The project has been a great success - initial objectives have been met and exceeded in some areas. The project set out to increase children’s passion for reading, enabling them to access learning more successfully and result in higher attainment throughout their education and become lifelong learners. Through the range of activities and events held, children’s enthusiasm for reading and literature-based activities has increased. Through the project, many children have had increased access to literature and opportunities to perform. Extra support was given to families where barriers to learning were present (immigrants, educational, financial, etc). This has resulted in improved relationships not only with the children, but also the wider community. Initial project activities included: sharing photos of favourite reading places, creating Top Ten book lists for individual classes, school exhibitions, learning about favourite authors and writing book reviews. These were all shared across the partner schools. All schools studied a national author of choice, reading their books and hosting Book Days to celebrate work and enjoy the books. Local authors visited schools, delivering workshops and hosting Q and A sessions. Each school created a Big Book of a traditional tale from their country, written in the mother tongue and translated into English. An audio version of the book was also produced. Schools produced their own performances of stories to outside audiences. Staff noticed a raise in self-esteem in some children as a result of the project: those who were reluctant to take part in class activities became more confident and engaged. Others with behavioural issues became more focused and enjoyed success. Via the sharing of teaching strategies across the partner schools, staff now have access to a wider range of successful methods for the teaching of reading. During each visit, the host school provided a range of workshops focusing on reading strategies. These covered a range of areas – phonics, guided reading, SEND, comprehension, additional-language learning, etc. As a result, these examples of best practice strategies have been incorporated into partner schools’ teaching and learning. Monk Fryston has recently become part of a multi-academy trust and so other schools within the trust will also benefit from the sharing of these reading strategies, thus spreading the work of the project even wider. As a result of the project, children now also have a fuller understanding and enjoyment of partner country languages, cultures and traditions. They thoroughly enjoyed writing penpal letters, cards, making bookmarks, etc for their european friends. Even the older children looked forward excitedly to their next correspondence. Staff believe the students now have a higher level of interest for language learning as they progress to secondary education. Reading attainment has risen across partner schools, although this cannot be wholly due to the project. However, we strongly believe that the new-found enthusiasm for reading may contribute to this success. The questionnaires completed at the end of the project demonstrate a higher understanding and appreciation of the languages, customs and traditions in each partner country. The children certainly know more about each country than at the start of the project and are eager to learn more. The reading questionnaires demonstrate an upturn in students’ desire to read and in how long they read for on average a week. Results show a much higher level of interest in reading books written by each country’s national author and a wider range of genres being read.

"Context and backgroundThe priority which the project will address is Science & Tachnology. This will be achieved by focusing on the different elements of STEAM, primarily the following four areas: Properties of Materials (through the design and building of structures); Simple Mechanisms (through the use of levers, cogs and wheels, simple hydraulics etc); Simple Circuits and Robotics. All of these different topics will be tackled in the five mobilities earmarked for this project, with each mobility focusing on one of these topics. .According to the EU Education and Training Monitor 2019, there is still underachievement in Maths and Science .The share of 15 year-olds failing to reach level 2 in the OECD's (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)for Mathematics and Science is as follows: Maths: 22.2% Science: 20.6%. This falls beneath the targeted 15%. The EU has for a long time acknowledged that primary education lays the foundations for success in this area. One of the main conclusions of the first European Conference on Primary Science and Technology Education held on the 15 & 16 October 2004 in Amsterdam states that, ""Science and Technology is the best context to develop higher order cognitive skills needed and primary school is the age to start."" (Proceedings of the European Conference on primary Science and technology Education). The project will upskill teachers in the teaching of Primary Science and Technology. It is an area in which, primary school teachers may not feel confident enough – and this project will help to address this need through training, hands on experiences, peer observations, lesson studies and pedagogical walk-throughs. This will be achieved both through collaborations with colleagues, and also with staff from schools in other countries.ObjectivesThe objectives of this project will be as follows:- To improve the teaching in Science & Technology, through the capacity building of 35 teachers on STEAM subjects.-To disseminate the acquired knowledge by the 35 participants to 50 other teachers and therefore adopt a solid train-the-trainer approach.-To strengthen the relationship between 5 schools which all possess distinct expertise on different areas of science and technology.Number and profile of participantsThe project will include 35 teachers who will take part in the different mobilities of the project. These teachers are all teachers who teach science subjects at primary school level. These were selected as they have the strongest remit when it comes to STEAM subjects. In addition to this primary school students will also take part in the project as a means for teachers to practice what they learnt during the mobilities.The planned activities to be undertaken are :-5 mobilities focusing on: - Robotics- Spain - Structures - Ireland - Mechanisms and ICT- Slovenia - Electrical circuits - Italy - Pedagogical walkthrough - Malta - Dissemination activities by each school. - Booklet developed on best practices. MethodologyDuring the school visits the teachers will be provided with the opportunity to learn from each other through lesson study (the Lesson Study approach is a method of professional development that encourages teachers to reflect on their teaching practice through a cyclical process of collaborative lesson planning, lesson observation, and examination of student learning) and pedagogical walkthroughs (This is when teachers are given the opportunity to observe lessons on a particular topic (STEAM projects in this case)) in different year groups. This will help a primary school teacher understand where his/her particular students are coming from and to what should they aspire in terms of learning experiences.Results and impactThe project will lead to the following results:-Upskilling of 35 teachers through 5 training events on STEAM subjects.-Transfer of knowledge to 50 teachers through train-the-trainer sessions.-Strengthened relationship between 5 schools.The impact of this project will be on both teachers directly and students indirectly. Here teachers will obtain necessary skill in different aspects of STEAM subjects. This will heavily impact not only their own know-how but also their ability in teaching their pupils on different aspects of science and technology. As a result of this, the project will also impact primary school children attending these different schools, who in the long-term benefit. Here the school children will be impacted as they will see the benefit of having better planned lessons and more innovative modes of learning STEAM subjects.Long-term benefitsBy having better quality lessons in STEAM subjects at a young age, youths will be more inclined to follow these areas once they grow up. This will lead to more people taking up roles in the areas based on STEAM."