Through Gestures and Music into the world of phonics has developed, tested and implemented an innovative method of teaching phonics through signs, gestures (using British Sign Language), songs and movement to preschool and primary school children (3 to 4 years in the UK and 3 to 8 in the Czech Republic and Slovenia). It has also developed training materials and courses for Early Years practitioners and English language teachers. Project activities were targeted at early English language learning in Slovenia and the Czech Republic. In the UK the project also worked in settings with children with communication difficulties, including children whose first language is not English. However, the methods were used in additional ways than originally planned. Although using BSL signs, nurseries in Slovenia and the Czech Republic used the methods with children whose first language was not Czech or Slovenian (or English) as a bridge between languages. The methods were used with all children in settings and evaluation showed more generally that signing, music and movement help children with communication skills at a time when lockdowns and increased screen time has made this an important issue. In Slovenia, the project has included language teachers in formal education between the ages of 6 and 8. The methodology teaches phonics stage 1 (phonological awareness) and stage 2 (Introduction to phonics) and includes listening walks, action songs, learning rhymes and learning the most common single letter and 20 sounds supported by gestures and music. Using gestures and music within the teaching of phonics for young children keeps them engaged and focused on the teacher to get information. This method of teaching improves confidence, memory, involvement and recall of sounds and letters.The project has the following results•Handbook: The guide introduces the method and and materials of how to implement early literacy skills and first phonic concepts to children through music, singing, signing and also books. The handbook is divided into two sections of theory and practice of GEM teaching concept (sections 1 and 2) followed by the examples from the implementation phase, including some of the activities and original songs. This includes short instructions for teachers of how to teach phonics to young children. The ideas of who the lessons can be structures and what to do during the lessons can be found on 20 lesson plans. •GEM songs We have prepared 20 original Gem songs to introduce children with the first words of English writing system. The songs lead children to easily recognise the short simple familiar words with their simple pattern which later helps them to to transform individual sounds into words and the other way around. •The GEM songs are accompanied by the song booklet. The song lyrics are also accompanied by engaging illustrations with the sign symbol and visual image of the song to capture the interest of children. The songs are adapted to teach children between the ages of 2 to 4 in the UK within the early years framework literacy curriculum or children between the ages of 2 to 8 who are learning English as a second language. •GEM stories. Four originally written stories to introduce the relevant words to children. They are available in printed form and powerpoint •The GEM vocabulary was prepared to purposefully teach children to start putting together their very first words and simple sentences and to link them with the print. We have prepared the vocabulary of 50 easy CVC words which don’t include any tricky blends and are very easy to remember. They are presented with the print, sign and illustration. Our songs, graphic and mini charts will all help you to reinforce the learning in a playful and meaningful way. •Mini charts are a great tool to help children linking sounds and words with print. Our original mini charts combine delightful colour illustrations with graphics and printed words separately so that the children can play a matching game and practice rhyming, alliteration, letter sound matching and blending words Check out ideas from the lesson plans and activity videos as how to use them. They are available at our training programme. Our designer has produced 100 images for the mini charts (illustrations of gestures and first words/images and print separately which aid learning) Let me know if it needs explaining. •Training programme: we have produced a 10 unit training programme with the aim to help the teachers to introduce GEM into their settings. It has the following units: What is GEM, About languages, Literacy in early years, GEM songs, Phonological awareness, Rhythm and rhyme, Alliteration, Phonemic awareness, GEM vocabulary and mini charts, Teaching instructions and lesson plans. All materials are available through our project website and ELearning platform

Pre-school and kindergarten classrooms are among the earliest social environments that a child encounters outside the family. For young children with different cultural backgrounds and social disadvantages, this transition can be a challenging one. As such, it is important that programs are in place in early education institutions to facilitate the integration of such special needs children with their peers and thereby promote social development across the board. However, many of the current educational systems do not do enough to address the needs of children who find the early school environment challenging as a result of learning disabilities or difficult backgrounds. Instead of being included, these children are often directed to separate schools or simply treated in a way that will only deepen their problems. In this spirit, five partner organizations from four European countries: England, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Wales have teamed up to develop and implement innovative methodology of inclusive pre-school education to support children with special needs, especially those coming from socially disadvantaged or culturally different environments. The key idea behind this partnership was based on an assumption, that instead of considering disadvantaged children to be an insurmountable challenge, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioners must be familiar with effective and proper ways to integrate and address the individual needs of such children. Each of the partners possessed the knowledge, experiences and methodological tools of work in different fields of inclusive pre-school education, which they brought into the partnership working towards the key project outputs. For example CEBEI, Wales had an explicit experience in Teacher Classroom Management tools. Open School from Slovakia put in their experience of work with Roma families and Tiny Signers from England brought into the partnership expertise in supporting children's linguistic and communication capabilities. Pedagogical Faculty of Masaryk University brought in research and teacher training skills. Schola Empirica has a long-term experience implementing projects focused on development of social and emotional competences of pre-school children in the Czech Republic. The project activities were directly related to the achievement of project goals: enhancement of competences of pre-school staff and providing them with the methodological tools for effective support of pre-school children and parents from disadvantaged environments. The international cooperation provided an opportunity for the development of ECEC methodology based on the international survey illuminating the needs and experiences of pre-school teachers in partner countries. The methodology of inclusive pre-school education based on the methods of work implemented and evaluated by the partner organizations constitutes an important outcome of the project. It provides a summary of methods and tools, which could be used in various cultural environments to improve social and emotional skills of pre-school children. Furthermore, the comprehensive comparative report on the ECEC in partner countries was completed providing information on the similarities and differences in the education policies with regards to the pre-school education of children from disadvantaged environments. This report provided for a comparative baseline necessary for the search of possible solutions to the problems faced and for further analysis of what measures could be effective in helping pre-school children to join and sustain in the mainstream education system across Europe. Next important aspect of international cooperation was a possibility to organize and implement joint training sessions for pre-school teachers from partner countries. The training program included information on different projects, activities, and methodologies of work with pre-school children and parents from socially disadvantaged and culturally different environments. The training also provided an opportunity for a discussion and exchange of information among pre-school educators across the EU creating the environment for innovation and change of approach to the current practices. The detailed training programs including the presentations in three languages (EN, CZ,SK) were compiled and publicized on the Internet site of coordinator and Erasmus plus platform to ensure, that pre-school teachers interested in the topics addressed by the project would be able to access the information and utilize it in their work. Last, The Good Practice Guide illuminating some of the difficulties when transferring the programs and activities for pre-school children into practice was prepared. The guide concludes with a comparative review of statistical evidence, implications of the survey outcomes, and recommendations for future analytical inquiry into the field of Early Childhood Education and Care in partner countries.

According to the Eurydice Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Europe 2014 report, 25 % of children under the age of six in the EU are at risk of poverty or exclusion. This number is likely to become higher with the current influx of refugees into Europe. To reach the aim of 95 % attendance for ECEC set out by the European Commission’s Strategic Framework for Education and Training 2020, we must develop and strengthen capacities to meet the extra demands of this vulnerable group. Family and community engagement is a necessary component in any strategy to tackle this challenge. As highlighted by the OECD report on Encouraging Quality in ECEC, strengthening links between ECEC programs and community services is an effective way to engage with disadvantaged groups. Through already established contact and cultural sensitivity they are valuable partners in developing and implementing strategies to improve attendance and quality. Therefore, this project focused on the possibilities of cooperation among informal education settings with the pre-schools aiming to support the inclusion of children from socially disadvantaged or culturally different environments. The project built on the outputs of the Strategic Partnership implemented in 2014-2016 focused on the support of social and emotional competencies of pre-school children. The goal of this project was to draw out innovative recommendations based on the best practices in partner countries on how they work with families and children from socioeconomically disadvantaged or culturally different environments, such as migrant and Roma families, in order to prepare children to enter formal education. The project also intended to prevent early school leaving (ESL) through engaging with socially and economically disadvantaged children at an early stage. This project was carried out by six partner organisations, each of which has rich experience in areas related to formal and/or informal education. Partners first conducted research into the current policies regarding ECEC in their respective countries (IO1), and then identified examples of successful inclusive strategies applied in their countries (IO2). Subsequently, training program for pedagogical as well as non-pedagogical personnel was implemented for participants from every partner country in order to facilitate an effective exchange of best practices. The practitioners were able to gather information on the methods and strategies used by various organisations in partner countries and bring this information back to pilot in their professional environments. The identification and exchange of best practices equipped organisations and professionals with new methods and a larger toolbox to tackle issues surrounding socially disadvantaged children. A strengthened cooperation and coordination among stakeholders such as families, pre-schools and informal educators is paramount to achieve a higher quality ECEC and to identify and support vulnerable cases at an early stage. Finally, a Good Practice Guide for effective inclusive ECEC was compiled describing the methods and strategies of involving children and parents from disadvantaged environments into mainstream education and the conditions needed for their implementation (IO3). The intellectual outputs were achieved successfully and were disseminated among the partners' broad network of contacts. In particular, the Good Practice Guide for effective inclusive ECEC (IO3) was translated into partner countries' languages (English, Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Swedish) and was printed out in 500 copies per partner to be distributed among relevant stakeholders and the general public with an interest in the topic. It was also planned that a large international conference would take place in Prague in May 2020. However, this was made impossible by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the partners organised an online conference instead, and are further working on dissemination of the results in order to ensure far-reaching and long-term impact of the project.

Participation in ECEC is considered a crucial factor for socialising children into formal education, and according to the final report “ECEC for children from disadvantaged backgrounds”, commissioned by the European Commission in 2012, ECEC benefits especially the most disadvantaged children, whose gains in cognitive and socio-emotional development are higher than for ‘average’ children. However, according to the report “Support for children with special educational needs”, from the DG for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, these children tend to be less represented in ECEC, due to the lack of adapted environment. In the partner countries, only Slovenia, which acted as a “mentor partner”, has had an adapted provision of education for many years, including additional assistance for inclusive education, and the majority of children with special needs attends mainstream kindergartens and schools. This translates into the Early School Leaving (ESL) rate, which is only of 5%. In Czech Republic, the situation has very recently changed (2017), as a new legislation was passed, according to which the mainstream education should always be the first choice for children with special education needs, and they are legally entitled to receive support. In Spain, the education system is decentralised and regions were asked to develop “Attention to Diversity plans”. However, in the Canary Islands, no specific funding has been allocated to early attention to children with ASD, contrary to other regions such as the Basque Country, the Valencian Community or the Community of Madrid in which an average of 472€ per child is invested for additional support to inclusive education. This policy also translates into the ESL rate, which is of 19% in the Canary Islands, and 8% in the Basque country for example. In the Czech Republic, children with ASD are taken into account but they are usually segregated in separate classes. For both these countries, the ESL rate for disabled people is of 28%, while it is only of 5% for students without any disability. Taking all this into account, the specific objectives of the project were the followings: - Allow preschool teachers to have the necessary knowledge and competences to be able to include children with ASD in the activities of the classroom; - Reduce disparities in learning outcomes between children with and without ASD. The activities were the followings: - Using the partners’ knowledge and experience about inclusive education and ASD to create a report based on observations in schools, and from there create tailored experience-based teacher’s training; - Piloting and testing these outputs in 7 pre-schools. The project particularly resulted in: - The involvement of 27 pre-school teachers in the project’s activities; - 13 EU organisations (partner organisations & associated partners) becoming experts in the inclusion of children with ASD; - An experience-based teachers’ training, available for any interested stakeholder at EU and international level; - 4 multiplier events to disseminate the project’s results and raise awareness on the need for a more inclusive education for children with ASD; - 4 newsletters to inform stakeholders on the progress and results of the project; - 1 impact report comparing the situation of the children in the classroom, before and after the project, and some guidelines on how to use the online training. - 17 press articles or radio/TV interviews or reports. - 1 project website gathering all the information about the project, its results available for download, and its implementation, including contact details of each partner; - 2 signed declarations of local authorities willing to support the further exploitation of project’s results in the future; - Raised awareness to authorities about the need for inclusion of children with ASD in ECEC. At EU level, this project increased the quality of education Europe by making available two highly innovative intellectual outputs to encourage the take-up of initiatives to improve the inclusion of children with ASD.