"Premature school leaving and solving problems of students from disadvantaged groups poses a problem for many EU countries which – being aware of economic and social consequences of this phenomenon – try to take a series of actions aimed at minimising it.""Don't drop out"" is a project which is implemented by five cooperating countries: Poland, Greece Bulgaria, Italy and Portugal. When analysing the situation in five countries that are very different both culturally and geographically, we noticed that there are no proven good model solutions to prevent premature dropping out of school. The thematic scope of the project is so important for participating organisations and target groups because this problem appears irrespective of the country or the type of facility. Representatives of cooperating organisations believe that in order to prevent premature school drop-out, it is necessary to develop a systematic approach encompassing simultaneous activities at several levels: working with teachers and educators, working with parents and working with students.The project will help recognise vulnerable people, with problems, with special needs, and will also suggest how to organise work and responsibilities of a team that deals with these individuals.When implementing, we will consider together how to cope with that, since dropping out school often entails a sense of powerlessness, meaninglessness and extreme lack of motivation in these people. A motivating factor that ensures the success of this project is an innovative approach to cooperation and joint development of outcomes of people working directly with students, with methodological support of psychologists/experts. They will be involved in conducting workshops, which will provide inspiration for others. As a result, the participants will have a chance to share their reflections, experiences, good practices, which will lead to common outcome.The outcomes of this process will be presented in the form of a model Guidebook.In order to solve existing problems, one can use new, innovative instruments; though it is also possible to adapt solutions proven to be effective in other countries, regions or in other contexts, e.g. in relation to other target group.A significant factor fostering these actions can be experiences of adult people who struggled with this problem, so that they have a wider perspective, not only from people who left school at some point in their lives, but also from those who made an effort to come back to the education system.During implementation of the project and after its completion, every country will have an opportunity to share knowledge with colleagues from their facility or even other similar institutions in their region, which will allow not only to inspire others to act, but will also promote joint European actions. The organisation will conduct regular diagnosis of the problem, whereas the outcomes of the action will be subject to monitoring and evaluation.This is a project, the outcomes of which by enhancing competence of educators will be valuable contribution to the European area of skills and qualifications.It will have a local, national and European dimension, and the end-users will be learners with reduced social opportunities or with disabilities."

"“The different colours of music” involved 8 institutions from 6 different countries: France (that substituted Cyprus), Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the UK. Six of them were schools and 2 are associations. The common context where our schools operated is characterized by the presence of students from social deprived background, SEN, immigrants and disabled, and with learning difficulties. We shared the same interest for music: music courses were organized in all schools and some students learned to play a musical instrument. We noticed that, not all students that wished to play, attended these courses, because there was a selection and buying an instrument was expensive. Moreover, the practice was often unsuitable for a student with physical disabilities. So a lot of students abandoned their wish and lose their interest. We wanted to democratise the opportunity to play music, so that, the most part of our students took advantage from it. We wanted to link together disabled, ordinary and talented individuals through the universal language of music and made them part of European inclusive communities. Our main objective was to instill in students the awareness of human diversity, cultural and linguistics through music as a teaching resource in everyday practices that brought together and built an inclusive school and a respectful society with diversity. We also wanted to develop amongst all students, but in particular, those who were disabled or SEN, a sense of achievement and self worth; feel them part of an inclusive community; overcome prejudices against disability; enhance the quality of learning offer and foster equity and inclusion; enhance the ability to express themselves through music and the opportunity to experience the awe and wonder that immersion in such an art can bring to the soul. Playing music is one of the best means to achieve inclusion and a universal human activity a basic right for all. We created a fairy tale about two guys searching rehabilitation, achieving fulfilment and succeeding in their lives. They started a trip through the different European countries and learned how people could succeed in life. They discovered traditional music and rhythms, local languages, dances and musical instruments. At each step they did various experiences and met different people: poor, immigrants, disabled, disadvantaged who in general were not considered but the two guys were able to see special gifts in them and, trusting them gave a new birth to their hidden skills. At the end of their trip the two guys formed a group of artists called ""The different colours of music"", who had a big performance. Despite their conditions, they understood how to use talents and how to give value to their abilities and be member of an inclusive society. The activities were done both locally and transnationally. The professional musicians were responsible for composing songs and also for conducting workshops for students. Together they had rehearsals and public concerts until the last big exhibition of the fairy tale. The most important activities done during the 2 years- project were: identify nature sounds; know foreign partners instruments, songs, and dances; play using objects and recycled materials; express emotions through instruments; compose music using software; know how to make special instruments for disabled people. All activities were made cooperatively and the products created were shared on online platforms. Each student was protagonist of his own educative process. During and after our project, new skills and practices were developed to create an inclusive society in which all individuals play an active role for the future Europe. The participants had the opportunity to meet different individuals with their needs and develop respect for each other, know foreign cultures and develop tolerance, acquire new enthusiasm towards music and be able to express themselves through it, become more sensitive towards people with difficulties and finally understand that there are not people without abilities but just persons with different abilities. The impact on all participants was strong. Teachers knew and experienced new methods, how to work with different students, and consequently, they improved their teaching skills, they created positive and easier learning settings. Being part of innovative strategies, students gained extra motivation to learn not only music, but also all other subjects. They acquired competences in social life and improve key competences, enhance interdisciplinary skills and creative thinking. Schools became more attractive for students and registered lower rates of school early leaving. All the participants gained important abilities and this continued lifelong. The final products, peculiar for disabled served to help other students: our best practice in learning/teaching music enriched all future generations."

It is not applicable

Young people living in the times of fast developing multimedia and technological progress are often not aware of the influence that modern technologies have on their health and well-being. The realised project covers three areas: health and sport, nutrition, modern technologies and was aimed at students, aged 16-19, of 3 secondary schools, their teachers, members of their families and the local communities. There were involved 96 students and 82 teachers, but there were also 5000 students, teachers, parents, members of local and global communities who benefitted from the project. The innovative aim was to raise awareness of the negative sides of unhealthy lifestyle and to implement health-promoting attitudes among the participants by means of designing and using a mobile phone application. The students designed a pro-healthy city game, which was played during exchange visit. The mobile phone application is of long-term character since it was used throughout the whole project and after its ending and its idea is to remind, inform and motivate all the participants regularly to lead a healthy lifestyle. The free of charge app is accessible on the project website and in an online shop. The project is interdisciplinary and multi-faceted as it concerns IT, Biology, Chemistry, Foreign Languages and Physical Education.The objectives were:• To develop pro-healthy lifestyle habits by introducing and implementing health-promoting attitudes;• To improve fitness of the participants in the time of the project by 10%;• To develop a habit of preparing and eating nutritious breakfast by 60% of the participants;• To broaden by 20% the knowledge concerning civilization diseases and their relation with nutrition and unhealthy lifestyle; • To improve basic programming skills needed for designing the application. During the project the participants learnt basic programming skills, ways of searching information on the Internet and checking its credibility, making presentations, applying IT tools to gather data, writing algorithm for the application. Besides that while working on questionnaires and articles the participants’ skills in reading and listening comprehension, critical thinking, team work were improved. Various techniques of team work were held; short films on nutritious meals were made; lectures by dieticians, doctors, trainers; interviews with grandparents about their diet were conducted as well as cookery workshops were performed. Students underwent a cycle of fitness tests; they participated in sport classes, bike trips, a volleyball tournament, yoga classes led by professional instructors. All the initiative is complimentary with the school syllabuses.We believe tthat through promotion of lifestyle conducive to health, which was the focus of the project, all the participants’ physical and emotional health improved. Health-promoting habits and prevention of civilization diseases were reinforced; the needs and practical skills concerning sports activities and healthy eating were developed. Thanks to communication with their peers the students developed their language competence as well as personal and citizen traits. Cooperating teachers broadened their knowledge and experience connected with promotion of healthy lifestyle; practised their managerial and operating modern technologies skills; learnt modern ways of promotion, new methods of teaching, improved interrelation-related competences; enriched their knowledge of multicultural differences.Through international cooperation, school exchange visits, steady online contact, mobility among the participating schools was developed. The schools established their reputation of institutions for which intellectual and psychophysical development of the students is a priority. Their educational offer was enriched by multicultural values.We believe that the actions covered by the project stimulated the participants to reflect on their lifestyle and led to implementation of health-promoting attitudes while, at the same time, motivated to develop modern technologies competences. We claim that in the future the outcomes of the project will serve further education of healthier and enlightened young people, which relates to the Euro 2020 strategy.

KA2 “Raising STEAM in education” was an educational innovation aimed at facilitating learning difficult subjects such as natural Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Maths through Art by taking a more interdisciplinary and holistic approach and basing on the practical hands-on experience, experiment, learning by doing as well as enabling artistic expression. It included secondary schools from Poland, Cyprus, Italy, Greece and Slovakia. Each school recruited 12 students aged 15 - 18 years old, in Slovakia 16 (according to the Application Form). The Project gained acceptance and support of most of the pedagogical and teaching staff in the partner schools, but its coordination and implementation was mainly carried out by an international team of ca. 12 teachers. The STEAM Project promoted inclusive education through a bigger engagement of girls and students orientated at humanities and arts into learning natural sciences, as well as an increase in interest, understanding and popularization of art among students more eagerly learning natural sciences and engineering, and also at facilitating understanding of the principles of maths and development of mathematical skills. It developed key competences: cooperation and collaboration in an international environment, multiculturalism, team work, problem and conflict solving through negotiation, time management, digital and multimedia skills (ICT), making presentations in a foreign language in front of an international audience, tolerance and openness to otherness. The working language of the Project was English, that is why its participants improved their communication skills in everyday situations as well as expanded their topic vocabulary of the STEAM subjects (biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, geography, history, architecture, art) in English. Each partner school prepared a programme of their short-term international students’ exchange devoted to and exploring one of the STEM subjects and combined them with art. A big impact was put on the development of civic competences and European dimension in education through practical teaching about the cultural heritage and biodiversity of Europe with the use of works of art, achievements of engineering, distinguished scientists and artists and potential of the sites from the UNESCO World Heritage List available and connected with the Project partner countries. Thanks to the character of some of the Project results (multimedia presentations and videos) it enabled students to improve their digital skills – ICT tools, multimedia and learning applications were employed in interdisciplinary teaching of STEAM subjects and in artistic expression. The Project participants learnt responsibility for sustained development combining practical knowledge from biology, chemistry, physics, robotics, engineering with artistic expression. The Project helped better prepare students to function on the job market and increased their employability in the future, because apart from developing global competences it stressed the importance of versatile interests and skills – within the scope of different subjects the Project introduced interdisciplinary education and holistic approach to the contents taught. Among the teachers in partner schools the Project contributed to an increased interest in innovations in education and willingness to undertake new international cooperation initiatives, which led to striking up new Erasmus+ KA2 and eTwinning partnerships.