Project title: “Opening our doors to Europe” A. Justification The school Salesianos San José, located in the neighborhood of Pizarrales in Salamanca, is the largest State-subsidized School for Vocational Studies in Salamanca province, Primary and Secondary studies are taught as well. Being Pizarrales a socioeconomic disadvantaged area; we would like to educate our students so that they achieve a better future and once they leave our school, they are well valued thanks to the appropriate education they have received. B. PROJECT CONTEXT We are an innovative school; we like to work with ICT, use new methodologies and a good academic training in languages for the students is one of our main goals. Primary section is bilingual to the 5th course of primary and we will continue with it once these students are at secondary. Furthermore, we are getting prepared for the bilingual curricula at Vocational Courses, which is already established in several autonomous regions. We also want our older students to have the opportunity to benefit from exchanges and internship periods abroad. With this project, the school management team is providing training for the teachers. Since different educational sections (Primary, Secondary and Vocational Studies) are included in the project, teachers’ needs are different considering the section they work in. C. Project’s Objectives 1. Teachers must be fluent and use perfectly the language they teach, in this case English. 2. Prepare future teachers (Secondary and Vocational Courses) to teach their lessons in English or carry out activities in English (creating projects, interviews, dealing with foreign enterprises…) 3. Provide the teachers with innovative methodology tools so that they are able to teach with simple and entertaining methods encouraging students to work with motivational materials, making them the main participants in the class. Everything using easy and comprehensible methods such as new technologies, mobile technology or cooperative work. 4. Visit and learn foreign schools where these methodologies have been used for years, so that we can get to know their experiences and interact with other teachers and experts on this area. 5. Meet and be in contact with teachers from other countries for future associations, KA2 projects, exchanges, internship, jobshadowing… D. Teachers’ profile - Primary studies: five teachers, English level: C1 and B2 (currently studying for C1). - Secondary studies: two teachers, C1 level. - Vocational Courses-superior level: three teachers, English level: C1, B2 and B1 (currently studying for B2). E. Activities description, justification and methodology 1- At primary section, we aim to improve and broaden the linguistic skill on the students, however, we need new strategies and methodologies; we are planning to introduce mobile technology in the classroom. The training for these teachers would have two different parts: - English summer courses in the U.K: courses on new methodologies (projects, use of mobile technology in the class…) - 7-days Study visits to schools in Finland, consisting in educational visits to schools with training seminars. They will take place during the academic course so that we can see the schools performing their everyday activity. 2. In two years, secondary section will be bilingual as well. Therefore, secondary teachers need to have appropriate training, develop abilities to teach English in a cross-curricular way and in non-linguistic subjects. - CLIL summer courses in the U.K. 3. Since bilingual curricula in Vocational courses are already being used in some autonomous regions, we have to be prepared for it. We aim to facilitate the students a broader working perspective and give them the possibility to complete their internship at European companies. - Summer courses in the U.K. to improve teachers’ linguistic skills. - Summer courses in the U.K. on “Business English”. This will help them in the future to teach their lessons in the Vocational Courses on Administration and Secretarial Studies. Furthermore, this will be useful for them when they have to arrange the internship periods at foreign enterprises, communications, negotiations… F. Project’s Impact and Benefits Completing this Project, our teachers will be aware of everything they have learnt and of the necessity of change, willing to develop projects with other European schools. On the other hand, our students will be the main beneficiaries of this project since our aim is to work for eradicating school failure in our classrooms with motivational methodologies. Finally, we want our Vocational Courses students to have the opportunity to do their internship abroad (Europe) as well as exchanges for secondary students.