Proud to be Me

Our project is a small scale, two year project which aims to provide both teachers and pupils with the skills for the 21st Century. We are living in a global society where mutual understanding, tolerance and respect are as vital as having excellent communication skills. Our project will help bring together schools from within Europe, to help develop the skill of communication, both written and spoken as well as forging friendships and a feeling of belonging and enhanced self-worth. It will engage all of our school community including the more reluctant learners. It will bring the curriculum alive, through real live learning and purpose. It will motivate pupils who are less academic or have special needs and teachers who themselves are reluctant to learn new skills. We aim to: *Enhance enquiry skills and knowledge of different countries, cultures and people which will break down barriers to understanding *Embrace our European shared values *Enhance pupils and teachers intercultural awareness and see themselves as part of Europe and the Global community *Provide experience to teachers and some pupils to experience another culture and education system first hand. *Improve the quality of teaching and learning in our schools *Make the curriculum more relevant and exciting by providing real life experiences and an audience for their work *We want to motivate pupils and teachers including those who are hard to engage. *Build on skills for the 21st century, to improve attainment by closing the gap and prepare the pupils for the workplace. *Improve literacy skills *Improve communication skills for pupils and teachers *Improve children's and teachers ICT skills *Increase other skills and competences amongst all staff *Collaborative learning and teamwork on share end products such as Mascot Diaries, international Events and newsletters *Provide high quality CPD for teachers and help them to reflect on and challenge current pedagogy which impacts future learning. *Disseminate the project through media and other social platforms The schools participating in the project are experiencing high levels of depravation and the pupils are at risk of underachieving which will impact on their future lives. We want to ensure that all our pupils are fully skilled for the 21st Century, to be successful in our global society. The project will support the development of communication skills and cooperative learning skills as well as ICT skills, Literacy, Numeracy and Scientific thinking. This will help to improve attainment and close the gap in learning with peers from other schools. The activities and project meetings will provide so much real life skills to support our ambitions. Comenius previously has proven to be great tool for supporting life skills, problem solving and critical thinking. Teachers have found that pupils' skills and competencies improve as a result of partnership work and also that confidence, self-esteem and motivation increase. Some of the teachers in this project are etwinning ambassadors so this will also provide opportunity to cascade ideas that can be used in training opportunities for teachers in other schools.