Project: Communication and internationalisation, 2015-16 Montessori Vaxholm has identified four focus areas that we hope will stimulate learning throughout the school year: Sustainable development: Norms and values, global understanding, critical research, scientific and technical competence Communication: Language and social competence Entrepreneurship: Developing initiative and creative entrepreneurial skills Cultural awareness and expression: Drama, rhythm, dance, music Since the start of the spring term this year, the school has been running a project linked to one of our focus areas: sustainable development. We now aim to build on that success by initiating a project linked to communication, another one of our focus areas. We want pupils to meet and communicate with pupils in other countries (via Skype, among other methods) to fulfil that goal. We will develop a digital forum that allows pupils to express how they want to influence the environment in Vaxholm and, over the longer term, the globe. Our goal is to invite pupils from other European schools to add their thoughts and exchange ideas. English will be the working language. We have identified a need to increase our pupils’ motivation to learn English. Consequently, we want our teachers to increase their competence in English and acquire new teaching methods that will inspire pupils to improve their language skills. Success will make it easier for our pupils to contact pupils in other countries. Used alongside the content taught as part of the curriculum, these methods will help our pupils to communicate with other pupils via our digital forum and new projects created through e-twinning. We expect these measures to make pupils more motivated to learn English, provide a more positive impression of the learning process, enhance pupils’ knowledge and improve study results. We see this project becoming a standard part of teaching in our school over the longer term, thereby helping pupils to be challenged and willing to take initiative while ensuring that they have a good knowledge of global society and strong communication skills.