The goals in our school focus on student equal opportunities for participation and success. More specifically, we aim that our students love and accept the diversity of others. We also aim that every child has comprehensive and multiple educational opportunities to progress in relation to him/herself and its capabilities. Yet, we work so that all children are socially active and responsible citizens, offer to those who are in need and respect the environment. European mobility will provide opportunities for teachers in our school to enrich their pedagogical approaches and classroom management skills to be able to give to every student (either low or high achiever) opportunities for progress and success in learning. As Europe is changing rapidly, due to globalization, migration and technological advances, new challenges are created for both teachers and students. School leaders and teachers need to work in order to integrate an anti-bias, multicultural approach into the overall curriculum and everyday interactions with children and parents. Educators can play a key role in meeting these challenges by driving education forward and being at the forefront of change and innovation More specifically, within this project we aimed to: 1. Change the school culture and the environment to promote diversity and tolerance among our students' community. 2. Develop teachers' abilities to handle diversity issues in the school and in the classroom, in order to help every child be successful academically and socially. 3. Help school leaders and teachers be aware of good practices and experiences from other European schools with student communities similar to ours. 4. Enrich the school curricula with activities that promote diversity and tolerance. 5. Create links with other European schools that face similar challenges, in order to communicate and cooperate in addressing them. 6. Promote the values of European Union in our school, i.e. equality, respect, participation. 7. Enhance the personnel's abilities to European languages and understanding of European cultures.
As our school community is becoming more and more diversified, the school culture needs to change. Therefore, in a staff session it was decided to define the vision of our school. School leaders and teachers need to be more informed about teaching strategies and approaches to create a learning environment for every student to be successful. Besides they need to enrich their skills and knowledge to be able to create a school and classroom environment where diversity and tolerance are widely promoted. School leaders and teachers need to work in order to integrate an anti-bias, multicultural approach into the overall curriculum and everyday interactions with children and parents. Dimotiko Scholeio Daliou 1 is a rural school located at a small town 20 km outside Lefkosia, the capital of Cyprus. It has more than 200 students who age from 6 to 12 years old and are distributed in 12 classes. The student population consists of about 20% immigrants (mainly from European countries), about 30% children of mixed marriages (one parent is immigrant) and 50% Greek Cypriots. Most of the students belong to low socioeconomic status families. Their parents work in the nearby farms and fields or in the nearby industrial area. Small number of parents commute to Lefkosia or Larnaca for employment. The main needs of our school were related to low socio-economic level, low expectations from parents and children, behavioral problems, low performance and lack of interest on the part of parents to improve behavior (accepting diversity and promoting tolerance) and learning outcomes of their children. As teachers of this school, we have tried, in an atmosphere of perfect cooperation, to improve the above school image by organizing activities with parents in various subjects, with the aim of involving parents in their children's learning and the children themselves becoming more active in their learning. Personal teacher-parent meetings were also organized to inform them about the way their children work at school. In-service training also contributed to the improvement of the school's image by attending lectures by experts within the school, conducting and monitoring sample lessons and teacher collaboration, participation in conferences organized by the Ministry of Education. The school has participated in a three-year program (2017-2020) of Erasmus KA202, some teachers has also participated in a second Erasmus+ project called 'Mediterranean Inclusive Schools (MEDIS)' and in an eTwinning project called 'Math for Life. In addition to the above, it was decided to apply to the Erasmus+ program KA101, with a new project named "Leadership and Teaching for Everyone”. We believe that through Erasmus+ programs, teachers can develop their European identity both as citizens and as educators. Participation in European programs can foster teachers' language skills, enable teachers and other school employees to acquire new learning and teaching methods and tools. Also it allows them to explore a variety of learning and teaching practices across Europe by exchanging knowledge and working methods, and moreover it helps them develop a broader perspective on education. Besides, school educators can reinforce their understanding of school values, culture and interpersonal skills (e.g. entrepreneurship, intercultural understanding, democratic principles, global citizenship, anti bullying, environmental sustainability, teamwork), enrich learning and teaching approaches (e.g. sharing and implementing a more pupil-centered approach to learning). The key persons who helped in implementing and managing the project are members of the teaching personnel, who were actively involved in the aforementioned projects, as their experiences have been enriching for their learning and teaching. Besides, they have obtained experiences in travelling, organizing and disseminating European projects.