Thematic framework of the project were the challenges in matters of education policy generated by the refugee crisis of 2015/2016 in both participating countries, Germany and Austria, respectively their metropolitan areas. Until January 2016, the number of people who applied for asylum in Germany had risen by 133 per cent compared to the previous year. Ten per cent of all first applications were then filed in the federal region of Berlin alone. In Austria figures had increased dramatically as well since 2013. Here, two thirds of all applications were filed in Vienna. The population growth of both capitals has significantly been shaped by this immigration and lead to a continuously increasing diversity of the common general public which can, among others, be detected especially at schools of all types and levels. These days one can already find classes of 25 to 30 pupils where learners come from at least half as many countries of origin having at least twelve different mother tongues. In the wake of last years’ migratory movements towards the two regions participating in the exchange, now children and adolescents without knowledge of the German language but entitled to compulsory education have to be considered. They are first taught German in temporary learning groups called “Willkommensklassen” or “Neu-in-Wien-Kurse” in order to be later integrated into the regular school systems of both federal regions. These target groups have to be provided with access to the same learning opportunities as all those children and adolescents entitled to compulsory general education who are already part of the school systems of both Germany and Austria. Despite the language barrier, which is there at least at the beginning, there must not be any disadvantage. On neither side. To guarantee, against this background, school education and individual support for all children and adolescents alike, all educational staff have to meet the current challenges our societies face. To supply general education inside and outside classes for refugee children and otherwise immigrated young people plays an important part. A response to their diverse origins and their very different personal and educational biographies requires sensitive pedagogical action, the teaching of the not exactly uncomplicated German language in very heterogeneous learning groups asks for new methods and materials. Moreover, long-term solutions for proper integration of these students into regular classes of general education have to be found and been implemented into the system in a sustainable way. The Strategic Partnership “WELCOME – Integration of refugees into school” between two regions has generated an exchange of Good Practice on both sides in terms of administrative proceedings, methodological approaches and didactic concepts, innovative teacher and in-service training schemes as well as structures of networking and co-operating including financial and legal regulations and their implementation in and outside schools. The participating institutions, two regional educational authorities, two associations providing after- and outside-school advice and support, one pedagogical applied university and two schools per region, brought in profound and comprehensive administrative, legal, pedagogical and teaching expertise and experience regarding the target groups mentioned above. These experiences were be presented and compared to each other, thus becoming part of further future-oriented and sustainable conceptual consideration and being incorporated into innovative approaches concerning teaching at the schools providing general public education in both regions as well as teacher training and the training and qualification of educational staff. New concepts were contemplated about how extra-curricular opportunities may be better involved in the process of educational integration of newly arrived children and adolescents, in their language acquisition and promotion and in the intercultural dialog fostered by official educational policy. The results and outputs of this exchange of Good Practice between Berlin and Vienna are accessible through the project handout published online. They can be used by other parties responsible for education or any other people interested in the matter in other regions or federal states.

"The project ""School INCLUDING democratic changes - promoting self-determination, attitude and responsibility in a societal context"" took a closer look at democratic processes in schools in four countries and provided space for an intensive and in-depth exchange of experiences. We jointly explored what challenges schools have to face to live and promote democratic behaviour actively.Democracy education is a transversal issue in many schools today. Active democracy means participating in social and political opinion-forming processes. The ability to represent and negotiate one's interests, accept other opinions, and find fair solutions to possible conflicts is a prerequisite. This topic also has an essential transnational dimension: at the European level, intercultural aspects also play a role or images of self and others in the respective countries.Educating young people in preparation for life in a democratic society that guarantees fundamental and human rights is an essential task of the school. Democracy is realised in the actions of the individual as well as in living together. The school is in close contact with the evolving society. Shaping, learning and practising in working and living together in everyday school life is an overriding mission at the school as a place of learning. Given the worldwide rise of populism, racism and exclusion, it is even more critical today that schools offer children and young people a protected environment in which all questions can be asked, opinions expressed, and discussions held openly. Only by participating in cultural, social and political life, a person can develop in a self-confident and healthy way. Therefore, the mandate for Democracy education is embedded in the process of democratic school development.The project aimed to develop, test, evaluate jointly, and record tools for communication, cooperation, and didactic implementation in a structured exchange of experience and practice. In the context of school development, the following challenges arise:-Facing change and developing school practice,-understanding democratic school development as a process of innovation,-Enabling experiences of self-efficacy,-initiating and organising age-appropriate situations and educational processes,-taking into account the heterogeneity of learners.We collected tools and processes to promote democratic interaction and searched for a common answer to the challenges of democratic school development. Since there are already numerous methods and tools for democracy education with defined focal points and target groups, we want to meet the mandate for democracy education by embedding it in democratic school development."

The aim of CONCRIT is to work towards a socially cohesive Europe, which requires self-confident, fully informed and educated citizens. In Europe many small solutions exist isolated - or are created over and over again- without being connected. CONCRIT aspires to connect those needs.In the initial assessment, the partners identified needs, which can be answered by a general learning path that should address challenges as lacking insight of how participation works, the general disenchantment of marginalised communities from politics and digital exclusion. The educators seek learner driven tools, way to build a community and to de-construct discriminatory stereotypes. The learners need digital learning tools/ methods which engage and work with different communities and developing storytelling and group narratives as a method for civic education.The partners are:Comparative Research Network, Germany (coordinator);Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie, Germany;Miejski Osrodek Pomocy Spolecznej w Gdyni, Poland;Cartias der Erzdiozese Wien, Austria;Peoples‘ Voice Media, UKLaboratorio per le Politiche Sociali, Italy. TThe direct target groups of CONCRIT are adult educators, volunteers and community worker focused on civic education. The indirect are learners, members of the marginalised communities and on a deeper level all European citizen.Community Narration utilizes personal stories and community narratives as an entry into the evaluation process. The process attempts to reduce hierarchies between the “consultant” (e.g. facilitators, educators, social workers) and the community involved. The community narratives consist out of personal stories, however stories and narratives are intimately tied with one another. Each community has a unique set of narratives that are a source of growth, and a way for a community to creatively find its narratives. Telling stories is an enjoyable and enriching experience and community members feel like becoming understood from the outside. Understanding personal and community narratives helps all stakeholders to better understand the community. This community narration could be easily used to teach and understand critical thinking.The project will be combined out of 5 phases and will produce 3 intellectual outputs. The input phase is a desktop-research on smart practices in teaching digital narration principles and media literacy. The results will be presented at Transnational Meetings and facilitators will be invited to test them in a peer-review lab.During the Creation phase, the intellectual output will be created. The collected practices, methods and experiences are reviewed and used to co-design two learning paths.During the adaption phase the partners will work with the general learning path and create the locally working adaptions. At the end of the phase all paths (1 general and 6 local) will be ready to be tested.In the Testing and reflection phase 2 impact trainings will be organised, where the developed paths will be applied to local stakeholder. In the sharing phase, the paths will be presented to the public in multiplier events. The reviewed smart practices will be published in a digital repository and in a series of multiplier events. CONCRIT will create:1.A training plan (learning path) on how to include digital storytelling and media literacy in broadly general civic education, which is flexible for various target groups and communities, which their specific challenges and perspectives2.A training plan (learning path) on how to adapt the previous path to the different situation. The path will contain 6 sample plans developed and tailored for the needs of the 6 partners plus instructions on how the paths might be altered and adapted.3.A Digital repository/Map which will collect methods and tools of teaching digital literacy – available for any interested citizen in Europe.Next to these we plan to deliver the following results:1. Development of a sustainable strategic partnership for ongoing collaboration and sharing of smart practices2. A website to support community narrators, organisations and facilitators.3. A report on civic education methods to involve disadvantaged communities through media literacyWe expect that adult facilitators will gain a new tool to train and teach and empower the communities. The general learning path will provide easy hands-on tools, providing innovative methods, which will motivate the learners to stay involved and feel empowered. In the adapted learning paths, the learners will learn how to get involved, strengthen their awareness on social and political processes and make them aware of their rights as citizens. Teaching approaches as critical thinking or the construction and de-construction of narratives strengthen the self-confidence of the learners. They will have a stronger personality and a strengthen sense for local, helping to fight back radicalization and exclusion.

School starting ages vary across Europe. The experience of transition to school can be very supportive for children and their families, setting them up for future academic and social success. However, it can be a difficult experience for some children, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), those who have already experienced multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences, or those from hard to reach communities such as migrant, refugee and Roma and Sinta groups. Transitions have been identified as an important focus area as a result of the partners’ work on previous Erasmus+ projects, such as ITIDE, PROMISE, and PROLEA. This project aims to synthesise and develop best practice around transitions to school for dissemination across partner countries to support positive outcomes for all groups of children. Whilst acknowledging individual regional contexts and investigating best practice in our partners' regions, we will find solutions through collaborative transnational knowledge exchange. We will be addressing the horizontal priority of supporting educators, and the school education priorities of tackling disadvantage and increasing access to high quality early child education and care. Cross-cultural research on transitions to full time compulsory schooling argues that these experiences relate to social competence and academic achievement (Tizard et al., 1988; Ramey & Campbell, 1991). Preschool children with SEND often experience a more challenging transition to school than others (Janus et al., 2008), with success depending on the child’s adaptation to the new environment and on the parents, teachers and school facilitating the child’s learning. Parents play a key role in providing information about their children whilst teacher attitudes and expectations and communication with parents and other members of the transition team are highly important in determining the quality of the transition (Salend, 2008). Hard to reach and vulnerable communities include children who have experienced trauma, looked after children, refugee and migrant children, marginalised groups such as Roma and Sinta, and children who experience intergenerational poverty. For them, transitions are particularly hard as they are less likely to attend early years care settings (Gilley et al., 2015). The family may also lack experience of schooling, or have negative expectations that the home culture and language may not be valued. Schools may make 'assumptions about levels of cultural familiarity and contextual knowledge' (Vickers, 2007). For these children and families, transdisciplinary networks to support transition are valuable (Krakouer et al., 2017) as well as a focus on partnerships and professional learning for early years professionals and school teachers. This project focuses on supporting educators: we will work collaboratively with early years educators and primary school teachers to link education practices with research and innovation through the planned knowledge exchange on transitions practices in the partner countries. These professionals will work with us in developing and evaluating individual learning units: learning and professional development resources for the teaching profession. These will enable professionals to engage more effectively and support learners from disadvantaged and diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The project aims to tackle school disadvantage by strengthening collaboration amongst early years professionals at different stages of the educational system through the workshops and learning units. These training opportunities and best practice guidelines at the regional and transnational level will improve transition into formal compulsory schooling and support relationships between schools, early years settings and families.The project partners have extensive experience of working with schools and educators to provide training and psychological services for Early Years, SEND and vulnerable populations including refugee and marginalised groups. Each organisation has established access to networks to access participants in these groups regionally. Proposed activities are: knowledge exchange on transitions policies and practices in the partner countries with a literature review, resulting in policy guidelines; training materials disseminated free of charge; workshops to evaluate the materials, leading to an evaluation report; and transnational best practice guidelines. The resources will be embedded within existing structures within the partner organisations to ensure continued impact and life for the materials beyond the end of the project. The expected impact is to improve transition experiences for those groups who find them most difficult, by equipping Early Years practitioners, teachers, and families with knowledge, tools and ideas to promote positive transition experiences.

Background/Context: Today EU is far from reaching the 2020 targets and the worsening social situation caused by the economic crisis is undermining the sustainability of social protection systems. Students dropping out of school are an obstacle for smart and sustainable growth for all. If less youngsters drop out and if general educational output is increased this will work against unemployment and poverty. As highlighted in “Youth on the move”, one of the EU flagship initiatives; to significantly decrease the number of students dropping out of school is an investment, not only for the individual youth, but also for future EU social cohesion and wealth. We wanted to work towards social cohesion and investigate how ICT can be used as a pedagogical link between older citizens and newly arrivals at risk for early school dropout. In this project we wanted to test from a participatory as well as from a research perspective if we successfully could link newly arrivals, 12-16 years old with citizens, +65 for co-creation and co-learning. In this concept newly arrivals with continuous support from established teachers and coaches, plan smart device training or PC courses for older citizens, perform these and also evaluate and refine them.Objectives: This project is targeting newly immigrant children (0-5 years in the country of concern) in the age range of 12-16 years. This project also target native older citizens +65 years and in some cases immigrant older citizens in the context of family learning.Number and profile of participating organisations;1. Stadsdelsförvaltningen Västra Hisingen, Sektor utbildning.2. Sheffield City Council, Children Young People and Families, Lifelong Learning Skills and Communities 3. Uniwesytet Lodzki, Educational studies4. Dirección general de immigración, Comunidad de Madrid, Immigration observatory4, Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft Berlin, School departmentDescription of undertaken main activities;Newly arrived students with continuous support from established teachers and coaches, planned smart device training or PC courses for older citizens, performed these and also evaluate and refine them.The University of Lodz did research based on these questions:• How ICT can be used as an effective tool for breaking polarization between young and older citizens?• How can ICT smooth the access into general education system for newly arrived immigrant children in the age span of 12-16 years?• How ICT can be used as an effective tool to increase the access to lifelong learning of older persons?• How ICT can increase the acquisition of EU key competencies and in particular communication and language in immigrant pupils between 12-16 years?• How ICT and intergenerational learning can be used towards reducing ESL?• How ICT can contribute to better understanding and harmonious coexistence among young immigrants and older people, both living in big cities?• How can schools, teachers and other educational authorities contribute to reducing of school drop out by building network between older and younger generations living together in the community?Results and impact attained;ICT tools cannot replace face-to-face interaction, but they can effectively contribute to a better understanding and harmonious coexistence between young immigrants and older people. ICT-supported learning eliminates intergenerational and cultural distance. It helps to work for the common good, creating a sense of belonging and ensuring mutual support.The research results based on course related surveys showed improvement of communication skills in the students.They felt empowered by intergenerational learning in their communication skills, increased comfort level of cooperation with older generation adults.In addition to communication and social skills, participation in the ICT course with seniors changed young immigrants’ attitudes towards school education. Many felt more motivated to pursue their education and retrain at high school level.Another added value of the youth’s participation in the course was increased confidenceThe courses had an effect on the youth’s sense of belonging to the community.If relevant, longer-term benefits.All partners plan to continue with permenant courses that involves newly arrived students and seniors. The project showed that intergenerational learning using ICT tools stimulated the development of students and seniors, improved their self-esteem, increased their self-reliance, and motivated their self-determination. Intergenerational relations led to a change in the perception of one’s own limitations and raising expectations. The experience of participating in the courses will allow pupils and seniors to influence their lives as well as their place in the environment in the social, economic and political context.