Strategies for improving attendance and reducing truancy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Strategies for improving attendance and reducing truancy

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

CONTEXT
We are five partner schools united by the same drive – to create the formal context for our teachers to develop professionally through European experiences in order to meet the ever-changing needs and expectations of our students. We come from diverse social and economic backgrounds, but it appears that irrespective of that, we have one common intention, that of improving the teaching approaches and by extension the learning of students, making them become more interested in the main school subjects and thus improving their performance and preparing them to access better schools after finishing the current educational level.
The project was created in response to two basic needs identified at the level of the schools involved – the need to boost students’ motivation and consequently their school results and the need to promote intercultural dialogue among people from different countries and backgrounds. We want to share practices and include them in our regular curriculum in the long run, thus creating a network of schools put students’ desires and interests at the core of their teaching.

OBJECTIVES
O1 to enable the professional development of 100 teachers of languages, maths, science, history, geography and biology through European mobility in the 2 project years
O2 to improve the school relevance for children’s needs and increase their level of satisfaction by at least 60%
O3 to improve the school results of at least 30% of students in the target group after the 2 project years
O4 to enable teachers to exchange good practices at European level and apply them in their own schools
O5 to improve the schools’ material base with at least 40 sample activities applicable on the main subjects
O6 to enable intercultural exchange among students and among teachers
O7 to ensure the development of cooperation at European level, by creating a network of schools which will collaborate even after the end date of the project

ACTIVITIES
We planned 5 LTTAs – short-term joint staff training events
– C1 – Tablets and the use of mobile applications in class (History) – SRB Jan 2021
– C2 – Outdoor activities and the teaching of Geography and Biology – IT Apr 2021
– C3 – Integrating STEAM projects in science lessons – SI Sep 2021
– C4 – The use of interactive games in teaching languages – TR Jan 2022
– C5 – Making evaluation meaningful and fun – Applications on Maths – MK Apr 2022

PARTICIPANTS
The 5 exchanges are short term joint staff training events, which involve the participation of teachers. There will be a number of 100 teachers overall who attend them: 52 language teachers (C1-C5), 8 ICT teachers (C1), 8 History (C1), 8 Maths (C3-C5), 8 Geography (C2), 8 Biology (C2), 8 Science (C3). These will be selected from the total number of 180 permanent Ts of these subjects from the 5 partner schools

RESULTS
The project’s tangible outputs: an initial and final survey on students to measure their level of satisfaction, 40 sample activities proposed by teachers, tested during the exchanges and applied in all 5 schools after the exchanges; students’ feedback forms to all activities; students’ eTwinning communication forum, teachers’ eTwinning communication forum, pictures take during activities, individual partner reports completed after each exchange in which they record all the positive aspects that they observed during exchanges and ways of integrating them in their own schools, Europass Mobility documents which illustrate the acquisitions in terms of knowledge and skills of participants, certificates of attendance, the project website, individual country blogs created by students, interim and final reports, impact study.

IMPACT
The greatest benefit of our schools refers to the improvement of professional competences of teachers and their motivation, which in turn will lead to the improvement of students’ motivation levels.
The fact that our teachers will meet, work together, collaborate for the creation of a common set of materials will boost their confidence, increase their level of professional network and give them a sense of professional belonging.
In the long term, our schools will become more appreciated in our local communities and we will provide more meaningful learning contexts for our students. As a result of this project, we want to initiate another project in which students themselves will participate.
The project is meant to contribute greatly to the European dimension of our schools and to an openness towards progress and modern approaches to teaching.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 137500 Eur

Project Coordinator

Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Molise Altissimo” & Country: IT

Project Partners

• ISIKLI 60.YIL ILKOKULU
• Osnovna skola “Miroslav Antic”
• Osnovna sola Sentvid
• Osnovno Uciliste Vanco Nikoleski s. Leskoec Ohrid