In our project 'Inclusion through Art and Media' (I AM) we cooperate with 6 European schools, from Spain (Sitges), Denmark (Maaloev),Hungary (Budapest), Iceland (Reykjavik), Germany (Achim) and The Netherlands (Huizen). With the priority in our project on Inclusion, a diversity of partners in North, South, East and West of Europe, will give it definitely a more powerful dimension. At all partner schools, staff and teachers are aware of the task we have as educators to not just transfer knowledge to pupils, but also offer them the tools to enhance their abilities for good citizenship. Inclusion is part of everyday (school) life and teachers as well as students and parents, experience new challenges every day. Looking at today’s situation in Europe and the world it becomes more and more obvious that the challenges will not end very soon, and therefore teachers and students need to be equipped with the necessary competences to meet and adequately deal with diversity. All partner schools have integrated 'Citizenship' in their school curriculum either through special classes or project weeks.During the project our goal is to develop and exchange new teaching materials to be used for this purpose. In other words, appealing teaching materials for youngsters when dealing with inclusion, in the widest sense of the word. Evaluations among pupils having been involved in former projects made clear, that different art forms were really appreciated and enjoyed as tools when working on specific topics. Art connects people and is inspiring to work and communicate actively on a joint product in an international setting. Not learning by the book but being creative while coping with important issues will have a lot more (long lasting) impact on youngsters from 14-17 years old. (VWO-level)Improving language skills is another important objective of our project. Our language of communication is English and with all the activities online and through physical exchanges all participants will be challenged to use English, written and spoken. In this intercultural setting ' the need to know ' will boost their language skills, together with their self- confidence in speaking a foreign language.Although the number of mobilities is maximized, we have decided to travel with 4-6 students and 1-2 teachers per country to each exchange meeting. Which means at every meeting around 25 foreign students and 5-10 teachers from abroad will be hosted, so many families will be taking part in the project as well. We do our utmost to increase the number of participants. Not just by raising the amount of mobilities but also through eTwinning activities for all, traveling or not.These activities and results will be put on TwinSpace so they are accessible to all participants (around 800 students and at least 40 teachers in two years). Apart from this number, some partners (Germany and Hungary)will also involve students from a special school (in their communities) for disabled students. These schools will also be involved during the exchange meeting in their town and through eTwinning. All partners will strive to involve pupils with a migration background or refugees in the project.During the two-year project, each country is responsible for the organization of an exchange meeting which will last 6 days including two travel days. Which means three each year, in November, January and March. Apart from the meeting, each country is also responsible for the development of teaching materials prior to the meeting and put them on TwinSpace so all participants can work on them and the whole project community can be in touch, working, comparing and discussing the outcome of these assignments. During the meeting results and experiences will be exchanged with those at home. After the meeting, evaluation and final results can be found on TwinSpace as well. Each country has decided on which specific field of Inclusion it will focus and what art form it will use in the process. Topics which we will work on vary from bullying, gender issues, refugees/immigrants and peers with a mental or physical disability. Art forms range from drama to painting, photography, videoing and sculpturing.Students will learn through workshops, organized by experts about different art forms and use of different media, challenging their creativity and thinking out of the box.With this project students will be involved in a one-year (and maybe for some even in a second year) lasting experience. The continuous interaction between peers from different nationalities and working with pupils with disabilities or those with a migration background or refugees will have a huge impact on our students. We expect to enhance a personal growth for all participants whether it be students, teachers or parents. Through dissemination of the project results, we also hope to create more tolerance, an open-mind and empathy in our wider (school) communities for those who seem different at first.

Not only the different European strategies (E.g. “Europe 2020” or the “Inclusion and Diversity Strategy”) see the issue of social inclusion as a major target - especially the different education acts of the different countries and the individual school policies make it one of their primary goals to face and challenge discrimination based on ethnic diversity. Here, our schools have a key function and a diverse school, a school without discrimination, a school, which supports the personality development, a liberal minded school, a tolerant and democratic school is the overall objective – not only in today’s society. Many different actions already accept the challenge and we engage in different projects that spread the message that all people are equal – regardless of ethnicity, ability, skin colour, socio-economic background, appearance, educational level, language spoken etc. Everybody’s chances are improved when understanding and acceptance are imprinted on the individual. This can best be done by positive experience and with this project we can make a next step and work on the issue at a higher level. Already when travelling to another country it becomes a little less likely for the respective person to become a National Socialist and with such a project we will even have a bigger impact on students, teachers, society in general and in the end on the European Union itself. 4 schools from 4 different European countries - the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, and Turkey - are planning to make a change by addressing different topics in the field of interest. We want to show that egoism and nationalism are not a solution - we can only benefit from a diverse society. To reach our goals in the years of the project we are planning 5 different meetings with students and teachers, which include different activities. The first meeting in the Netherlands will concentrate on self-awareness and the question how we see and define ourselves. It will be interesting to see if the ethnic background matters when defining your identity and we want to define the term identity for us. Of course, the first meeting will also be used to introduce each other and our schools and we want to present how diverse our schools are on a map. The second meeting is planned in Spain and will centre around the image of the other and how we see and perceive others. E.g. prejudices, stereotypes, traditions and religion will be looked at, this, by e.g. an artistic approach. The schools will also introduce their countries and we want to know what distinguishes us from the other. Each country will make a “kahoot” with questions that the others will answer After getting to know the others and us it’s time to change perspectives and to walk into someone else’s shoes to enhance understanding, acceptance and tolerance at the third meeting in Turkey. We will focus on the question “What does it take to feel at home?” by interviewing immigrants and refugees and by simulating the different stages from being a migrant to being a citizen. A creative approach will come in handy as well. Consequently, it’s now time to question how we can benefit from a diverse society and what our schools can do to welcome diversity. . At the meeting in Denmark we will set joint goals for everyone to be put into practice until the next meeting. Each country will also arrange and plan a “national evening” with food, songs and dances from the region. The last meeting in The Netherlans focuses on global and personal goals with regards to migrant issues in the future. Students and politicians will be addressed and questioned. During the project, different methods and approaches will be applied to reach our individual goals and to create many different products, which will be distributed to be used in classes, other schools and communities (e.g. slideshows, booklets, posters, shirts, presentations, calendar, recipe book, book, videos, comics, simulated game). A project homepage and a Facebook page will document our project and its progress. The impact will be positive in many ways and our encouragement will motivate them. For students as well for teachers the project establishes a consolidation of the foreign language and the intercultural competences. The contact with students from other countries will also be interesting for the parents of the native students. They will learn about the customs of the European countries. Finally, we want to implement our achievements, results and learning input in our schools’ curricula. In the end we hope that we can make a lasting impact on the European Union and we want to make a change to ensure that our students are prepared for Europa after their school life.