All together, all the same Erasmus Project

Project Title

All together, all the same

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Our main aim was extremely demanding since it went to the root of the student’s lives: their social skills, their social beliefs and their social life
We started with the belief that deep social changes start in school . The school is where children learn to live with others , away from possible privileges of their homes, levelling up with each other. It is a unique opportunity to learn to accept themselves and the others in a complex process that requires scaffolding, training and supervision to help them enjoy who they are and open their minds to other realities. We wanted our project to be the opportunity to test and train social abilities in our students, mingling children from Special Needs schools and/or children with disadvantaged situations with others from regular schooling, in a European -thus- pluricultural and plurilinguistic context, using the “Arts” as the tool for our purposes.
We expected this project to have a strong impact in the motivation of the children as well as in their social and pluricultural skills, proving that, with the right environment, the children with Special Needs or Special Situations and the children without them, from three very different countries could feel as One Team with one common goal
We also expected that the teachers from the partner schools would benefit from the experience and would bind together, learning from each other’s ideas, cultural differences and proposals, coming closer as a team of European teachers
To achieve our goals, we got together 6 schools (3 Special or Inclusive schools and 3 Regular ones) from 3 different countries (Romania, Belgium and Spain) and prepared 6 Learning, Teaching and Training Activities (2 joint staff training events and 4 short-term exchange of group of pupils) that would help our children and teachers to improve their social, pluricultural and inclusive skills at the same time that they enjoyed performing Arts and they worked on their artistic skills
For teachers mobilities, the plan was to learn and train together in Arts. The process of training together would be motivational and would bind us together, enriching each other with different ideas for the project
For pupils’ mobility, the children would have to prepare something related to Art: a theatre play, an Arts and Crafts activity, a dance/song and some culinary artistic recipes. The activities would work in three levels: first level would be preparing and training at their own schools, where the children would start mingling and joining in. The second level would be between the two schools of each participating country (the regular school and the Special Needs one), thus “pushing” the children towards a cooperation in equality to achieve a common goal. The third and last level would introduce the pluricultural challenge, again “pushing” the children to get together with the teams of the other countries and join in their parts so that they all became one whole pluricultural, plurilinguistic team with a common purpose, in every mobility
Each participant schools mobilized more than 20 students, some with Special Needs and some from socially deprived situations, and 10-12 teachers and assistants. Apart from the students and teachers that got in the budget, all schools sent extra students and teachers, squeezing their Management budget, to extend the benefit
Our expectations were met greatly. It was overwhelmingly wonderful to watch the children fully enjoy while mingling naturally, using English, their hands or their phone translators and have fun together while performing their theatre plays, their music and dance, their Arts and Crafts or their cooking recipes (online). This, adding to the excitement they showed while experiencing a new country with new traditions and new food. For the teachers it was a unique experience that, in some cases, marked a new beginning in their professional careers.
The project “All together, all the same” also was long term inspiring. Time after, the participating students still emphasize how important was the experience for them and how it empowered them. The teachers also claim the high benefit of the experience, to the point that all the participating ones plus some more in each school, are willing to continue in this path. The participating schools decided, on the light of the positive results, to continue with further projects, some of which have been approved under the umbrella of Erasmus + and some of which remain more local. But all of them dealing with real inclusion in a controlled context
We are certain that our project will remain for years to come in the hearts and minds of our participating students, hopefully helping them to follow a path of self-esteem, mutual respect and open-minded attitudes, so to build a better Europe. We also know that it meant a positive starting point for the participating schools to follow in the years to come. We expect great still unknown things coming from our project in the mid and long term.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 125967,4 Eur

Project Coordinator

CEIP Arcipreste de Hita & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Scoala Gimnaziala Speciala SF NICOLAE
• GO! basisschool De Driesprong Maldegem
• CEIP “FRAY JUAN DE LA CRUZ”
• GO! School voor Buitengewoon Secundair Onderwijs t Vurstjen
• Colegiul National Mihai Eminescu