"According to our needs analysis, all six schools in this project have challenges regarding early school leaving and making students finish an education. In Poland, where the applicant school is located, the dropout rate at the age of 16 must be examined. In the Spanish school the dropout rate for the school year 2017/2018 was high and in the Italian school the dropout rate has stabilized at around some percentage. In Hungarian school we can say the same thing. The Turkish school’s drop out rate is the highest of these 6. The French school faces the same problem. To find ways to tackle early school leaving is not something unique for the participants in this project, rather something that is a priority in many European countries today. Every school has its own strategy to work with this problem, also the schools in this project. The Turkish school prioritize extra-curricular activities, aiming to provide opportunities for students to develop a sense of belonging. In the Turkish school the emphasis is on adapted learning and a system with two teachers in the classroom. In addition the school offers extra workshops for students who want to improve their marks. The Polish school tries to introduce individual approach towards students with special needs. So they try to help them and solve their academic problems before they become serious. The main reason why students drop out of school in Poland seems to be that they come from disadvantaged families, they don’t have much help or encouragement from their parents. That is why it is so important for school to play an active role in the process of encouraging ""problematic "" students. The Italian school faces the problem too. Early school leaving is a complex phenomenon, It consists of many reasons, economical, cultural, social and political. Many of the reasons cannot be solved just in the area of the school like families moving to cities. But there are reasons that school can face. Secondary high school for general studies (grade 10 to 12) is optional in Italy. So the first priority is to make the school attractive to students. Second, to establish a friendly and safe environment. Last to provide all tools to continue their lives in the society. Job shadowing is a method that can fulfill the aims of the Italian school. In Spain, this issue is dealt with from a double perspective. On the one hand, there is a lot of effort placed on promoting social cohesion through education by means of supporting and implementing several programs based on competence achievement or the acquisition of basic skills so we can guarantee a future for students who either want to keep on with their studies in higher levels or find a job in the labour market. Secondly, the Spanish school also stresses the importance of promoting employability and entrepreneurship in all levels of education as a way of preparing students for the demands and skills of the labour world.Job shadowing is most often associated with vocational studies where it is an integrated part of education. Our needs analysis revealed that only the Polish school has had something that resembles job shadowing as outlined in this project. In Poland there has been for more than ten years a tradition of organising so called Entrepreneurship Day. It is a part of national programme sponsored by the president, and it is addressed to students of secondary schools. It gives them a chance to spend one day in a local company. They observe and analyse the workplaces and have mentors to talk to. To have an experienced partner like this will only benefit the project. In the other schools there is little or no job shadowing for students who attend general studies. A certificate of upper secondary education opens many doors, but the students have little knowledge of the many future occupations they can choose from. This together with a general lack of ambition leaves them without plans for the future - something which on the next level hampers motivation. In our experience those students who have a concrete goal will worker harder in school because then they have something they wish to achieve.The students need to both be aware of what possibilities there are when it comes to future occupations and what qualifications and skills are needed to enter into any of these occupations. To provide students with information about possibilities in their hometown should be in any local communities’ interest, and at the same time students must be prepared for a future working career anywhere in the world. To be able to work together with people whose cultural background is different than your own, will be crucial no matter whether you plan to stay in your home country or move to another country. Due to the technological development and how fast everything changes today, topics as communication, entrepreneurship and language will soon be as important as traditional subjects."

"KA 2 ""THE GREEN SCHOOLS"" PROJECTThe 21st century has been called the ""century of the environment."" Schools-and individual citizens - can no longer assume that social challenges such as pollution, dwindling natural resources and climate change can be set aside for future generations.The Green schools Project is an European project designed to encourage and acknowledge whole school action for the environment. The Green schools offers a well defined controllable way for partner schools to take environmental issues from the curriculum and apply them to the day to day running of the school. This process helps pupils recognize the importance of environmental issues and take them more seriously in their personal and home lives.The Green Schools aims to Improve the school environment • Reduce litter & waste • Reduce fuel and electricity bills • Increase environmental awareness • Involve the local community • Gain local publicity • Create links with partner schools The Green Schools aims to use a ""Four Pillars"" framework that integrates efforts to reduce schools' ecological footprints, make school environments healthier, and get the whole community thinking about solutions to the problems we face. Schools have the potential to make positive, tangible environmental change in the world while teaching students to be stewards of their communities, the earth and its resources.The Green School will give a tremendous opportunity to teach students about ecological sustainability, environmental health and nutrition; meet ICT , science and social studies standards; integrate environmental education into curricula; and support students to become leaders in making their own school a healthier and more ecologically friendly place. The Green schools provides an extremely cost-effective way to enhance the student learning and health abilities, reduce operational costs and environmental impacts of the schools, and increase a community’s overall quality and competitiveness. Our project will support teachers and our students from 4 different schools, 4 different countries across Europe to combine civic and environmental education inside our classrooms with learning experiences outside the classroom. Green School Project will improve the health and energy-efficiency of the school facility, ensure science-based environmental and civic education in the classroom, implements healthy food choices into the cafeteria, promotes alternative means of transportation, and expands recreational choices and opportunities for all students.We believe in creating personal responsibility for the environment among students around Europe to promote a more democratically active citizen. Working from the ground up, The Green Schools empowers teachers and students to remedy specific environmental concerns in their schools and communities with demonstrable outcomes and results. Teachers, parents, and students have the ability to help our schools become more sustainable. School managers can monitor their energy use. Teachers can promote environmental education in our classroom curriculum. Parents can propose more sustainable practices- like using green cleaning products- at school board meetings. Students can start re-use and recycling programs to help reduce waste.Ka2 Projesi “Yeşil Okullar”21. yüzyıl, Çevre Yüzyılı olarak ta adlandırılmaktadır. Okullar-ve bireyler- kirlilik, doğal kaynakların azalması ve iklim değişikliği gibi sosyal değişimlerin gelecek nesiller için bir kenara konulup, yok farz edilmesini daha fazla sürdüremez durumdadır.Yeşil Okullar bütün okul etkinliklerinde okulu çevre konusunda şekillendirmek ve bilgilendirmek amacıyla yapılmış bir Avrupa projesidir. Yeşil Okullar iyi tanımlanmış ve kontrol edilebilir şekilde ortak okulların müfredatlarına çevre konularının yerleştirilmesini ve okulların günlük işleyişlerinde bu konunun uygulanmasını önerir. Süreç öğrencilerin çevre konularının önemini kavramalarını sağlar ve onların kişisel ve ev yaşamlarında çevre duyarlılığını daha ciddi bir şekilde sürdürmeleri sonucuna götürür. Yeşil Okullar okul ortamında bazı gelişmeleri hedefler.• Çöp ve atığın azaltılması• Yakıt ve elektrik faturalarının azaltılması• Çevre farkındalığının artırılması• Yerel toplumu içermesi• Yerel kamuoyunun kazanılması• Ortak okullar arasında bağlantılar kurmakYeşil Okullar dört ayaklı bir çerçeveyi kullanarak öğrencilerin çevre konularında aktif olmalarının özendirilmesini, okulların çevreye bıraktıkları ekolojik ayak izlerinin azaltılmasını, okul ortamının daha sağlıklı hale getirilmesini ve tüm toplumun karşılaştığımız problemlerin çözüm yolları konularında düşünmesini sağlar. Okullar, dünyada olumlu ve somut çevre değişiklikleri yapmak için potansiyele sahiptirler, bunu öğrencilerine toplumun, dünyanın ve dünyanın kaynaklarının hizmetinde olarak yapabileceklerini öğreterek yaparlar."

BACKGROUND• Europe 2020 strategy and ET2020 Strategy• Multilingualism• Opening Up Education• The Oslo Agenda for Entrepreneurship Education, but first of all:• Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan, a decisive impulse to unleash Europe's entrepreneurial potential, to remove existing obstacles and to revolutionise the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe.OBJECTIVES AND PRIORITIES OF THE ACTION We started from these aims:• The improvement of basic skills• The early school leaving fight• The improvement of teaching qualityWe believe entrepreneurship is not a way to find (or create) a job and make money, but an attitude to face and solve problems in a new, creative and effective way.IDENTIFIED NEEDS• The economic crisis• Young people’s unemployment and insecurity feeling• The need for new learning and teaching methodologiesCLEAR OBJECTIVESOur objectives regard:• entrepreneurship raising awareness• developing new entrepreneurial skills• making young people be more active • sharing best practices and useful methods to find innovative ideas• opening schools to an international dimension• creating stable relationships among the schools • introducing more realia into the curriculum• introducing important case studies• integrating best practices • experimenting methodologies• improving the use of technologies, particularly with mobile devices• creating opportunities for non-formal experiences like European Voluntary ServiceADDED VALUE OF THE TRANSNATIONAL DIMENSIONWe have partners with great experience in all the relevant fields of the project and we have different types of schools (Lyceums, technical and vocational schools), public and private, in great cities and small villages, in historical places with a huge cultural background and new towns, in countries that were founders of the EU, recently added or possible members, with teachers with a long experience in International projects and two newcomers. This fabulous mix makes the project richer than a simple partnership of schools in the same country.The tasks have been equally distributed, using two criteria: a commensurate level for each one to participate in the project and an individual level, based on specific competences - someone will do something more than others and someone less but everyone will give their own personal contribution to the whole project; for example we assigned the output considering each partner’s specialty. PLANNING OF THE PROJECTAs shown in the Gantt timetable there is a natural rhythm in the project, following the natural rhythm of the school (and of the seasons…). We have one international meeting just for teachers at the beginning and one at the end, approximately every 3 months a learning activity takes place which focuses on an intellectual output and an event. Dissemination is an action which runs along all the projectQUALITY OF THE ACTIVITIESEvery activity is strictly connected to the project. We have five focus ideas (non-formal learning, critical thinking, multilingualism, use of ICT, entrepreneurship) and a corresponding activity, output, event and dissemination.METHODOLOGYIn our previous International projects we saw that the collaborative process among the teachers (10/country), the blended mobility for the students, specific topics to discuss during the meetings, a great media coverage, an intensive use of web 2.0 tools, the life with the family during the students’ exchanges, an adequate timetable, some rules about the outputs, a mixed experience with visits to cultural sites and internships in private companies, all this creates enthusiasm in both teachers and students, it gives motivation and produces realistic results.EVALUATIONOur job is teaching, not travelling or cooking. We need the evaluation of our and students’ work. That’s why we have prepared many forms of evaluation (formal and not-formal, formative and summative), both for the process and the results. We need to evaluate the students’ work but we also want to give all the possibilities to evaluate our work and the results of the project.THE ROLE OF THE STUDENTS' ACTIVITIES (25/country)In this project the learning activities planned for students are the overriding priority not just an added value. We want to give our students many chances to meet innovative entrepreneurs, to see innovative schools, to have true experiences of new ways of learning, speaking English for a real interest. And this is impossible without a blended mobility.IMPACT AND DISSEMINATIONWe are convinced that we can change something in our schools, in our communities and give our students more chances. These results can be transferred to others schools in Europe. Many of them will have a life that is longer than the duration of the project.So the dissemination plan is a relevant aspect of the project.

In Laying European Table LET Project partner schools from Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Turkey combined their efforts in order to give their students general information about entrepreneurship, making money out of their ideas, information about commerce and trade connected with catering business, understanding different cultures and food traditions. Since the school consortium represents various cultures, natures, living styles, this variation helped pupils to understand differences and build commercial ideas on it.Throughout the project each participating school created small virtual catering business which they developed into real enterprises in the future. All the results of the projects activities conveyed in a book and a DVD. Moreover we organised a Festival of European Tastes where each country participating in the project presented their national/regional dishes. We also made a survey about food preferences in our countries. During all the project we made short films about preparing different dishes. We made about 6 films per country. All the activities and products implemented on eTwinning platform, Facebook, European Shared Treasure website and Youtube. Organization of international meetings gave a chance for sharing experience between partners and discussion about national food preferences, presenting how to set up catering business, showing the profile of successful restaurant owner, solving problems which occurred between the meetings.School community improved their English competence, social skills, communication techniques, ICT abilities and entrepreneurship knowledge, as well as their travelling skills. They developed their mutual tolerance and self-esteem due to the fact they came in contact with different cultures traditions and languages.This project was also an opportunity for discovering and using new methods of education, by learning more about each other educational systems, attending classes in all participant countries and exchanging their good practice experience.

This innovative research project is an in-depth study on recruitment and retention in the teaching profession across three different countries. This project cannot be completed in any single European country, teacher retention is an issue across Europe. In 2013 the European Commission reported on a Europe-wide shortage of qualified teachers and in 2018, the European Commission reported that almost half of the countries in Europe are faced with an ageing teacher population. The European Commission has attributed the shortage of teachers to a number of different things:•lack of quality candidates•declining status of the profession•workload and stress•poor working conditions•low pay compared with equivalent professions•onerous marking policies•demanding parents•ageing teachers, many approaching retirementSince 2013 the situation has not improved, if anything it has worsened. Over the years unsustainable solutions have been adopted which have added to the problem rather than eased it. Most teachers have no intention of leaving the profession and shortages have often meant longer working hours, larger classes, and in some countries, a raise in the retirement age meaning practising teachers are in the profession longer. We recognise that if teacher trainers/educators (Initial Teacher Education ITE) and school leaders fully understood the problems faced by students/newly qualified teachers (NQTs), the solution would be easily found. Bit this has not been the case, ITE and NQT support have not changed. If this continues, we will get the same levels of drop out. Something needs to change. This project aims to get to the heart of the problem.This study is innovative as it researches specific target groups across the field of teacher education/education from creating interest from future students entering ITE courses, during ITE particularly teaching practice placements and during the NQT first year. We will also conduct our research with pupils taught by NQTs/ITE students to establish their views on this specific group of teaching staff and their opinions/attitudes towards them. Our focus for ITE students and NQTs will be on their Health/well-being (mental health) and support/guidance they receive during their ITE course and transition into the first year of teaching as NQTs. Through this work we aim to develop more sustainable, innovative solutions to:•retaining student teachers whilst still studying and •ensuring more teachers do not leave the profession shortly after qualifyingWith partners in Wales, Poland and Turkey, we will engage universities, ITE organisations and schools to work with student teachers, NQTs, practising teachers and young learners. We will research into the reasons why so many student teachers leave the profession before qualifying and why so many younger, NQTs leave the profession early. The research will be broad and flexible as the research develops. Our investigation will include:•whether student teacher expectations are different to the experiences they have•-what happens during teaching practice?•-are schools supporting students appropriately during teaching placements•is support for newly qualified teachers appropriate in their new places of work? If not, why not?•what do young learners think about being taught by student and/or newly qualified teachers?•is the modern classroom meeting the needs of 21st century teachers?Our applied research methodology will include qualitative and quantitative data gathering through robust field research including questionnaires, focus groups and individual interviews, and observations. Our results will be analysed using appropriate methodology and will results in a set of research papers covering the following:•Teacher training/education ITE programmes•Expectations (of ITE students)•The new job (NQT first year of teaching)We will review and research how ITE/NQT year prepares our target groups for 21st century teaching – curricular and conditions – and how we can STRENGTHEN the PROFILE of the TEACHING PROFESSION, impact on PEDAGOGY and DIDACTICS. We will also develop a robust process for INNOVATION and RESEARCH into this growing problem across Europe and wider of teacher drop out in early year of professional development.Our expected impact is to meet priorities in Erasmus+ Programme 2020 by developing:- a more modern, dynamic, committed and professional environment- strategic planning of professional development for staff in line with individual needs and organisational objectives- teachers ready to integrate good practices and new methods into daily activities- strategic planning of professional development for staff in line with individual needs and organisational objectivesFinally we anticipate this research will develop ITE/NQT programmes that meet the needs of individuals to IMPROVE THE RECRUITMENT & RETENTION with the teaching profession and reduce TEACHER DROP OUT.