The project’s goal was to help students develop the skills which would enable them overcome school failure, this being, as reckoned by all partners, a common problem. It consists of a process whereby students cannot keep up with their tasks like their peers do and gradually disconnect from the educational system. This may even happen among students who are talented and intelligent enough to succeed but are unable to apply these skills to their school environment. Depression, anxiety, problems in the family etc. are among the main reasons for school failure, its final result being unsuccessful life. The core of the project relied on theatrical and literary studies. Therefore the partners drew from their previous experience in applying best practices to counteract the above-mentioned problems. Such practices were shared with both the Italian and the Macedonian partners so the work for the project could start. Italy, as the coordinator, exploited their past experience in drama workshops at school and blended such skills with the other partners’. This resulted in equal correlation/distribution of tasks among the partners. There was a meeting in each of the partners’ schools. One meeting was the Kick off at the beginning, held in Italy, whereas four of them were Learning Teaching Training Activities.The number and profile of participating organisations was five: the Italian School has an important social and cultural identity and is an important point of reference in Vasto (an ancient Roman-founded town very rich in traditions and history): it has more than 1,200 students in two compounds and encompasses pupils from all three first levels: kindergarten, primary and lower secondary school. One of the teachers has a strong background in drama and acting, and has implemented drama-based workshops in her classes several times over the last decade.The Turkish partner’s School is located at the intersection between Asia and Europe, on the Asian side of İstanbul. Founded in 1968 the school is presently located in a 2010-building and is one of the best known schools in the region of Kadiköy, the biggest district of İstanbul.OOU “Kocho Racin” is a primary/lower secondary school in Nov Dojran, in the southeast of Macedonia, providing education to young students between 6-14. It has 300 students enrolled with a multiethnic and multicultural quality. This school has strong skills in organizing students competitions, charity work, multicultural events, sports activities as well as in sharing cultural and national heritage. The German partner’s School is a lower secondary school (ages: 10 to 16). In addition to the regular subjects, their curriculum includes many extracurricular activities in the field of sports and social behaviour. The school caters for refugee children and gives them proper education while integrating them into German society.The Hungarian partner’s School is a primary/lower secondary school with 620 students, 6-14years old. Two languages are taught – English and German, and there are IT specialized classes. It’s located in Zirc, a small town with 6,000 inhabitants. Lots of students come here from the surrounding villages. It has a strong bias on PE, foreign languages and ICT. All five schools can boast being awarded in a variety of fields several times.We chose the students who were eligible to partake mobilities according to the Project’s general guidelines; after that, they started to run activities under the supervision of the teachers, before, during and after each LTTA whose basic recurrent structure was:1)formation of students teams to work on one of the national sagas in the form of a digital photo story/documentary2)Plot development, creation of costumes , props 3)Rehearsals of sagas on stage during the project meetings,This being the main body of the project, the students learnt key skills which are vital in today’s world of work such as creativity, learning by participating, working together for a common goal, building team spirit and contributing with their own ideas. Besides, the project helped pupils avoid social exclusion and school failure, to develop foreign language learning skills along with a national and international awareness and improved their ICT skills. As expected, their self-confidence /esteem increased, their participatory spirit was accomplished and other basic skills were developed.In more general terms the main impact of the project was related to fostering new ways for teachers to work in class with their students in order to prevent their failure etc (see above) and ultimately creating a more open-minded approach and attitude towards all members of the European community. The impact was (and still will be) far reaching, from children to parents, to the wider community surrounding their schools.

BackgroundStories will stand for holistic attitudes to teaching and learning that will provide children's involvement with opulent, authentic material.Stories are an crucial communication instrument for experiential learning because they can safely move participants from their comfort zones to experience something completely innovative.They provide an entire new fantasy world created by language that children can easily access and learn to enjoy, while also gaining language on the way. Moreover, our children need something to boost their creative capacity.The project idea was prepared on the basis of the needs identified at all the partner schools– it aims at helping students to get to be aware of their cultural inheritance and the European cultural inheritance, while also enhancing and discovering their creativity by means of stories.Our students come from different backgrounds - mainstream, minorities, students with SEN, students with behaviorproblems, high achievers and also students from orphanages. The key goal is to create a culture of acceptance and respect among different students and involving them in activities related to stories, they will have a chance to obtain values and principles in a non-threatening environment. The world of stories is a safe, fantastic world without frontiers.ParticipantsThe target group includes 240 students aged 9-12 from all five schools among who there are students with fewer opportunities- at risk of dropping out, Gypsies, abandoned children, students with different disabilities, immigrants, students with integration problems as well as mainstream students.The participating teachers involve English and literature teachers, who will together create the project products, but also teachers of other subjects who will be involved in the organisation of project activities. There will be 5 teachers per country accompanying the students at each meeting. Objectives include:1. involving students to their own learning and motivate them; (minimum 50% of target group)2. developing students' language competences, literacy, critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability;(min. 60% target group)3. developing intracultural and intercultural understanding; (minimum 70%)4. promoting European values and increasing cohesion among European citizens. (measurable by analysing students' and teachers'approaches to other cultures, as described in the post-LTTA discussions)5. creating an atmosphere of non-discrimination and mutual acceptance at each partner school.6. producing sustainable materials to be used on a regular basis at the schools - gathering materials for teachers, set of adjusted materials for SEN students, gathering of stories illustrated by children.ActivitiesItaly - hosting and evaluating C1 , November 2019; creating the project calendars and CDs.Turkey- hosting and evaluating C2, Mar 2020; creating the project website.Macedonia- hosting and evaluating C3, May2020; creating and updating Facebook Fan Page.Romania –hosting and evaluating C4, November2020; creating the logo of the project.Spanish - hosting and evaluating C5, April 2021; creating the eTwinning account.Results and impactThe project website, eTwinning account, Facebook page, calendars, CDs,the initial and final evaluation documents, progress and final reports, dissemination materials, certificates of attendance, Europass certificates, collection of stories from European countries, collection of activities for developing interpretative skills (special activities for SEN students), collection of activities and tasks developing critical thinking skills, collection of creative activities starting from stories around Europe (special activities for SEN students), a map of European story characters stand for the project results.The impact will be noticeable at the level of students (cultural awareness, gaining European values, skills development, acquisition of knowledge, development of school results, self-confidence), teachers (better cultural awareness, improvement of leadership, communication, presentation skills, experience in projects), institutions (improvement of human resources, improved group consistency, positive image).Long-term resultsThe results will be applied at present class work by English teachers and the schools will establish story clubs, where students will work together with their peers, read common stories, discuss them, make relevant artwork. Schools will develop material basis and will gain Erasmus+ management experience, so that they will get a valuable experience to run future projects

In view of further publication on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, please also be aware that a comprehensive public summary of project results will be requested at report stage(s). Final payment provisions in the contract will be linked to the availability of such summary.The Year 2018 was the European Year of Cultural Heritage, and in the framework of it, our goal is to share an important contribution in spreading European dimension, as well as encouraging awareness and promotion of Europe's cultural heritage among nine to thirteen – year old peers from different European countries.This project including five European schools which have cooperated and created a two- year planned activities focused on developing pupils' LITERACY SKILLS, stressing social inclusion of each participant, digital literacy, reading literacy as we are aware of the fact that is decreasing among students in the last years, foreign language skills, cultural diversity and creating real advanced future thinkers.Following the SWOT surveys of each participating school and of the institutional progress plans we were comparing, we concluded that the students need to be motivated to find imaginary worlds as the way to help them understand the backgrounds outside their experiences and train their imaginatinary scenes in a safer space.We have created a project that involves several different learning styles - using Neil Fleming's model of students’ learning: visual, auditory, reading/writing preference and kinesthetic- stories and storytelling occuring as main elements. This crucial idea would support the organisation and management of this project that will increase our pupils’ personal and professional improvement, including all the backgrounds, besides, it will widen the cooperation relating schools-families, and moreover, schools-external stakeholders.The project should be established because it would definitely bring a variety of advantages both, at the school, locally and at international level.The direct international collaboration will open the opportunity to the participants to spread networks, to gain useful knowledge, to share ideas, didactic approaches and methods for creating innovative tangible results. It will definitely lead to the internationalization of schools, development and getting new knowledge of foreign educational systems, school curricula of the countries involved in the project by studying and using transnational tools and new teaching methods.Our project will focus on encouraging network and transnational cooperation at the partner schools.Thanks to the materials convenient for different educational styles, we will all have the possibility to learn and get new ideas but it is very important to identify our primary learning approach and to lead the teaching- learning process in such a way so that better results could be achieved. By various activities the students will learn how to set learning objectives and identify optimal learning possibities for improving their learning methods. By doing so, they will discover other cultural backgrounds and will have the possibility of applying the new knowledge in their own contexts by writing their own stories. This will positively affect their motivation for learning and raising their self -confidence. Teachers will raise their awareness about the relevance of tailoring didactic materials according to various learning styles. Everyday routine makes teachers apply traditional, a bit old-fashioned methods, but due to this project they are very likely to update their teaching style and get more motivated to use this modern methodology on a regular basis.