SESAME School widE poSitive behAviour for Mental hEalth Erasmus Project

Project Title

SESAME School widE poSitive behAviour for Mental hEalth

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Inclusion – equity; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

CONTEXT
Recent surveys show that stress can become an underlying factor in illnesses such as anxiety and depression. In particular, school-aged people are suffering from high stress, which is associated with academic failure, an increased risk for self-harm and negative school behaviour (Suldo et al., 2008).
There is substantial evidence that mental health promotion programmes in schools can produce long-term benefits for young people including emotional and social functioning and improved academic performance. School can provide a rewarding support system that can be a powerful force in minimising risks and protecting against the development of mental health difficulties.

OBJECTIVES
In our SESAME project we aim at adopting the Schoolwide-Positive Behavior Support (SW-PBS) in secondary schools, to create a school environment that positively impacts the mental health of students and teachers. First studies conducted by the University of Cologne in German primary schools show effects in reducing both externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems, thus contributing to student’s success.
The SW-PBS facilitates prevention, effective mainstream teaching, and early identification and intervention for young people who are at risk of developing unhealthy patterns of behaviour or who are already showing early signs of mental health difficulties, thus preventing cases of early school leaving.

EXPECTED RESULT:
1. Cross-cultural adaptation and technological modernization of the SW-PBS approach in secondary schools
2. An innovative training path for education professionals for an inclusive education based on SWPBS
3. Production of the SESAME app to support the application of the SW-PBS approach
4. A pilot group of professionals trained in the prevention of
behavioural disorders and mental health illnesses
5. Mental health support workers embedded in every school

ACTIVITIES
Three Intellectual Outputs (IOs) have been identified:
– IO1 : Cross-cultural adaptation of the SW-PBS framework in each country context
A methodological guide will be designed to facilitate the implementation of the SW-PBS approach.
– IO2: Training pathways for educators
Design a training pathway for educational practitioners who can adopt the approach
– IO3 SESAME APP – innovative digital SW-PBS tool
Production of a multiplatform digital product that applies gamification principles, to facilitate the interaction between school community and students.

Trainers will be trained to deliver the jointly designed SW-PBS approach and become familiar with the SESAME APP.

BENEFICIARIES and IMPACT
We expect our SESAME project can introduce a direct changing in the educational perspective and school efficiency toward a more positive and proactive approach and increase the quality of life at school, according to the concept of mental and social well-being.

Participants:
– Educational staff (teachers, trainers, school counsellors, psychologists, researchers) of the pilot schools (secondary schools)
Educational staff will be upskilled on the use of the SWPBS approach. As a result, they will develop competencies in the effective support of students with behavioural problems and will also benefit from an increased job satisfaction and personalized investment in the success of the school.

– School Heads, administrators, school community
Schools are expected to get an improved performance, thanks to a better quality of teaching, the use of digital tools and an improved accomplishment and satisfaction of students. Furthermore, the school climate will be improved

-Students (sample of students participating to the piloting phase)
Students (aged 18-25) will participate in the piloting phase (i.e., 6 months – 100 students)
We expect that students will benefit from the approach in terms of:
• Improved Behavioural Outcomes
• Improved collaboration among students
• Improved social integration (i.e., more positive friendships, less bullying)
• Reduced behavioural problems, absenteeism, and dropout rates
• Reduced Number of Early School Leavers
• Reduced levels of stress-related health problems, such as depression, stress, anxiety

LONG TERM IMPACT
Educational staff, school Heads, administrators, school community, students represent the wide target groups our project aims to impact on the long term. Through our dissemination activities and Multiplier events, we aim at showing the positive effect of our approach and stimulate its uptake on a wider context.
Through the dissemination activities, the SESAME partner expect to positively impact also on the following stakeholders who will be given the opportunity to adopt the SESAME products in their usual practices:
-students’ families
-local bodies in charge of education
-psychologists’ Associations, associations promoting Mental Health

Finally, SESAME represents a cross-culturally developed school-based prevention model that might be implement in a variety of Eureopean contexts.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 305070 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET ZU KOELN & Country: DE

Project Partners

• BERGISCHE UNIVERSITAET WUPPERTAL
• N.E.T. (NETWORKING EDUCATION AND TRAINING) ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE
• Giz – we can train you, LDA
• ECOLE DE LA DEUXIEME CHANCE NORMANDIE