Sim, nós podemos: Acima e Além Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sim, nós podemos: Acima e Além

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Disabilities – special needs; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

There is a greater need for evidence-based practices from countries and institutions that have been successful in similar developments on one hand and made a sustainable impact on the other hand. There is no need to invent new wheels. There is a great need though to successfully implement tested models of inclusive practices within schools and learning communities, with the aim to achieve impact on an individual, institutional and systematic level. Inclusive pedagogies and methodologies to support reflection processes and teaching and learning are one of the conditions to make a difference for all students in their educational pathway to success as well as their personal journey as responsible citizens.
Students need to be the central focus of education. All students have the right to high quality education, a relevant curriculum, appropriate assessments and ‘equivalent’ and valued learning opportunities. Schools need to provide an environment that addresses the diversity of learners, including the various learning needs, in order to maximize the potential of each student. Quality education should be designed and tailored to the students, rather than forcing them to adjust to a current system. This approach should ensure their engage in the learning process as well as perceiving a clear purpose for their studies.
Based on these principles and inspired by the video “Above and Beyond”, this project of partnership between the three schools emerged. Different schools, different realities, different ideas came together to walk a common path of sharing about disability, special needs and pedagogy. We established specific aims regarding key skills such as expressiveness and communication, autonomy and self-regulation and self-determination.
The project will have the participation of specialized teachers, class directors, therapists and operational assistants. External entities were also considered and involved: institutions where students develop an Individual Transition Plan, Town Hall, the Teacher Training Center, the National Association of Special Education Teachers and University of Minho. The students will be between 11 and 18 years old, mainly SEN, with different incidence and with different education levels. Priority was given to students who develop an Individual Transition Plan and with less opportunities to experience other cultures.
The activities were conceived through a common plan between the three partners. Several partnership methodologies in each school and community context were considered, in addition to specific interaction activities, in each country and in a intercultural group. This way, we will involve formal and non-formal learning activities, at school, in the community, with families and in work activities in preparation for the students post school life. We seek to share resources, experience of each school and the holistic offerings of the community and partners to promote inclusion and equity. They involve the use of technologies in research, sharing, projection and innovation in association to heritage-curriculumpedagogy in the classroom and outdoor methodologies, blended education and in the dissemination of activities. We hope that those involved will transfer knowledge to real life and share that knowledge with others.
The European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education defines inclusive education as a systemic approach to providing high-quality education in mainstream schools to meet the academic and social learning needs of all the students from the school’s local community. Inclusion therefore should focus on building the capacity of mainstream schools to support diversity rather than distributing additional resources to selected (and labelled) groups in separate settings. With this project, we hope to get the opportunity to prove that SEN students have skills that, if the education system allows, can go Above and Beyond. Not confined or segregated in a space, but citizens of a region, citizens of a country, citizens of an increasingly inclusive continent.
From the shared path, we reflected that an effective support for learners with disabilities and learning difficulties relies on a whole school approach, including: a clear focus on learning for all; recognition of different kinds of achievement (not only academic success); effective and distributed school leadership; schools collaboration with the local community; and participation of students and their families in decisions about their own learning.
As the schools are dynamic spaces, receptive to change and, increasingly, with greater autonomy, we hope, with the dissemination of this project, to reflect on the processes of evaluation, planning and intervention in the different stages of students’ lives, as well as in different contexts, creating the hope that together, we can be an example of effectiveness in the pursuit of inclusion.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 99535 Eur

Project Coordinator

Agrupamento de Escolas Camilo Castelo Branco & Country: PT

Project Partners

• Medicinska skola “Beograd”
• Schule am Bienwaldring