Involving approximately 300 students of mixed abilities, diverse national, cultural ,social and religious backgrounds this project has engaged young Europeans in artistic activities, enabling them to learn about contemporary art in Europe, to explore and exchange ideas and concepts and work together,sharing views, tastes and artworks , promoting intercultural dialogue and active citizenship, and thus learning to appreciate cultural diversity in Europe and the common cultural wealth shared in Europe. This project has been carried out by four partner schools , the first one is Modellschule Graz, a small private secondary school with around 200 students aged between 10 and 18 years old, which serves as the coordinating school. The curriculum of the Modellschule has a special focus on Art and Crafts. Every year students have six to eight “Art and Crafts” lessons a week and Art is a compulsory subject for the “Matura”, the final exams in Austria, taken at the age of eighteen. The second school involved is College Aristide Briand, a middle school located to the north of Paris. The school has quite a large number of immigrants coming from Africa (North Africa and Central Africa). They mainly live in council housing and represent a higher rate of unemployment than the rest of the population. The school has taken part in several Comenius and Erasmus+ projects since 2007 and has acquired a huge amount of expertise in carrying out international exchanges and projects.The third school is Thomas More Catholic school which is located in Purley, a suburb of London, but most of its pupils live in the more urban areas of Croydon and commute to school every day. It has been awarded the International School Award since 2008. Many children come from single parent families and some parents are struggling economically and hold more than one job. Many do not have the means for European travel. The school has a higher than average number of pupils from different ethnicities. In fact more than 300 languages are spoken in this school. There is a high number of pupils with special needs and the number of pupils who have school meals is more than 30 %. A high number of students leave school early. The fourth project partner , Agrupamento de Escolas de Josefa de Óbidos, is a secondary school in Obidos, north of Lisbon in Portugal. The Creative Factory launched by the Óbidos Criativa Approach, is an educational program where students are invited to combine imagination and creativity, to create and develop ideas. Projects such as the Atelier, Animation Movie, MyMachine, StoryCentre, appeared in the schools as an integral part of the curriculum. The project has involved innovative methods such as peer learning, practical workshops, designing a logo for the project , group work and group discussions, using apps , the eTwinning site and making videos. Activities include a range of learning activities such as Street Art tours and workshops, guided tours through museums and art galleries, painting, designing Tshirts , body painting, photography, Hip-hop dance and drama workshops. Other activities were: making videos, planning and designing presentations and exhibitions, sharing a message from young Europeans to Europe. By engaging in and sharing art, we succeeded in fostering intellectual curiosity , tolerance , team spirit and common values. Promoting creativity, entrepreneurship, language skills, communicative skills and teamwork at a European level has helped our students to acquire skills they will need to be able to compete both in our economic area of Europe and in our globalised world. Working in groups and during peer-learning they have become efficient users of English as a foreign language and have acquired other second language skills , such as French, German and Portuguese. During presentations and exhibitions they have learned presentational skills and while being involved during the organisation of the project and planning exhibitions our pupils have improved and learned management skills. By discussing contemporary artworks , pupils and teachers alike have been able to learn about cultural differences and common values shared by all participants. This has lead to more cultural awareness and tolerance. By taking part in this project, it has helped both very talented and also weaker students to achieve their full potential and motivate them to engage themselves more in school work., such as learning more IT skills and language skills and working together with fellow Europeans .As a school with a special focus on Art and Crafts in our curriculum the Modellschule Graz , but also our partner institutions which all have very strong Art Departments, have long term benefits with activities being able to be repeated with other students in the future. Teachers, students and families will continue having contact with their colleagues and friends from other European countries .

"The complex challenges of today's world make it necessary for the European educational systems to adapt and respond with a new approach to learning. Learning must be seen as an on-going progress, building up continuously at every stage of life. Schools must equip students with the necessary skills to face a multicultural and multilingual reality, ruled by increasing accessibility to information technologies. Today, technology is changing how and what we teach. Knowing how to embrace this important change and how to utilize it in the best possible way is a mission that must be embraced by all levels of schooling. Our modern society has been defined as a ""fluid"", because it isn't based on the traditional and safe pillars of what had become the traditional lifestyle, but floats on new morals, new ideas, and a new perspective of the world, less dependent on traditions and more reliant on technologies. In this context, our project aimed at the introduction of transversal or soft skills in everyday teaching practice, in order to create a fundamental heritage for all students, a base upon which educators and learners will build a personal response to the complex requests and challenges of today's world. It is necessary that the schools form individuals and citizens who are able to react to problems by using their minds, will and emotions, people in whom competence and creativity, technique and humanism, sensitivity and vision are fully integrated. The inclusion of soft skills into everyday didactic will change the notion of learning as a reciprocal exchange which does not end with the acquisition of concepts, but it must provide the students with the skills to learn continuously, a continuous process of ""learning to learn"". In practice, the project started with an initial conference, held by Professors from the University of Ca' Foscari, Venice, who have already collaborated in our last Erasmus+ project. It focused on the introduction of the importance of soft skills and their practical application to didactics. The conference was open to the local teachers community and was an opportunity to launch the project as an international event. Right after the conference, two teachers from each partner country and a group of 8 Italian teachers moved to a residential, three-day training course held at H-Farm, Venice, a world-leading innovation hub (connected to the University of Venice) that seeks to explore new practices in education and designs approaches towards digital transformation. After this initial stage, all stakeholders of the project were personally involved in the creation of project-based activities which would promote students' engagement through deep investigation of complex questions and real problems, addressed using soft skills. During each international project, students worked in groups to seek solutions to real-life situations and practical problems presented by the local community. The involvement of local institutions was an essential step towards the final dissemination of the project results. Each group presented their proposal and, in the future and where possible, the winning one will be realized in the local community. At the end of all activities, a report was created, introducing soft skills in school practices and collecting all project-based activities which were shared with other teachers not involved in the project. For each international project, each partner school selected an average of 10 motivated pupils, and two accompanying teachers (among those who participated into the training program). All students were eligible to participate, but each school assured to include students with lower possibilities or social disadvantage. Students were engaged actively, in order to encourage their creativity and work in a cooperative way, leaning empathy, passion and resiliency. They also practiced their soft skills (communication, critical thinking, social responsibility, problem solving, teamwork and leadership, creativity and innovation) exploring problems with an authentic approach while building friendship outside their traditional learning environment. Students learnt to work in a team, sharing the same objectives in order to find solutions to real questions and issues. They also learnt to think critically and produce solutions in a competitive way. In the long-term, the final impact of our project will be the introduction of a new idea of learning into the traditional school systems, a continuous building up of experiences and skills in order to critically face the challenges of the modern world, equipping students with the necessary tools to address real problems. Project- and problem-based learning will increase young people's motivation, put subject content into context, and offer opportunities for the development of social, civic, and entrepreneurship competences for the challenges of the future."

The aim of our project ‘Breaking Down School Barriers’ is to assist schools in the European Union in their work regarding inclusion in the classroom. It became evident that there was a need for action in all of the participating schools. We want to initiate bringing lesson design up to date in this context.At the first preparation meeting between the coordinators, the project was defined and laid out more clearly. Key issues that we wanted to pursue during the course of the project were also identified. The coordinators also discussed the latest developments and research on inclusion in schools with professors from the University of Bolzano.At the first international meeting with students at Gymnasium Wentorf the project focused on music. In mixed groups, each group learnt a folk song from one of the partner countries. These were performed for the parents at the closing event. This gave the students the opportunity to make music together and learn about other countries. The students also wrote their own words to the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams and practised it together with Mr Fischer, a music teacher at Gymnasium Wentorf. The words they wrote were relevant to our project. Each student contributed to the creation of the song and video, regardless of their previous knowledge of music. The result of this work between the countries is our Erasmus song which has been sung at each of the meetings.Our Erasmus partners in Spain led a project focused on theatre during the second international meeting. In preparation for this, the students wrote their own skits on the topic of inclusion (for example about bullying).Our Erasmus partners in England worked on a project focused on science during the third international meeting. Students took part in a Forensic Science ‘Whodunnit’ event, using procedures and chemicals employed in real forensic investigation work.Our Erasmus partners in France worked on a project focused on games during the fourth international meeting. In preparation for this, the students had prepared a typical game from their home country. At the meeting in France there were workshops, where students tried all the games from each partner country. Our next international meeting was in Italy, where the theme was different types of learning styles. As a homework for the meeting, students made videos about the different learning styles – auditory, visual and kinesthetic.The sixth meeting was in Denmark, and the theme was inclusion through sport. Each country had to show a typical sport from their home country, and all students tried playing the sports. During the meeting students also took part in group work on how sport can help inclusion.The final meeting was in Finland, and the theme was inclusion through technology. For preparation students had to tell/discuss how each partner school worked with technology.ObjectivesThe goal of this project was to create an innovative and sustainable model of inclusion that will overcome the barriers of a static and traditional school system. This will result in building an innovative and inclusive educational world that will be responsive to the needs of all students regardless of their physical and mental background.Number and profile of participating organisations.There are seven countries in the project (Germany, France, Spain, UK, Italy, Finland and Denmark). All participating schools are public schools, and some of the schools also cater for integration for special education students. Participating students in our project were between 11 - 15 years old.-The Italian school (Instituto Comp. Savignano sul Rubicone) also welcomes students with physical and mental conditions with the support of specialised staff.-The English school, Thomas More Catholic School, near London, has a large number of pupils with special needs, and more than 50 different languages are spoken here.-The Spanish school in Aranjuez near Madrid, also has many students with special needs. The school has around 1000 students. The school also trains students to work in restaurants etc.-The French school, College Aristide Briand, is situated in Domont, north of Paris. The school has a large number of immigrants from Africa. The school has ULIS (units located for inclusive education) for students with impaired cognitive or mental functions.-The Danish school, Hedegaardsskolen in Broenderslev, has 800 students. It is a normal primary and secondary school and also includes some students with special needs.-The school in Finland is situated in Vantaa near Helsinki and has 650 students. The school has a specialised programme for students with special needs.-The German school, Gymnasium Wentorf near Hamburg, has around 1200 students. The school has an advanced programme for inclusion for students with special needs.

"Throughout the course of the project we will work together to embrace the diverse natural heritage in Europe and explore the many differences and also similarities between the four countries. The project will involve four schools with pupils growing up in a mainly urban environment. Some of them have not experienced much of the rich and diverse natural resources of European countries. This project aims at encouraging our students to discover and explore some of Europe’s natural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of pride and appreciation of our continent's natural wealth. We believe that , in order for the future generation to act and deal with environmental problems, it takes young people who are passionate about our natural surroundings. We must face up to the fact that we only have one planet and must live and act accordingly. On the one hand, students of the four participating schools will explore and find out how beautiful and diverse our environment is and on the other hand become aware of the environmental problems we are facing. Finally, they will learn what each one of us individually and as a European community can do to tackle these problems and live in an environmentally friendly way. This project aims to foster in our students and teachers primarily a sense of awareness and pride for our European wealth of natural resources, but also a sense of respect and open-mindedness. Together, in international teams , they will discuss environmental issues and plan activities and actions to deal with environmental problems. Science, Biology and Geography teachers will teach the pupils the importance of the three ' r 's : Reduce, reuse and recycle for protecting our nature and saving energy and natural resources. Participants taking part in the project and meetings will be around 100 students of diverse backgrounds and abilities of the four partner schools, aged between 14 and 16, their teachers and last but not least the parents, who will host the students during the Learning, Teaching and Training Activities.Planned activities include walks along the river banks and in the Lagoon of Obidos, visits and field trips to natural heritage sites, eco farms, and natural history museums , as well as visiting a glacier and learning about the negative effects of global warming. Schools will organise ecological runs and walks. Creative activities such as Landart workshops will be organised too. Using online tools, students will measure their carbon footprint and learn, how one can reduce it. Schools will be assessed on how effective they are with waste management and use of energy . New movements such as the ""zero-waste"" lifestyle will be explored and bulk stores and markets, selling their products without packaging will be visited. The advantages of using locally grown organic food will be discussed and experienced during food workshops and while visiting local eco-farms. Students will also have the opportunity to take walks through forests and along beaches, lakes and rivers, testing water quality with science teachers and comparing the water quality of different rivers and lakes and the sea of the different countries taking part in the project. Towards the end of our project, a tree will be planted in each of the school yards as a sign of our commitment to the environment. Methodology used in this project includes peer learning, team work, small group work, practical workshops, guided tours and lectures, using online tools , presenting project work in front of an audience, using eTwinning, doing sports and creative work, exploring and experimenting. Students will take part in discussions and think creatively when looking for solutions to environmental problems.With this project we endeavour to engage and motivate students of all abilities to actively participate in their learning process. Learning about the natural environment and the cause and effects of environmental problems and making our pupils reflect on and discuss possible solutions to these issues will promote communicative skills and problem solving skills and teamwork at a European level. We believe that children should acquire a passion for the natural environment from an early age on, by learning and exploring nature. It is a proven fact, that people who have knowledge of diverse natural animal and plant species also develop the desire to preserve and protect biodiversity. People who do not have this knowledge and do not have positive experiences in natural surroundings do not feel the need to protect biodiversity. Longer term benefits will be that all participants will recognise the need to change or adapt their lifestyle in order to protect the environment and will therefore grow up to be responsible citizens of the European Union. In the long term, activities carried out during this project and online tools used will be implemented in our teaching and in future projects, carried both nationally and at a European level."