The objectives of the project promote inclusion amongst learners, intercultural learning through collaboration with different European schools and devote attention to acquiring new practical strategies and creative methods to aid students with special needs in their learning. Through the implementation of this project, we hoped to achieve a more skilled teacher team in which more tools are available to deal with the behaviour associated with special needs such as being easily distracted or very mobile in the classroom. The comparisons between classrooms from different European schools will give us an insight on how other schools take care of those special needs.
The reason for application refers to the need amongst teachers to feel better equipped to teach students with special needs as became aware when the results of the survey to offer professional courses were published. More students come into the school that require extra attention and specific tailored programmes and instructions and the teachers noticed that they lacked the expertise and experience to properly solve and support these students. On top of this, we have a growing waiting list for mental health specialists, so it would be great to aid our students better without them waiting for experts in the field of health care (waiting time at least half a year). Additionally, it is important to enlarge the European network and stay visible as a school that has the focus on world citizenship and the UNESCO goals. Therefore, the school desired to follow the course abroad in order to expand that network, retain it and in order to compare educational situations and the teachers' knowledge from other European countries to improve our education when it comes to offering more to the students with special needs. Our school hosts about 1200 students and around 100 teachers from various backgrounds and levels. Our main priority = coaching.