"The project creates a partnership that works to improve the understanding and effectiveness of language learning in the early stages of formal education. The working language of the project is English. The project uses ICT as a tool for cohesion and shared understanding, underpinning language learning through the development of a shared picture dictionary, designed and created by pupils in the infant department of each primary school. This is achieved through regular class to class Skype sessions that involve pupils and teachers. Teaching staff and support workers take part in exchanges and training workshops in each country.""CILT"" is developed (Community Integration Language Toolkit) through extending innovation & sharing expertise. This is mainstreamed at the end of the project. Shared teacher training workshops in each country are designed and delivered by expert early years language specialists with a wider interest that incorporates extending the curriculum to take account of culture as well as foundation learning. The CILT Toolkit created across the partnership is tested at a Final Event held in the UK near the end of the project. Each partner hosts one event and incorporates a half day event that is open to a wider audience that includes people from the local community, the media, representatives from support agencies and colleges/univesities and policy makers.To inspire early years language learning in children, the project works class to class through Skype with 24-30 children in each school, using initially Makaton sign language to communicate with each other, then progressing to learning and illustrating simple, everyday words in each language, building into a picture dictionary, illustrated by the children themselves. At the end of the project this dictionary is marketed to parents and the wider community.There is a final Seminar in the UK to disseminate project results and to debate the future of language learning in a wider, united world, led by a cohesive Europe, promoting mobility of opportunity, equal opportunities and social justice for all.In a widening Europe it is essential that schools offer the most effective social and educational integration for newly arrived pupils. Without cohesive school communities & sound, long-term social integration a fulfilling academic career cannot progress. Most importantly, without embracing cultural differences, respecting and understanding ethnic richness, equal opportunities cannot result. Also, in order to improve understanding in the wider community and to reduce the pressures that can often result from a sudden increase in ethnic groups, there needs to be wider awareness of different languages & cultural understanding. This needs to begin in pre-school & be endorsed throughout every child's school career.The project also creates flexible tools to assist children from each local area who join the school without having an average linguistic or communication ability. Specialist methodologies are developed that take account of individual learning needs as well as cultural integration issues.Primary schools are ideally placed to lead the way. Children are Ambassadors - this is the theme of this project. Learning through children & letting children discover and enjoy, different languages & different cultures, easing the way to wider understanding whilst enriching the school curriculum. Using ICT links to partner schools the children will provide peer language interpretation whilst absorbing awareness of the cultural differences that create a cosmopolitan & diverse community. Empowering individual children as interpreters.The partners come together to improve linguistic skills in pupils & to raise awareness of cultural & social integration issues. Mobility & learning opportunities are for teachers, support staff & wider community supporters, sharing educational good practice, recognising innovation and developing a Model for community integration."

Polyglot's main aim was to develop a methodology and tools helping educators and parents to use web based Open Educational Resources (OER) for bilingual education in preschool. Polyglot has provided parents and teacher with tools for helping children with the learning of a second language. After the workshops, especially parents are more confident and they know that children can learn a second language even if the parents do not speak that language. The parents know that with the Open Educational resources they can support their children by learning a second language at home too. The approach of combining in-classroom piloting with educators and parents with online learning through e-courses related to parents and educators was innovative.The study and mastering of several foreign languages is a very good stimulus for the mind. New studies show that the mind of the people, who speak more than one language is more agile, and is able to cope with uncertainties faster, better, also with solving conflicts and even is able to counter Alzheimer’s disease.More than 50% of Europeans are either bilingual or live in a multicultural and multilingual environment. Many schools involved in the project have different experiences with multi-lingualism. Many children come from mixed marriages and in the families there are two and more languages are spoken. This project has helped a large number of teachers and teacher trainers to adapt an innovative approach to language education for children of the project’s target group.The project is submitted by a consortium of organizations managing kindergartens in AT, BG, ES or cooperating with them (IT, TR), and by research organization specialized in using ICT methodologies for learning (CY). The development and testing of the project’s products has been made simultaneously in 6 countries, participating in the project – Bulgaria (private kindergarten “Leonardo da Vinci”), Austria (private kindergarten “Kindervilla”), Spain (private kindergarten “Baby Erasmus”) and also by partners from Italy, Turkey and Cyprus, which participate with NGOs, but work with two public kindergarten by their choice. POLYGLOT helped children in these kindergartens to develop linguistic competences through the support of educators and parents and the use of OERs.Language acquisition and language enhancement gets more and more important for an intercultural dialogue in our societies in Europe and for increasing job chances of individuals. As children are especially receptive to learning languages at an early age, linguistic competences and a multilingual education should be implemented in an early stage in Europe’s kindergartens.The project’s target groups and relevant stakeholders involved pre-primary education teachers, parents, and children, as well as any other agency or individual who is involved in early language aquisition or the inclusion of migrant or multilingual children in european societies. The overall impact of the project on the target group members and other stakeholders was very positive, and the feedback received through the implementation phase, the dissemination activities, the multiplier events, and the exploitation seminars was very encouraging, as people showed interest in using the material in the future at school or at home, and also in informing others about the project and its outputs. All project products and e-courses will be accessible for the next 3 years through the project website: www.polyglot.expert