COMMUNITY BASED RESOURCE CENTRE FOR SCHOOL SYSTEM TO ADDRESS BEHAVIOURAL CHALLENGES – 2SMILE Erasmus Project

Project Title

COMMUNITY BASED RESOURCE CENTRE FOR SCHOOL SYSTEM TO ADDRESS BEHAVIOURAL CHALLENGES – 2SMILE

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

The journey of 2SMILE started 3 years ago, in London, and spread trough Europe within a partnership composed by 8 partners from 7 countries. By then, all of us were far from imagining the huge transformations that would come about through the project life cycle and the unimaginable obstacles that the road ahead would pose. No one would ever expect to build and develop a project amidst a pandemic – almost 2 of the project years were spent on it, and none would dare to imagine the difficulties and challenges imposed by it to the education systems, or that, in a certain way, this would make our proposals more meaningful given our focus in a student-centred approach. Trough its deployment, we’ve worked with teachers and educators, and through them, their schools, the organizations within our partnership and the local communities, we have reached through 508 participants, being these, other teachers and educators, stakeholders and learners within the ages from 11 to 16, many with a migrant background, some with SEBD and a great part with disadvantaged socio economic backgrounds.
At the start, and at the core of our proposal, the perception that education dropout is a multifactorial phenomenon, a complex process that requires a strong cooperation between different stakeholders across the school, the family, and the community, stood at the centre of our idea on how a proposal like 2SMILE should go about to tackle some of the issues raised by the aforementioned. The still high dropout rates mean that all the interventions, programmes and policies have failed during the years. The 2SMILE project proposes a change in the way of thinking of the learning process and the role of each actor in that process. A decrease in education dropouts implies a whole-school approach where all stakeholders are involved in the education process in a holistic way of thinking and where the learner is the heart of the learning process.
To achieve this, we’ve set out to exploit, within the project development, a set of ideas and concepts, and to validate them through a piloting process.
The pilot implementation of our student-centred learning approach was, therefore, an important step towards the reaffirmation that group work is necessary, to reach a holistic understanding of the student and the school. Students, parents, teachers, communities – especially among more vulnerable groups, as students with mental disorders, migrants, or communities as the Roma students – should be listening to each other’s needs, to find more ideal solutions.
As a result, we have delivered the IO4 Framework Implementation Guide where the reports, activities and the results reached in outputs 1, 2 and 3 were compiled with the aim of disseminate and advocate for a change in educational national systems; whilst the issue of dropping out of school may never be solved, it could be contrasted with a student-centred learning approach. Students could then feel that their needs, their interests, their voices are considered and listened to, thus increasing their motivation and attainment.
The student-centred learning approach emphasises the importance and the meaning of relationships among students, teachers and parents and, as referred, on our proposal within 2SMILE, if we consider this last year and the challenges that emerged from Covid-19, cleary shows its meaningfulness as an approach to overcome situations where standard approaches to the learning process are unsatisfactory.
With the involvement of all parts towards shared goals, the possibilities for success in the Educational Systems are enhanced: for schools, teachers and families but, above all, for learners. The commitment from teachers, Learners and parents (or legal guardians) and other community members with the learning process allows them to develop a sense of ownership, a sense of belonging and a sense of identification with all the processes and with the outcomes established. In this way, a strong motivational justification grows from all the parties and this will positively impact students’ behaviours, scholarly achievements and well-being. The positive engagement of students is still related to a reduction of risky behaviours, early school leaving and low attainment, which has a direct positive impact on the school environment and in the school experience as a healthy experience for each learner.
The “whole school approach” is not only about school. It is about the relationships, the confidence, the motivation and the engagement and commitment of students, teachers, families, communities and policy makers in the learning process.
We aimed 2SMILE and we did it, and now, that the travel ended, we deeply believe that all those who took part in it, as the project outcomes spread and take root, will surely continue 2SMILE ensuring that we all, together, persist in the search for more inclusive and successful educational practices within the European education systems. With all and for all 2SMILE!

Project Website

https://www.2smileproject.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 405786,19 Eur

Project Coordinator

Youmanity Ltd & Country: UK

Project Partners

• AMADORA INOVATION EM UNIPESSOAL LDA
• DIAKONIA-AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY
• SAN GIUSEPPE ONLUS
• CENTRUL PENTRU PROMOVAREA INVATARII PERMANENTE TIMISOARA ASOCIATIA
• I AND F EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT LIMITED
• Athens Lifelong Learning Institute – Civil Non Profit Organisation
• APROXIMAR- COOPERATIVA DE SOLIDARIEDADE SOCIAL, CRL