The aim of this project was for the Erlenbachschule to become more “European” and more “international”. We as a school wanted to open up more, interculturally and internationally. Moreover, the perspective and the feeling of unease towards inclusion has changed amongst several colleagues. One of our goals was to further develop our concept of inclusive education and to make it a fixed part in our school programme. With suitable didactic and methodical lesson concepts we aim to motivate our students with special needs to actively take part in the lessons and enable them to enjoy the lessons. Another goal was the enhancement of our teachers’ language skills in order to a) support European exchange projects as well as b) participate in international courses to improve their teaching skills. Furthermore, the coordinator and her team’s project management skills were to be improved. The acitivities in project management as well as the language courses were aimed at the school’s need of a “European opening” for students and teachers. Those newly acquired competences of our colleagues should enable our school to initiate European projects.
We conducted this project as we as a school wanted to evolve in regards to the areas „inclusive education“, „project management” and “language competence”. At our school there was a significant need for the development of project management skills. Another focus of development lies on the individual support of students with special needs. Inclusion in school still poses major challenges for us. We employed this project as a strategic instrument for the teachers’ advancement (project management) as well as for the internationalisation (international competences) of our school. Furthermore, by participating in European language courses, fellow teachers should become more proficient in the English language and practice it more confidently. As a consequence, more teachers could have the courage to take part in mobilities across the EU. Thus, the contents of further training courses could be understood more thoroughly and taken back to school more effectively.