The partnership will involve five schools that educate pupils aged 6-15, children with different intellectual or social-economical possibilities. The groups of students include children with SEN and learning disabilities, students with learning difficulties caused by unfavorable conditions (low social-economical and cultural background, conflicting families, Roma ethnicity, inadequate stimulation in preschool etc.). These students have a large number of absences and they are non-proficient in school. We do not plan to identify problems and solutions to combat absenteeism or to ensure school progress for these students, but to help them with their social, cultural, and economic inclusion. Schools must constantly improve their strategies of working with these students, advise them, strengthen the relationship with their parents and bring them closer to school. The purpose of the project is to identify strategies that can motivate the students with special educational needs, learning difficulties and social - emotional disorder and get them involved in school life; to exchange good practices of formal and non-formal activities in order to reduce the risk of school dropout. We are aware that only through common strategies we will be able to make our schools a place fit for all students. Aims: – identifying the causes and involving the children in finding solutions to diminish the learning barriers among students by at least 90% during the project – using interactive teaching-learning-assessing strategies in order to get school progress for at least 75% of the students with learning difficulties – getting at least 75% of the students with learning difficulties and their parents involved in attractive, non-formal activities throughout the project – improving communication in English by at least 90% for teachers and students – improving the collaboration between school-family and community by involving at least 100 parents in the project’s activities – developing by at least 75% the autonomy, responsibility and creativity of the students with learning difficulties by involving them in school life, in making decisions – having cultural exchanges between the participants throughout the project The target group will consist of: - at least 10 Roma children, at least 30 students with low material capabilities, at least 20 students with different mental or physical disabilities (one of the partner schools is a school for pupils with special needs), at least 40 pupils with learning difficulties, poor involvement in formal and non-formal activities and poor school outcomes, at least 20 pupils in each school with a large number of absences. In setting up the activities, we took into consideration that working with the students in the target group involves creating a dynamic, tolerant and inclusive environment in the classroom; learning through collaboration; using concrete and intuitive material; individualizing the school curriculum; designing interactive strategies and using ICT; developing the student’s potential; organizing extracurricular activities to allow interpersonal relationships to develop. Students will participate in counseling activities, cultural visits for documentation and information, they will organize art exhibitions with their own objects, non-formal activities, outdoor / experimental activities, dissemination activities, student exchanges in partner schools. Teachers will participate in workshops on the project topic and they will exchange teaching strategies with their partners. We will achieve the following results on direct and indirect beneficiaries: Students will: - achieve school progress in the main disciplines - improve their abilities to communicate in English - be more motivated and involved in school life - discover new talents and strengths - become responsible European citizens, involved in their own training and development - be better informed about the European culture and history - make new friends - develop their teamwork and cooperation skills, being able to make common products - SEN and SED students will acquire basic skills such as reading, writing, mathematical calculation - Their number of absences will reduce Teachers will: - improve their didactic strategies in activities designed for SEN, SED and LD students - improve their linguistic and ICT competences - exchange good practices in the non-formal domains - acquire competences for the implementation and management of European projects Parents will: - participate in common activities with students and teachers in a European context - be more informed on ways to stimulate their children - be more involved in school activities - be more trustful of their children’s potential On the long run, the final products will be the schools' didactic resource, we will continue to communicate and collaborate on the e-Twinning space of the project.
The five schools that were involved in this project, Școala Gimnazială Nr. 4, Moreni, Romania, Primary school “Angel Kynchev”, Ruse, Bulgaria, Zakladna skola Velka Ida, Slovakia, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Ortaokulu, Nazilli,Turkey, Berzupes Speciala Internatpamatskola, Dobele, Latvia, pursued, during the three years of implementation, to identify strategies that to motivate the students with special educational needs, learning difficulties and social - emotional disorder and get them involved in school life; to exchange good practices of formal and non-formal activities in order to reduce the risk of school dropout. We were aware that only through common strategies we will be able to make our schools a place fit for all students. The aims we set to reach during the implementation were: O1 – identifying the causes and finding the solutions to diminish learning difficulties for at least 90% of the involved students O2 – using interactive strategies to teach-learn-assess in order to ensure the progress of at least 75% of the students with learning difficulties O3 – involving at least 75% of the students in the target group and their parents into non-formal activities O3 – improving communication in English for at least 90% of the students and teachers who were involved O4 – improving the collaboration between school-family-local community by involving at least 100 parents in the project activities O5 – developing the autonomy, creativity, responsibility for at least 75% of the students with learning difficulties by getting them involved in the school life, in making decisions O6 – cultural exchange among the participants In order to reach them, students, parents and teachers participated to training activities having as topic identifying solutions to motivate the students, to obtain better results at school, to reduce non-attendance, to improve school-family relationship. This project helped us to implement other types of activities that motivate students, develop new teaching skills to the teachers, bring parents closer to school: presenting local customs and traditions, exchanging cards and decorations, exchanging letters, practicing painting techniques, documenting visits, taking part in practical-experimental/outdoor lessons, diversification of the teaching-learning-assessing strategies by using interactive methods, educational software, IT apps, planning attractive non-formal activities. We collaborated on the virtual space of the project from the e-Twinning platform to publish the commonly obtained products: logos, brochures (Customs and traditions in my locality, Art Journal, Letter to my friend), exhibitions (Virtual Art Museum, photographs taken during the activities, cards and decorations, reproductions made by students), lesson plans and non-formal activities (Project Portfolio), films (virtual training activities, experiments/ outdoor activities, Happy Children’s Day), presentations during the mobilities. By the local activities and the mobilities we obtained changes in all the groups of participants: Students: - Improving English communication skills (90%) - Getting more involved in the school activities (80%) - Increasing the interest in knowing other countries culture (60%) - Discovering new skills and new opportunities (80%) - Developing competencies for teamwork and collaboration with students from other schools and countries (60%) - Obtaining better results at school (75%) Teachers: - Developing IT, digital competencies, (90%) - Developing communication and teamwork competencies (90%) - Developing abilities to present and organize the activities we had carried out (80%) - Improving the work with SEN students (90%) - Development of the English communication skills (80%) - Diversification of the non-formal activities ( 90%) Parents: - Getting involved in the non-formal activities we proposed (50 %) - Participation in training activities (90%) - Support given to students for homework (50%) The e-Twinning platform of the project representing an important resource for our future activities. All the products we obtained during the project are applicable in the future activities with the students, as the project portfolio is a guide that supports the educational process for all the teachers in our school and in Europe. We will continue the collaboration among the partner schools, especially that some of us obtained Erasmus+ accreditation.