An important goal of our project was broadening our horizons beyond the borders of Vienna and Austria to get new input and seize the opportunity to visit structured trainings which are not being offered in Vienna. The range of offers that can be used abroad is wider and more diverse. Our school wants to be more independent from multiplicators from outside who themselves have already taken advantage of trainings offered and have brought their gained knowledge to Vienna. We want our own teachers to attend trainings needs-orientated abroad (“What do we need to work on a high quality level at our school?”) and focus especially on topics necessary for our school. They shall share their new experiences and knowledge with the other colleagues. Another advantage of attending trainings abroad is that our teachers are being taught on scientific up-to-date standards and therefore they can choose the newest methods and media for their lessons.
At our school we teach children and teenagers who depend on Augmented Communication due to lacking or insufficient verbal language. This group of students has been growing at our school within the last years; our clientele is changing more and more in this way. Therefore, concerning our school development we focus on Augmented Communication. Teachers are required to attend trainings that focus on that topic so we shall provide even better assistance to our students. That range of trainings on that topic in Vienna/in Austria is quite narrow. Plus, getting in is not always possible. We wanted to open a spectrum of new input to spread the knowledge widely among the colleagues.