"In the EU countries elementary schooling is compulsory. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has a right to education. Education should be free, at least at its basic stages. It should enable all the people to participate effectively in a free society, as well as to promote understanding, tolerance, and friendships among various national, racial, ethnic and religious groups.This project is in line with a priority of the Europe 2020 strategy which refers to the smart growth - developing the economy based on knowledge and innovation. One of the five targets for the EU in 2020 is reducing the rates of early school leaving to less than 10%. This project will contribute to that goal, because pupils will be more motivated to preserve their languages and cultures by exchanging experience.The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty adopted in 1992. The aim is to protect and promote the historical regional or minority languages of Europe. It was adopted, on the one hand, in order to maintain and to develop the European cultural traditions and heritage, and, on the other hand, to respect the inalienable and commonly recognised right to use a regional or minority language in both private and public life. The agreement was signed by 25 state members of the Council of Europe including Croatia, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.The Erasmus+ Programme aims at promoting equity and inclusion according to the EU standards. The project is correspondent with the actions in the field of education that are supported, which comprise collaborative partnerships, events, webinars, strengthening of the evidence base for policy making, etc. The project includes a lead partner from Croatia, and project partners from Poland and Bulgaria and Romania. The project will raise awareness of the importance of preserving both language and culture of a certain minority. The educational and cultural exchange program helps the target groups to understand themselves better as well as the world around them.The Lead Partner of this project is the Josip Kozarac Primary School from the Municipality of Lipovljani, which is situated in the Sisak-Moslavina County of the Republic of Croatia.Although the municipality is small and has 3455 residents only, one of its most interesting features is the fact that 13 national minority communities successfully coexist there. The School has over 360 pupils and 49 teachers. In addition to English and German, which are both part of the compulsory program, the School conducts classes based on the C model for the Ukrainian language since 2002, and for the Czech and Slovakian language since 2006. In Model C the classes are held in Croatian language with additional five school hours, which are designed to preserve a language and culture of a certain minority. Additional hours of up to five lessons a week include learning the language and literature of the national minority, and also their geography, history, music and art. Teaching is conducted by formally educated professors of these languages. In addition to regular classes based on the C model, schools carry out various projects and activities in cooperation with the local community and minority associations (The Matica slovenská, Češka beseda i KPD Karpati). The Matica slovenská is Slovakia's scientific and cultural institution focused on topics around the Slovak nation. The Matica slovenska Lipovljani was founded in 1996. The association ""Češka beseda"", which has operated in Lipovljani since 2004, nourishes the Czech cultural heritage through national songs and dances, as well as Croatian songs and dances. Finally, Cultural and educational society of Ukrainians (KPD Karpati) was founded in 1992 in Lipovljani by a group of enthusiasts who were interested in promotion and preservation of their culture. The main objective of the establishment of this society was the preservation of speech, culture and customs of the Ukrainian heritage. Pupils which attend the school also participate in activities of the national minorities' associations. The main target groups are pupils and teachers of the primary schools that participate in the project. Pupils are supposed to gain some new knowledge and learn about different traditions.Teachers will learn innovative teaching models that will apply in their future work in the field of education.Working with transnational partners offers a potential to discover some new points of view, but also to become aware of possibly different attitudes. Implementing a TINDER project involves gaining a new know-how about specific development methodologies or techniques. Furthermore, transnational partners involve learning new language skills. Researchers have shown that when pupils learn another language, they develop new ways of understanding culture through analyzing cultural stereotypes."

"The project ""Living Books in Schools"" represents the cooperation of three primary schools from Serbia, Romania and Poland and one association from Slovenia. The main goal of the project is the implementation of the nonformal method Living Library into formal education. Living library is a method of holistic approach to education to deal with own prejudices and stereotypes. Through the activities that this method implies, teachers, students and all who participate, ""read books"" ie. talk to individuals from different, often marginalized or socially labeled groups. They come into contact with their social positions, raise questions about society. A Living Library is a place where we start curiosity, reduce differences, overcome fears, acquire new knowledge, and get acquainted with different views of the world. The method's goal is to create a tolerant, solidar community and as such is an excellent tool for building a bridge between formal and non-formal education. Implementation of the method is carried out through: - a training course for teachers - organizers methods, - realization of Living Library in all partner's organizations, - training of pupils through youth workshops on various topics and volunteer actions of pupils of schools, - activities within the institution, - coordination and meetings for intellectual work - and pupils mobilities. Behind written instruction for youth workshops, the main result of the project is teacher's book for Living Libraries in schools. We wish to expand the knowledge gained through the project through the implementation of the method in Development plan, publishing manuals and free downloads, organizing seminars in the institution and the local community, participating in an expert conference, in cooperation with partners and through pedestrian education."

<< Objectives >>The objective of the Sound of Stories project is to improve the literacy and vocabulary skills of primary school learners using soundscapes – field recording of a specific place – and audio stories. By immersing learners in multi-sensory learning where they can use their listening kills but also their situational and storytelling skills, we aim to reinforce their literacy levels. Ultimately, the project’s objective is also to reinforce and support teachers in implement new methods of teaching.<< Implementation >>The project is based on following productions: the development of booklet on sound education in primary schools (highlighting benefits and techniques), a collection of 100 soundscapes and 17 audio stories and associated 17 pedagogical sequences development (ready to use lessons). All these productions are strongly interlinked, providing a full toolkit for primary teachers in vocabulary acquisition teaching through sound.<< Results >>Our expected results are both tangible and intangible. We will produce a booklet on the benefits of sounds in education, 100 soundscape recordings, 17 audio stories and 17 pedagogical sequences, but we will also reinforce our target groups' language skills through a comprehensive test phases which will provide adapted results, introduce a new teaching techniques to various networks across Europe and promote adapted multi-sensory learning.

Social exclusion is a form of discrimination. It occurs when people are wholly or partially excluded from participating in the economic, social and political life of their community, based on their belonging to a certain social class, category or group. Due to migration to Europe situation is getting worse. It has been reported by European researches that approximately 1 in 6 children report experiences of social exclusion at schools. While belonging and connectedness to peers is important at any age, it is particularly relevant in adolescence. Research suggests that adolescents are particularly sensitive to peer rejection and as a group, may experience the most significant mental health effects such as depression and anxiety in response peer rejection. Since best way to fight exclusion is starting at childhood and adolescent, the project will be taken place at schools. Aim of the project was to contribute to social inclusion of children and teenagers from different cultures, disabled students, migrant students and socially excluded students from different reasons. Biltes was the coordinator school of the project, Miedzynarodowa Szkola Podstawowa Edukacji Innowacyjnej from Poland, INSTITUTO EDUCACION SECUNDARIA LA SOLEDAD from SPAIN, Daugmales pamatskola from Latvia was the partners of the project. It was estimated that 600 students and teachers directly 13000 students and teachers indirectly benefited from project. Teachers were chosen by taking into consideration of their enthusiasm to participate and disseminate the project activities, language skills, project experiences, leadership abilities. Criteria for selecting students were their vulnerability level for exclusion, language skills, and leadership skills. In order to achieve the objective of the project, series of activities at national and international level was done. Most important activity of the project used education as the instrument. Preparing and implementing lessons which included active involvement of students such as peer learning, gamification, active learning made students interact and work together resulting in construction of new friendships, understanding each other, tolerating different cultures and believes, acceptance of diversity and understand the importance of being together. Lesson plans of these learning activities were planned by all participating teachers, discussed at M1 of the project, and implemented first during the 4 LTTAs of project and then nationally at partner countries. Other activities of the project were; - Formation of school choir ( these choirs will compose songs which emphasizes on importance of acceptance of diversity and sing them at each LTTAs) - Formation of unity club (these clubs promoted the project, work for obtaining more inclusive school by preparing posters, activities at school) - Traditional art activities (At each LTTA, students from the host school taught their traditional art works to participating students who taught these works to the students at their own schools. This activity gave students opportunity to learn different cultures and work together) - Street game activities (At each LTTA, students from the host school taught their local street game which needed large group of students to participating students who taught these games to the students at their own schools. During this activity students made new friendship) - Erasmus + Corner where the materials of the club, logo of the project, and the art work for the project was displayed and the visuals from mobilities were displayed. These activities were expected to change the behavior of the students to become more inclusive by giving them opportunity to make new friends, express their thoughts and feelings to each other, and know different cultures and people. Leader students at the school guided other students to include all students to activities inside and outside the classroom. Since in these activities socially excluded students actively involved, their interpersonal skills were developed. Therefore, they better expressed themselves, made new friends easier. Teachers’ role in this activities were conducting the lessons with methods that include all students interacting with each other so that they got familiar with each other and make new friends. There were many impacts of the project; students developed sense of tolerance and acceptance for each other, teachers learnt the application of different teaching methods by preparing lesson plans and applying them during LTTAs, schools was more inclusive therefore more successful.

Today’s world has never been in more need of harmony and understanding: not surprisingly, Europe needs to be united in its promotion of freedom and peace as it faces the challenges of Brexit and nationalistic-leaning politics, the Coronavirus, and relations with neighbouring powers. The youth of Europe represent the future: their voice of today will be the democratic electoral voice of tomorrow.Our project is inspired by our heartfelt wish to make connections across the continent, to bridge cultural divides, and to express the instinctive desire of young people to make friends across borders by expressing themselves personally and culturally. By bringing together young people from Lithuania, Spain, Poland and Germany, we aim to create a dramatic and musical expression of European harmony via a multi-media/arts performance to inspire future generations.The benefits to students stemming from this holistic, project-based learning will lead to improved communication skills, community connections and understanding, language proficiency, engagement in the political process both internationally and locally, and an enhancement of critical thinking abilities.To reiterate, this project aims not only to develop, but rather to empower Europe’s youth to increase their engagement in the political process across the European continent. It will be a pivotal turning point in their adolescence as they learn and use another language, adopt an intercultural identity and build their confidence by learning transdisciplinary and with relevance! Each school brings not only its innate enthusiasm to realise the project goals, but on a practical level also various artistic specialisms such as recording studios, access to stage and performance space, music teaching prowess, translation capabilities from multilingual students, and digital music production. All this will come together in the spring of 2022, when we aim to perform our chef d’oeuvre in Strasbourg, one of the historic centres of the European project.