We want to: 1. Create a “handbook of best practices” with important information for school staff to take into account in their daily work, in order to promote the social inclusion of students with developmental disorders; 2. Create other resources aimed at students (pedagogical-recreational content on various problems and how to deal with colleagues who have them: videos and card games); 3. Create an online training course aimed at educational communities on social inclusion in the school context. With this specific objectives we intended: A. To fight learning disadvantages, early school dropout and underdeveloped basic skills – students who suffer from exclusion problems at school because of their limitations are more prone to learning problems, early school leaving and vulnerability in socioemotional skills (such as creating healthy social relationships with peers and teachers); B. To support teachers, school leaders and other educational areas – because we believe that change in the school context starts with school staff, we want to empower them, giving them information and tools to work better with children with developmental disorders and inform the whole the school on the subject.
We applied for this project because we felt there was a need in Portuguese classrooms. Despite the fact that legislation is increasingly inclusive and that school is now expected to be for everyone, in practice, in addition to the lack of resources (especially human resources), there is a lack of preparation and awareness about what disabilities are, such as developmental disorders and how we should deal with students. From the lack of preparation of teachers to the lack of understanding and sensitivity of peers, there is a lot of work to be done in awareness raising. Thus we believe that non-formal education can make a contribution to both pupils and teachers. We need to update ourselves on the European guidelines, pass on credible and up-to-date knowledge to professionals, on the one hand, and create resources to sensitise students to this topic in a light and playful way.