First Year 2015/2016 - impact

 

During this first year of implementation of the project we implemented various activities around the three axes of training - Axis 1: ADDRESSING BAD BEHAVIOUR AND EXCLUSION; Axis 2: DISCOVERING TALENTS, PLANNING THE FUTURE; Axis 3: BUILDING PRINCIPLES OF PARTNERSHIP/ RESPECT FOR SELF AND OTHERS - which intersect one another in some of the activities. The activities implemented within the project also entwine themselves with some of the activities and or topics of the AEAH Annual Plan of Activities. The above mentioned activities developed were:

 

o   Activities fostering the integration of deaf students and involving hearing students of a class with behavioural problems –

• Seminar “The Day of the Portuguese Sign Language Interpreter”;

• Singing in Portuguese Sign Language (direct interaction between hearing students and deaf schoolmates);

• Cooking talent- baking “button cookies” (butter cookies in the form of buttons);

• Handcrafts talent – planning, drawing, decorating and building paper boxes for the button cookies - multidisciplinary activity combining handcrafts with drawing classes;

 

o    Activities promoting the discovery of talents by students, teachers and parents & fostering the building of principles of partnership and respect for the self and for others -

• Cooking talent- baking “button cookies” (butter cookies in the form of buttons) to send to “Den Achtkanter”, organization for the integration of adults with disabilities; (8th grade classes with difficult behaviour)

• Handcrafts talent – planning, drawing, decorating and building paper boxes for the button cookies; (8th grade classes with difficult behaviour)

• Handcrafts talent – decorating matchboxes with Valentine’s Day motives and writing friendship messages in English to send to Italian counterparts with whom Skype meeting were promoted; (8th grade classes with difficult behaviour)

• Educational dancing (Kindergarten children)

• Handcrafts and singing talent – celebrating the Wise Kings’ Day ((Kindergarten children);

•  “The theatre comes to school” – interactive theatre (primary school pupils);

•  “Scientists at School” – playing with science (primary school pupils);

• Guitar Workshop (primary school pupils);

•  Tag Rugby Sessions (primary school pupils);

• Seminars and Debates “How to educate for Success” (teachers and parents);

• “Coffee with Parents” – evening informal meetings with parents guided by specialists on various educational topics;

•  Project “Junior Achievement Portugal” (elementary school pupils)

•  Project “Society, Partnership and School” (elementary school and secondary school students;

• Social/ Interpersonal Relationships’ Talent – sending boxes with cookies to adults with special needs in Belgium and getting feedback from them; sending matchboxes with friendship messages to Italian classmates and getting feedback from them in a Skype meeting;

Results after the first year:

As far as the use of the project’s results are concerned, we can state that the personal interaction between the deaf students and the much more numerous hearing students has been increased and enhanced. In fact, the cooperation and collaboration of our hearing participants with the deaf participants within the project activities, has been boosted not only within the learning and trainingactivities but also in their daily school life. In fact, the students have started to present projects and proposals of activities that integrate the participation of deaf students and students with special needs.

 

On the other hand, we can observe that, in our school community, there is a greater awareness of citizenship as well as a stronger assertion of the rights of the person with special needs (applied to the students, in this case). This is probably what we consider currently more gratifying and which represents a clear evidence of change and constitutes a positive result of the TBJU project.

 

The knowledge and sharing of methodologies, teaching strategies and activities applied in Latvia with the deaf, in Belgium with the disabled students and in Italy with students with difficult behaviour has already started to have a noticeable impact in the pedagogical practice of some of our teachers, namely by its strategic adoption in their teaching procedures. (e.g. relaxing techniques as a means of addressing difficult behaviour, the adoption of co-teaching practices as a way of improving and overcoming teaching and learning difficulties, as well as the fostering and improvement of
non-verbal communication techniques and skills).

Moreover, the dissemination of the knowledge acquired in the training sessions in our partner countries as to the teaching of students with special needs has fostered a wider debate among peers (teachers and educational and social technicians) – namely the inclusive teaching environment of Portuguese schools versus the specific schools for students with special needs of Belgium.

 

Second Year 2016/2017

 

The implementation of the project activities which we were responsible for was very satisfactory and all the planned activities were successfully carried out. Participants were recruited according to the rules stipulated at the 1st Transnational Meeting. Before each training, preparation activities were carried out to broaden the knowledge about the country where it was to take place; after each of these meetings, teachers and students carried out dissemination and training activities with their peers in their school, based on the knowledge acquired.

 

The impact and achievement of objectives is reflected in the following data:

• 90% of our students participated in the project tasks;

• 94% came into contact with the traditions and culture of partner countries, through participation, dissemination of results and workshops, streamlined due to the plasmas of the school's intranet;

• 70% of the teachers participated in at least one dissemination meeting during the 2 years of the project;

• 92% of teachers participated in 1 general meeting of the school for the final balance of the project;

• 97% of students were very satisfied with TBJU events.

 

Skills and knowledge of teachers which have increased:

• New techniques for dealing with children with disabilities - 95%;

• Non-verbal communication techniques-92%;

• Ways to deal with people suffering from (ab) substance use and drug use-90%;

• Dealing with and preventing difficult behaviors-95%;

• Dealing with the dangers and dependence of the Internet-90%;

• Dealing with difficult behaviors-95%;

• Preventing social exclusion - 94%.

 

72% of parents (21% in 2015) believe that the school situation has improved in terms of social exclusion. There was a 51% increase for the better.

 

The impact of the project was really positive, as student opinion changed for the better. 100% state that they now never or almost never feel rejected, isolated or not accepted at school.

The escalation of isolation has declined - 46% of students now rate this problem at the lowest levels (0 or 1).

 

In the future:

We will continue to implement new techniques to deal with behavioural problems learned during the trainings of our project. We will also organize training sessions for the various departments of our group, especially in elementary and primary schools, at the beginning of next school year, in order to strengthen the dissemination of several innovative techniques to improve personal interaction, and integrate people with disabilities into broader groups, as well as promote trust and good interpersonal relationships.

 

In short:

In the beginning of the project already 75% of students liked to go to school; now this percentage has increased to 93%. In addition, 100% of students state that they do not experience any bad feelings in school.

Our school has enriched the educational offer and the skills of collaborative and cooperative teaching. It has become able to implement proven learning solutions in other countries, to promote its own ideas, programs, methods and techniques of international level. The school was equipped with educational tools that will also be used by teachers from other institutions. The position of our school within the local community has become more relevant and participation in the project has enriched the contribution we were called to give to the Municipal Educational Plan, making all schools in the municipality benefit indirectly from the TBJU project. The feeling of belonging to the AEAH Grouping of Schools improved. The collaboration of and with other entities of the community and of Education was strengthened (the Bonfim Parish Council, the Educational Department of the Oporto City Hall, municipal entities, members of Parliament, members of the Regional Education Delegation, namely of the Special Education Department, who that have participated in the Special Education Conferences Cycle we carried out within the scope of the project, members of the Deaf Community, entrepreneurs and fashion designers, specialized technicians of the Ministry of Health, ...)

 

Dissemination

We have established some ways of disseminating the project, its aims and activities so as to optimize and facilitate the dissemination of the achieved results. So far we have created a group on Facebook with editors from each partner country. This group maintains a public Facebook page with constantly updated information on the project. On this FB page the editors from all the partner countries post materials: photos, videos, presentations, comments, etc. Thus we enable the exchange of experiences on the Facebook page (between the partner countries and other stakeholders). Besides, we also publicise the results of our action and involvement in the project.

 

We also have uploaded some documentaries/ video clips on Youtube and shared them on the Facebook page of our cluster of schools, (https://www.facebook.com/groups/aealexandreherculano/) and on the TJBU Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/535523626624230/).

 

In addition, we have created this website for the project in Portuguese language, and we intend to develop it and not only to publicize the project but also share materials, ideas, videos, PPT presentations, class scenarios, photos and, last but not the least, the achieved results by all the partners in the project.

 

Moreover, we have already established contact with the local authorities and have arranged the dissemination of promotional information of the “Together Better, Join Us” project on their website, http://www.jfbonfim.pt/, as well as in their trimestral newsletter, “O Bonfinense”. We will write short articles with photos both for the website and for the newsletter, so as to disseminate the “Together Better, Join Us” initiatives and outcomes.

 

Our project has also been mentioned and publicised in the newsletter of Universidade Católica which had a chapter on Erasmus + projects in Porto.

Besides that, the TBJU project is also mentioned in an online article of the Local Delegation of the Ministery of Health. In this case, the project is mentioned and publicised because of the organization of a workshop on the prevention of addiction and addictive behaviours which took place in march 2017. That workshop was designed by the project coordinator in AEAH and implemented in collaboration with technicians of the Loca Health Authorities.