As our school is located in a very unfavourable socioeconomic environment, we have tried to broaden our students' horizons over the last three years by allowing them to participate in European projects aimed at internationalizing our school and developing European, multicultural citizens who accept differences and diversity. Our school has consistently welcomed students from different countries and ethnic minorities, therefore, to achieve their full integration into the school community and society at large, we prioritized participation in European cooperation projects. We invested in encouraging more active and innovative pedagogical practices in order to achieve the goal of a truly inclusive school that is concerned with quality in teaching and learning. On the other hand, we tried to encourage updating teachers' and non-teachers' professional abilities in order to modify and modernise the educational system, improve students' academic outcomes, and combat failure and school dropout. In this way, we focused on three main theme axes: - New integrative and holistic methodologies aligned with a 21st-century school; - English language development and consolidation of bilingual education / CLIL; - The inclusion of ethnic minorities, migrants and refugees.
The management of the Argoncilhe School Cluster and a group of teachers jointly expressed a will and need to change methodologies in the classroom. Openness to the world and an Europe increasingly present in our lives became unavoidable to launch a transformation, and, therefore, a European development programme was outlined. Participation in international projects was regarded crucial and the application for Erasmus + KA2 European projects was successfully completed. Thus, our process of altering attitudes in the classroom began, intending to lead to a paradigm shift in the teaching/learning process. As a result, we persevered in our European goal by forming global partnerships and applying to Erasmus KA2 projects. We also desired a clear shift in pedagogical approaches that would move us, as educational actors, towards an innovative educational paradigm. To achieve that, we promoted activities targeted at providing a holistic and inclusive approach to students, thereby underpinning the foundations of a 21st-century school. In this sense, we developed collaborations and experiences that engaged the educational community in a shared vision of open education for Europe and the world.