Together

"This project named ""Together"" was planned among partners who have experience with fruitful cooperation and who can share their experience even in the future. All our schools have to face the same problems and challenges the world today brings but each of us have different background and could provide with useful practice. Gymnázium Jana Blahoslava a Střední pedagogická škola in Přerov is located in an area with strong Romani communities and high unemployment so there are a lot of children with fewer opportunities to gain proper education and become respected members of the community in the future. The London Sir John Cass and Red Coat Church of England School has 93% of students from minority ethnic groups and 82 students with refugee status, with Somali as the dominant ethnic group. About 80% of students are classified bilingual with Sylheti as one of the main languages spoken. The school supports 40 students in the early stages of learning English so the school staff is very experienced in integrating those children in the educational process and helping them to become successful in their new home country and master the English language as well. Istituto Comprensivo Statale Melanzio-Parini in Castel Ritaldi is located in a rural area where the families are usually not very open-minded to immigrant families and whose sense of traditional way of living is very strong. On the other hand, there are a lot of foreign immigrant students in the classes and they sometimes have difficulties to introduce their culture and traditions and be accepted and respected in that environment. The objective of this project was to find and test various ways how to help minority/refugee/handicapped students or students with fewer opportunities or poor/outstanding school performance integrate in the mainstream educational process and be respected and help other members of the school community to open their minds and be tolerant and cooperative and not to look for simple solutions. We used various activities and methodology to achieve the desired objective and would like most of them to become an integral part of our school curricula. Those activities included the creation of teaching/study material to be used with students with fewer opportunities, students with poor/outstanding school performance or students whose mother tongue is different from the national language. These materials (worksheets, cards) were created, tested and reviewed during the two years of the project duration and should become a common aid now, after the project is completed. There were project days organised which gave migrant/refugee students and their families a chance to introduce their culture, traditions and way of living to other members of the community. Other project days provided the school students and teachers with the opportunity to spend time with children from socially excluded areas or handicapped students to learn ad practice mutual respect and cooperation. We established new friendships not only between the participants from our schools but also between different students within the school, between students and teachers from our schools and their counterparts from other educational institutions and establish a fruitful relationship between our school and local/regional/national authorities which could serve as the basis for future cooperation and support which is necessary to succeed in working out the solution to the problems Europe and the world are facing today."