stereotypes were the core area of improvement. The project promoted respect for diversity and active citizenship within all the 5 schools and local communities through the involvement of all direct and indirect beneficiaries in the project activities (dissemination events, interactive workshops, PM sessions and simulations). 4. By organizing dissemination events and the Final International Conference, the quality of education and the European dimension of the schools was greatly increased. The participating Ts, direct beneficiaries, developed personal and professional skills through the experience exchange during LTTs and during local activities with the Ss.The selected Ts shared their experience input by organizing the dissemination events and active workshops. 250 Ts (50/country) improved personal and professional abilities. The Final Conference involved a number of 200 participants,Ts,local decision-makers and school stakeholders. 5. An international network of resources centers and helpdesk was created. Each of the 5 partner schools offered valuable guidance and counseling as far as PL strategies are concerned to schools interested in developing similar programs. Learning activities were the resources that were provided in each participating school or at the consortium level that helped achieving the learning objectives of the EsPeer PL program. Thus, every LTT activity had a different topic based on the main theme of the project:Peer Learning.The LTT activities introduced the participants to new skills and competences to be acquired, such as peer mediation skills (learnt through the PM simulations and training in C1 in Romania), peer instructed flipped and blended learning skills (through practical workshops in C2 in Greece), PT skills (during C3 in Belgium), peer learning skills (through team building workshops in C4 in Lithuania) and peer assisted project based learning skills (developed through collaboration and group work during the online meeting C5). A number of 812 Ss (312 who were categorized as being at risk of early school leaving and 500 who were interested in taking part in the volunteering activities on PL) were involved in the project activities as direct and indirect beneficiaries. Each partner contributed to the common guides on PT and PM, as final results of the project. Each school contributed to the organization and management of the LTT activities:the 1st LTT activity involving Ss and Ts was hosted by the Romanian school, which provided the PM training for Ss and coordinated the writing of the PM Guide. The 2nd LTT was managed by the Greek school which coordinated the S-T activities on Peer Instructed Flipped and Blended Learning techniques. The 3rd LTT took place in the Belgian school which provided the PT training for Ss. The 4th LTT activity was held in the Lithuanian school which provided peer learning activities through team building and coordinated the writing of the PT Guide. The 5th LTT activity was held online by the Turkish school. Due to the pandemic situation all over Europe, travel restrictions made the actual meeting impossible which led to the online development of the LTT. The last activity was a final Conference coordinated by the Romanian team,where the host school launched the EsPeer Resource Centre and Helpdesk and all the results of the project were presented. One strategy that the partner schools have planned to use and will continue in the future is engaging volunteers (students and teachers) for performing PL activities. Thus, the EsPeer clubs formed in the partner schools develop activities with high school students and have the following topics: PT, PM, Peer led debate, Snowball and Arts and Crafts.