Background of project: Our schools are in great need of innovative practices that help students overcome their low academic achievement because of their poor social and financial background. We want to combine Arts and Environment Studies to spark our students' motivation to finish their studies and go on to further studies. Art Therapy, VTS strategy and Arts as a way to improve students inclusion and as a way to express themselves and let out their anxieties and worries in a productive and positive way. Objectives : Through a variety of Art therapy activities and thanks to the the students' inclusion and group cohesion that VTS strategies generate, we want to achieve a higher students' inclusion and to motivate a much higher percentage of students to go on to further studies. Achieving school inclusion through the use of various arts activities in most school subjects . Creating artistic products which involve all students: brilliant students, average performance students as well as increased involvement of risk of social exclusion and SEN students . Taking into account the emotional intelligence of our students to understand their emotional problems and deal with those problems using some tools from Art Therapy. Art therapy has a potential that is being underused in our four partner countries, in contrast to other European countries where Art therapy is more widely spread at schools. Visiting our parks, our nearby green areas, our Natural Heritage as a way to know Nature, to get artistically inspired by Nature and to take care and create and awareness of the environment. To catalyze the process of change in our teaching strategies and to start a real change in our schools and at local level. Number and profile of participants; Four schools and an Art therapy association. Description of activities Art therapy activities and artistic activities that help improve the emotional state of students and which increases their motivation in all school subjects. Methodology to be used in carrying out the project: Project work to make sure all subjects participate in the aims of our project. Teachers at our schools will learn how to cooperate in Art -related cross-curricular projects. Use of different Art techniques at all school subjects . Use of VTS strategy in most school subjects. Art therapy principles and relaxation techniques to apply to all subjects. Short description of the results Higher rates of students' inclusion. Increased involvement of teams of teacher in cross-curricular and project work. Teachers will learn how to integrate the different curriculum content into artistic activities that are motivating and inspirational for all students.. Increased involvement of all students into school subjects and school participation. An interest towards the arts and the possibility to express themselves through different Art forms. The preservation of the Environment by all students involved. Most of our artistic activities are inspired on Nature, so that Nature is seen as a source of inspiration for students. Achievement of wellness, of relief, of enjoyment while while carrying out short Art activities in most school subjects Emotional well-being is taken into consideration, which ends up in a desire to succeed at school. Impact envisaged Through new artistic activities students who don't succeed at particular subjects will find an extrinsic motivation to study. Through new teaching practices that take more into account the emotional state of students, teachers will improve their capability to deal with the difficult emotional phases that students go through at some points of their school life. Potential longer term benefits. Sustained higher rates of school inclusion Enhancement of schools and students ' creativity Higher academic results. Lower absenteeism as a result of an increasing involvement of students in school life and school subjects. Enhancement and deeper implementation of project work Lower index of drop-outs. Improved cohesion in class-groups.
We wanted to achieve a further motivation of our students to stay at school and find an interest in every subject, so that the final aim could be achieved: preventing students absenteeism. .We also wanted to arise the students' interest about nature in general , their sorrounding natural environment in particular and , finally, departing from nature's inspiration, creating art. We promoted excursions to nature, to feel the connection to nature and to arise the interest in nature. So, the four partner schools and Grefart made sure the whole time that our teaching was more inclusive towards all students, by using art therapy tools, by using a variety of arts techniques and strategies in general, and by sharing new ideas that proved to be successful arising students' motivation. VTS was also an aim that was implemented in schools.
I applied for the project to improve our schools' results, To achieve a more inclusive education in a school with students from migration backgrounds and students with other difficulties. We have addressed needs for finding ways to motivate and understand students through art activities in different subjects, such as English, Sciences, Arts, and from a cross-curricular perspective.