Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 1

A collAborAtion toolbox to build a school for

all…. TogeTher is beTTer!

Newsletter 1

A new project is born! Puurs (Belgium), 7 October 2013. Kick-off of a new project! “A collaboration toolbox to build a school for all - Together is better” is a Comenius Multilateral Partnership. The general aim of this project is to promote inclusive education and lifelong learning for ALL learners. Evolving towards a “School for All” involves changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies. This change requires support for all partners in education. Inclusion will benefit from a good collaboration between mainstream schools and special schools or centers. With "Together is better" we want to focus on different collaboration-models and we will collect a variety of partnership models for guidance and counseling. We will present our work in a toolbox which will contain a blueprint for collaboration and a guide with recommendations and good practices. The project partners are each at different levels towards inclusion but we all have the same goal: to improve collaboration between mainstream schools and special schools or centers by presenting assisting tools and resources. For some countries the outcomes of this project can bring an already ongoing process to a higher level.

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 2

Meet the teams of the 7 partner schools of the project:

Belgium, Puurs: BuSO Sint Jan Berchmansinstituut, a vocational school for students with special needs and a support unit for students with special needs in mainstream schools.

BuBAO Ten Desselaer: a special needs school (elementary) for pupils with difficulties in social interactions and a support unit for students with special needs in mainstream schools.

Austria, Graz:: Sonderpädagigisches Zentrum Graz Spracheilschule, an advisory centre for inclusion and a special school for children with language difficulties.

Finland, Oulu: Oppimis-ja ohjauskeskus Tervaväylä, a special school and a learning/consulting centre for development in special needs education.

Sweden Upssala: Storvretaskolan, a mainstream (elementary) school in cooperation with special schools in the community.

United Kingdom, London: Netley Primary school, a mainstream( elementary) school with an Autism Resource Base.

Slovenia, Protoroz: Osnovna Sola Lucija : a mainstream (elementary) school in cooperation with local special schools.

BuSO SJABI, Belgium is the coordinator of the project, assisted by VVKBuO, Brussels.

For more information about the partners: please consult our website (see later).

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 3

We will visit each school, starting with a kick-off meeting in Puurs, Belgium and ending with a close-off meeting with a final conference in Leuven, Belgium. You can find the dates of our meetings here:

7-9 October 2013 “Belgium in autumn!”

12-14 December 2013 ”Xmas in London!”

12-14 May 2014 ”Sweden in springtime!”

6-8 October 2014 ”Slovenia in autumn”

2-14 January 2015 “Finland in the winter”

2-4 March 2015 “Austria in springtime”

1-3 June 2015 “Belgium in summertime”

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 4

To “walk the talk”, all team partners have formed “buddy-teams”: Puurs with Graz and Portoroz; Lovenjoel with Uppsala; Oulu with Camden. This way we will be able to provide evidence of how rich and inspiring cooperation can be and how much more can be achieved in working together as partners. The buddy teams will use Drop Box and Skype for efficient work on the different elements of the toolbox. The results will be visible on our dynamic website.

Please take a look at our website!

http://comeniustoolbox.weebly.com/

This website was set up by the Finnish partner in August 2013. The different sites give information about the theme, background and aim of the project, the project partnership as well as news about the project activities and meetings. A picture gallery gives impressions about the working groups during the meetings and conferences. All the outputs will be available on the web page at the end of the project.

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 5

We put high value on the dissemination of the project results. The following mind map gives an overview of how we plan to do this:

Dissemination mind map, developed by the Austrian partner.

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 6

The kick-off meeting in Puurs:

Monday 7 October 2013 The day started with a first “visual” acquaintance with each other! It was nice to finally see who is “behind” the application and to talk to each other in “real life”. After a full morning-meeting, we were invited to have our lunch in the beautiful decorated sports hall of the SJABI school. White table clothes, flowers and nuts on the tables made the table look like a first class restaurant. The students of the school were responsible for the lunch. The atmosphere was encouraging and full of hope.

In the afternoon, director Luc Bosman presented the educational system in Flanders and the SJABI school. The corresponding papers can be found on our website.

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 7

After lunch the buddy groups were installed and workshops where formed: planning and organization were discussed and working arrangements were agreed on.

A very interesting visit of the school in different groups sealed the formal part of the first kick-off day.

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A paper with more information about the SJABI school can be downloaded from our website.

In the evening a welcoming diner was offered by the School Board of SJABI Puurs.

Extract from our blog (written by Eija): …..It was a fascinating process which happened during the day: in the morning we did not know each other and in the end of the day we were able to work together, decide our targets, talk about the meanings of words and cross the cultural differences we had. We have a project: “Together is better - a toolbox to build a school for all”

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 8

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Today we discussed how we would work with Drop Box and the proposal of our website, designed by Kimmo, the Finnish partner. The presentations we gave were about our local internal and external project teams and related projects. It is obvious that this project includes a huge amount of people and that the dissemination will be done properly.

The cold lunch, again very tasty, was prepared by the students of the school:

In the afternoon, we walked to a mainstream (secondary) school in the Puurs community. The managements team welcomed us with coffee and a very interesting presentation of their mission statement and vision on special educational needs.

Extract from our blog (written by Eija): …..The school visit to Sint-Jan Berchmansinstituut in Puurs showed to us how a secondary mainstream school works. The following good practices from this school are worth of sharing: the new students get good information about the care they can have. They also have a contract for their behavior and get a passport for that. The school year starts with a three day trip where the students have an opportunity to learn to know each other. If the students are sick they can get four hours temporary education at home. Parents’ evenings are organized. The tasks of the students are differentiated also for the gifted students…… At the end of the day Joke, the psychologist from Puurs and an active member of the project team, presented the ideology and the steps of the continuum in special needs support. A paper on this subject can be downloaded from our website.

Extract from our blog (written by Eija): …..When considering the special needs we have to think about the needs on pupils, teachers and parents. In Belgium there is an attempt to bring the special educational support from the special schools to mainstream schools. The idea of help desk is worth of thinking….

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 9

Wednesday 9 October 2013

The last day of the kick-off took place in a meeting room of VSKO (Vlaams Secretariaat van het Katholiek Onderwijs) in Brussels.

During the morning we had a learning session on eTwinning. We decided to use our website, drop box and eTwinning for this project. The VSKO organization was presented and the management plan was drafted. We agreed to evaluate our meetings by using a questionnaire. After evaluating the forms and many other issues Marleen gave a small introduction on Universal Design for Learning, (UDL). Extract from our blog (written by Eija): …..Our project has now got a good start. The meeting was a real kick off. We have to thank the Belgium team for all arrangements. The opportunity to meet colleagues from different European countries offered us an opportunity to benchmark our Finnish compulsory education system. Our school system gives good possibilities to develop our school towards a real school for all. What we have to do is to find proper ways to give the best possible support to pupils who need it…..

For a full version of the blog by Eija: see our website.

Newsletter 1

“A communication toolbox to build a school for all” 68511BB8E0E4E695 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Pagina 10

Project news:

Not only a new project is born…..

A few days before the kick-off of the project, on 23 September 2013, baby boy Kolja was born!

Meet Kolja and his mother Katja (director of Osnovna Sola Lucija in Slovenia).

And finally….. if you would like to register for the next 5 newsletters, please go to our website.