In order to effectively answer to the motivation and to the needs identified the CAMPS project consortium outlined the general aim of promoting among all actors playing a role in primary school education, that is teachers, leaders and decision makers, experts and teacher trainers and policy makers a greater and sound awareness of the importance of fully implementing CLIL methodology as early start of language learning by pupils. For the purpose the following Specific Objectives (SO) were identified: SO 1: Provide primary school teachers with reliable yet accessible methodological training in order to provide them with knowledge, skills and competencies in applying CLIL with kids taking into account their individual needs and learning pace SO 2: Make available to primary school teachers and educators with ready to be used, flexible and accessible CLIL base teaching tools with a special focus on Arts and Music subjects and according to a media based approach SO 3: Promote the insertion of CLIL methodology within primary education system by providing exemplary case studies and motivational promotional materials merging effectively a bottom-up approach addressing teachers and top-down approach addressing decision and policymakers
The CAMPS project main motivation was and is based on the belief, shared among the project partners including schools and experts in the field, that as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) plays a key role in language education, both as a feature of foreign language teaching and learning, and as an element of motivation for more active learning of the contents, it should be extended to primary school level. At application stage it was evident that despite the interest of teachers, the CLIL methodology was still seldom applied in primary schools because of, mainly, lack of basic English language skills, of appropriate teaching sources and reliable methods and references in the field and of a widespread motivation and confidence about the feasibility of adopting such approach with youngsters. The following specific needs were therefore identified, selected and defined: - Enhanced training opportunities for teachers to cover their gap in knowledge and experiences with the CLIL methods - Accessing methodologically reliable yet usable CLIL base teaching tools to be used by schools in their everyday teaching practices - Overcoming the obstacles that prevent the educational system in using CLIL at primary education level