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GATES AND KEYS
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

A common challenge for the European school systems is the prevention of early school leaving. Tackling early school leaving is first and foremost an investment in the future. Young people who leave school early are at increased risk of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. They are often in more precarious and less well-paid jobs than those with training. Generally, children from low education and socially disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely than others to leave the school system early. With our project we want to get support to develop conducive and supportive learning environments that focus on the needs of individual pupils, especially the disadvantaged ones. We want to promote a relevant and engaging learning environment for them. The main goal of our project entitled "Gates and Keys" is to create a meaningful and motivating learning atmosphere where they will have the sense of belonging. The pupils should realize how important it is to possess a school education and a professional education so that they can take care for their future concerns and to become active and responsible citizens who can contribute to Europe. Besides the project will be framed on different levels to reach as many pupils as possible and to motivate them to gain interesting and positive experiences which keeps up their motivation for learning. We are aware that extra-curricular activities can not only help students to catch up and to revive their interest in learning, but also help them to re-build a positive relationship with the school and its staff, as well as providing fulfilling activities which can boost self-esteem and reduce frustration. As early-school leaving is closely related to social exclusion, we blended the discovery of reasons of social exclusion, such as prejudices and cultural barriers with the factors of early school leaving. Students will discover themselves through discovering the "other". That's why we want to carry out our studies in the form of a transnational project which will offer chances to compare and discover. For years, we have been confined to see through the key holes, which caused us to misconceive the big picture. It is high time we found the right keys and opened the doors. In order to take our place in the big picture and touch it to better understand , we, 8 partners from different countries or backgrounds, Turkey, 2 Italian Schools, United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary,Poland and Denmark came together and had the idea of this transnational project which will give us the clues to be able to find the keys in the maze. Mobilities of both students and teachers across Europe constitute an integral part of our approach, along with the use of information and communication technologies. Our students will participate in activities in multinational teams and acquire active, hands-on experiences by engaging with exploring, evaluating, mapping, meeting volunteer teams, music, dance and art. In a united Europe students and teachers will greatly benefit from working together with partners from other European countries, thus they can learn to understand and accept other cultures and their traditions. Furthermore, they raise their cultural awareness, broaden their horizon and learn a lot about working on projects in teams, connecting them to school. With this project we mainly address to pupils in the age of 14-17 who attend secondary school. At every participating school there will be a class or group of pupils who will work on the topics with various subject teachers. Besides an own website, where we would like publish our project work for all people, we will also produce a school magazine to attract people who cannot read about our project in the internet. Through the activities the joy about learning will be supported in a long term way. The students involved in the project can use languages, ICT, theatre, cinema, music, photo, arts, culture, local dances, traditions and local customs, as vehicles for research and to communicate the results of their work. Our students will be familiar with abstract concepts and will be able to encounter with real problems rather than ready made problems. In this way, they will have the opportunity of learning to deal with uncertainity and making decisons. Finally, the results of our interaction will reach our schools through products such as Booklet: religions-similarities and difference and Booklet:How can we reduce racial prejudice and racism? , a website, exhibitions, ideas for lesson plans, a celebration "Europe Day", workshops and presentations. At the end of the project a document will be prepared which will identify the proposals to reduce school drop-out: this document will be sent to the Department of Education and Community policies of the European Parliament. The project will be developed through different stages which the schools involved will run simultaneously, with a joint work event at a distance.
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