My School is My Home now Erasmus Project

Project Title

My School is My Home now

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; Access for disadvantaged; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

Background
“My school is my home now” addresses children in EU28, who – due to medical and/or disability status might not be able to obtain inclusive education in mainstream school and who are in need of specific homeschooling or (concerning younger children) home visiting programs.
It is estimated that 6% of children in EU28 show vulnerabilities concerning their development and subsequently concerning pre-academic or school education.
Especially for TR – based on new legal requirements of 12 years compulsory education create a strong need concerning training and support material both for the involved teachers and parents. Also in other EU countries – despite high theoretical consensus about the involvement of parents as “expert-partners” in educational processes – full participation is still a challenge as professionals sometimes do not have the necessary skills (e.g. how to involve parents concerning individual Family Support Plans in preschool education).
“My school is my home now” focuses on the transfer of existing knowledge and skills within EU networks (Eurlyaid and parent association BOSK) specifically towards the needs of TR school administration, teachers and parents.

Aims
“My school is my home now” is to increase knowledge and skills of teachers and preschool professionals to be able to better support children in their home environment if they are not (yet) able to attend mainstream educational setting.
“My school is my home now” increases the cooperation between parents and professionals by stimulating exchange and providing (mainly ICT based) information material.
“My School is my home now” provides support for teachers and parents and their children being confronted with home schooling.
“My School is my home now” aims to increases competences of teachers and the transfer of learning situations into families by
-A focus on the development of individual family support plans (IFSP)
-A training methodology for teachers
-Educational online resources for students and teachers

Target Groups
Parents of children with disability or comparable significant health status which might inhibit regular school attendence.
Teachers/educators working in home visiting systems or home schooling systems.

Intellectual Outputs/Results and impact attained
1) Portal/homepage (available in TR, EN, DE, NL) has been created containing information about objectives, activities and final results of the project, distance learning software, about the role of digital technology in optimizing the communication possibilities and in facilitating the educaional integration of disabled students.
2) Ready for use, web based and/or distance education kit (TR, EN, DE) has been created containing general information about the opportunities that digital technology offers in facilitating the communication, social support and education integration of disability/diseased students. The software is used visual and live processing: adapted text, pictures, strategies and the principles of distance education.
3) Research findings concerning the needs of families having home-schooled children TR has been conducted. EU: Of families having students who need special education.
4) Psychosocial support education materials for families (TR, EN, DE,NL): Content prepared to support the family.
This content covers disability, trauma and trauma coping processes, communication methods, etc. legal rights of people with disabilities.
5) Teacher Training Set (TR, EN, DE,NL): Training guides/ curriculum for the career development of the teacher who gives education to the disabled or chronically ill students and supports family of the disabled students has been prepared.

Expected Impact and longer-term benefits
“My School is my home now” increases the competences of teachers in cooperation with parents and children and leads to higher educational output for the children.
Awareness of the opportunities that digital technology offers as answer to their specific needs.
The approaches applied in this project will constitute examples of good practice and will be taken over by other institutions who work with children with special needs.
Awareness of companies that produce digital technology on the disabled students particular needs.
Awareness of Public Institutions on the disabled students particular needs.
Awareness of the families who have disabled children on the disabled students particular needs.

Consortium
Multisectoral and multi-geographical partnership including TR, AT, DE, LU and NL. There are total of nine partners comprises the consortium. From Turkey there are five partners of whom two are goverment organisation, an NGO, a University and a private sector organisation in the education sector. From AT there was a private sector organisation from education sector. From DE a university. From NL there is an NGO constitutes of the parents of disabled children. From LU there was an NGO operating through Europe wide.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 235762,81 Eur

Project Coordinator

Altindag Ilce Milli Egitim Mudurlugu & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Dost Egitim Turizm Insaat Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.
• Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi
• Altindag Rehberlik ve Arastirma Merkezi
• Eurlyaid asbl
• BOSK
• Uluslararasi Buyuk Egitimciler ve Ozel Egitimciler Dernegi (UBED)
• Dr. Pretis