School as STImulator of COmmunity DEvelopment

<< Background >>The partner schools see the pupil population becoming increasingly diverse and they experience that the number of pupils from less fortunate families is becoming significant. Focusing only on problems related to social disadvantage and diversity at school does not address the root of the problem. It is better to work with local organizations and local authorities to improve neighborhoods. All partner schools are already community schools to some degree. The partner schools have the need to go a step further than the community school concept. They realize that in order to enter into a lasting relationship with the neighborhood, it is important that the partners from the neighborhood alsobenefit from the cooperation. They are also aware of the social role they can play. The Neighborhood-Engaged Schoolpartners have the ambition to be - together with associations, local authorities and businesses - the engine for the socioeconomic and cultural development of the neighborhood or local community. << Objectives >>As Neighborhood-Engaged schools the partnerschip wanted to set up activities and actions to support local residents, organizations and entrepreneurs. Our goal was to make that the schools would become aware of the role they play in improving the situation of the school neighborhood and the families of their students.Those efforts had to improve the living and learning environment of the pupils and had to indirectly improve the learning performance of the pupils and help to decrease the school failure of children from disadvantaged families. Cooperation with local organizations and authorities had to contribute to a stronger commitment to upgrade the school neighborhoods and thus improve the living conditions of the pupils. The intention for partners was to develop a number of small-scale projects and put them into practice in their school environments.<< Implementation >>There have been four activities combining a training and jobshadowing. In the training part, the partners learned how to set up successful collaboration initiatives and to monitor and evaluate the projects. During the jobshadowing participants have learned from each others experiences.The Greek partner (an etwinning expert) started for the pupils of the partner schools an etwinnig project.<< Results >>Each partner school organized at least three concrete partnerships with organizations or individuals from the vicinity of the school or in the local community. The coordinating school and the organisation EtuConsult have organized a webinar with the theme 'How do we become a Neighborhood Involved School?' The partnership has written an inspiration book for all schools interested in becoming a Neighborhood Engaged School. 'The aim is to inform school boards and teachers all over Europe of the results of the international project.