The Erasmus+ project "Inclusion by Sports- IS ” will be conducted in the partnership of five secondary schools from Sweden, Bulgaria, Turkey, France and Romania. Our project aims at combating exclusion and obstacles our students face, and facilitating inclusion of disadvantaged participants through sports and physical activity, since it has been noted that that participation in sporting activities supports the process of inclusion in many ways: through bringing together individuals from different and various economic backgrounds, offering a sense of belonging to a bigger group, facilitating development of positive social behaviour, improving physical health and mental well-being among young people, as well as increasing community cohesion and active citizenship. With our project, we intend to help disadvantaged students with overcoming their exclusion through building their self-confidence and social skills, improving their self-development, promoting gender equality. We will promote and develop involvement in physical activity and physical competence among young people through encouraging and supporting students in their participation in sports activities and introducing them to framework of certain sports, learning the skills and strategies for them, as well as promoting involvement in casual or organised participation in sports by creating teams and obtaining results in competitions at all levels. Also the teachers involved in the project will learn good practices and innovative teaching and learning methods in the area of developing social inclusion with the use of physical education, and therefore will be able to implement them during various educational practices in their schools and extracurricular sporting activities. The project is designed for a two-year period during which we will cooperate both virtually and personally in order to achieve our objectives. In each partner school we will establish Sports Clubs which will work together using social networks, the internet, project website etc. The students and teachers will also have the opportunity to work together during Learning/Teaching/Training events. During them, the participants will have an opportunity to work on the given subjects and to practice their foreign language and teamwork skills. The students and teachers’ work and studies in the given countries will focus on combating various kinds of exclusion and facilitating inclusion through sports such as badminton, tennis, dance and modern dance with elements of cheerleading. During the final LTT a large, international sporting event will be organised which will include tournaments between mixed international teams, accompanied by cheerleading performances. Spectators from other local schools, educational organizations, local authorities etc. will be invited. In the intermissions sports contests for spectators will be organised. All the partners will monitor the general schedule of the project, clarify and supervise the evaluation criteria for the implementation and assessment of the project, its final products and the contribution of the project to the students' social inclusion. The management team will also overview the course of all activities and the means of project dissemination. The project coordinators together with all the participating teachers will be in charge of the formal course of the project and the rest of tasks is completed by the students. With our project, we expect the following outcomes: A project website with all the information about the project and its results (e.g. lesson plans, posters, instructional videos etc.), a Sports Rulebook with chapters devoted to certain sports introduced to students in the project and a multilingual dictionary of vocabulary related to sports in question. Intangible results of the project will be, among others, acquiring by students personal and interpersonal social skills such as self-confidence, creating relationships with others, communication, motivation, creative thinking, improving their mental well-being and dealing with emotions, developing and improving their physical fitness and knowledge of sports. Thanks to this international cooperation students be given the opportunity and help to fight obstacles they face and to become socially included. They will obtain cross-cultural awareness and personal experience in the project areas, which will broaden their minds and abilities as well as their communication and language skills. The project will be beneficial not only for the students but also for the teaching staff. They will learn and share good practices, experience and knowledge with their peers from other countries. Throughout the whole project all the partners will stay in contact, providing each other with help and support.
The Erasmus+ project "Inclusion by Sports ” is a partnership of four secondary schools from Sweden, Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania. Our project aimed at combating exclusion and obstacles our students face, and facilitating inclusion of disadvantaged participants through sports and physical activity, since it has been noted that participation in sporting activities supports the process of inclusion in many ways: through bringing together individuals from different and various economic backgrounds, offering a sense of belonging to a bigger group, facilitating development of positive social behaviour, improving physical health and mental well-being among young people, as well as increasing community cohesion and active citizenship. In our project cooperation we supported disadvantaged students with overcoming their exclusion through building their self-confidence and social skills, improving their self-development, promoting gender equality in an international perspective. Supporting students in their participation in sports activities and introducing them to framework of certain sports, learning the skills and strategies for them and thus coming together in all partner schools with a common focus has indeed had positive influences for pupils, teachers, staff, families and the hole surrounding. We hosted partner representants in all countries but Turkey (due to covid – even if we had hope and prolonged the project period). The hosting teams have well prepared guidance in their schools, attandance in classes, got into deeper discussions giuded by specialists/guest speakers and practiced a wide range of sports: twice winter sports in Sweden and outdoor sports and dance/cheer leading in Bulgaria and Romania. Devoted work was set into the creation of our sport handbook – a common result to be more used and further developed. The present result is shared in EPRP. Alftaskolan together with SU Vasil Kunchov Vratsa, Liceul Teoretic Lucian Blaga Oradea and Kadirli Fen Lisesi has for a two and a half year period maintained Sports Club, shared about project progress on project webb http://www.inclusionbysports.com/index.php , met in Facebook group, via Skype and in the last half year via zoom. The partnership was monitored well and gave a very positive result in evaluations throughout the project era. Indeed the friendship and trust is so strong and so close up till now. Teachers Messenger group is constantly active and pupils found a new bound for exchange via zoom on a regular basis. This is a true sign for sustainability. Sadly the well planned meeting in Turkey was cancelled due to corona but we managed to do our online version via zoom. In parallell we had management meeting for staff and pupils’ meeting with discussions and English practicing on the theme ’Sport and corona’. It was obvious how the project teens had overcome their language barriere and in the final project month spoke up in English with one or several small presentations in online groups with up to 40 participants. The pupils even managed to have an online yoga session together. Project ’Inclusion by Sports’ was well supported by municipalities in all countries. Headmasters in cooperation with mayors managed local information well. Dissemination reached out via radio, TV and newspapers in all countries. Our project goal to inspire students with personal and interpersonal social skills such as self-confidence, creating relationships with others, communication, motivation, creative thinking, improving their mental well-being and dealing with emotions, developing and improving their physical fitness and knowledge of sports was reached.