Through the implementation of this project, and considering the mission and strategy of the Educational Project of our school we aimed to improve the overall performance of the school through the acquisition and implementation of new strategies that would allow: Improve internal results in subjects with lower success rates at the end of the third cycle, namely Portuguese and Mathematics; Reduce cases of indiscipline in the classroom; Reduce situations of lack of student attendance; Use strategies that allow for pedagogical differentiation in the classroom, making it more inclusive (for example, talented students, students with behavioral problems, students with different learning rhythms, students from other countries); Find new adequate responses to social, cultural and ethnic differences, in order to minimize inequalities; Strengthen the skills of teachers and of the school management organ to create a more modern, dynamic, committed and professional environment, integrating good practices and new methods in daily activities; Acquire skills in order to improve the School Educational Project; Experiencing new practices that contribute to the enrichment of collaborative activities with the community, namely within the scope of local partnerships (eg Leiria City Council) for the development of projects that promote school success and social inclusion; Enable networking to promote innovation, creativity and research in order to motivate those involved to use the project-based learning methodology and solve common problems; Expand knowledge about other cultural and educational realities; This way, in the field of European mobility, we intended to: - work on the personal and professional development of professionals (improving professionals' skills to respond to students' individual needs and to deal with their social, cultural and linguistic diversity; - improve the school management through the knowledge of new educational systems and practices; - modernize of the contents, methods and tools of teaching and training; - acquire new innovative pedagogical practices in order to promote the students’ motivation and school commitment and develop a sustainable and lasting cross-border cooperation (reinforce the international dimension of Afonso Lopes Vieira High School by extending it to Education). According to the above, the following thematic axes were defined: Early school leaving/combating failure in education; Inclusion/Equity; Quality improvement: institutions and strategies.
At an European level Afonso Lopes Vieira High School has a consistent experience, having participated in two multilateral COMENIUS projects called "Colours of Life" (2009/2011) and "Our Heritage: let's know and preserve it" (2012/201) and in an Erasmus Ka2 project "My values, your values, our values" (2016/2018). In addition, the school offers its students of professional courses the opportunity to do an internship in companies located in other European countries, within the scope of an Erasmus+ application. Therefore, and since Afonso Lopes Vieira High School has a long experience in Erasmus projects, we still needed to enrich our school culture with the mobility of educational personnel. It should be added that our school is located on the outskirts of the city and responds to the notorious demographic growth of the parish of Marrazes and Barosa, where (im)migrants with diverse cultures and traditions have settled. Close to the school there is the Annarella Sanchez International Dance Conservatory, which is our partner, is attended by students of various nationalities. As an integrating pole of this multicultural community Afonso Lopes Vieira High School assumes its educational mission of promoting scientific knowledge, for which reason it was considered imperative to extend the range of training to courses abroad.