"The main goal of the 3-year project called ""Our story - a real story"" was involvement of intellectually disabled and discriminated because of their origin and economic background children and youth in using on equal terms as their healthy peers, cultural goods and its creation. The project involved cooperation of 9 schools that provide teaching in the area of special and integrated education. The participating schools came from the Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Romania, Italy, Portugal, Northern Macedonia, Turkey and Poland. Each year of 3 years long project ended with the production of a specific project product. In the first year it was a series of 9 books with the legends of each of the participating countries. To implement the planned activities in the first year, children and young people attended reading meetings during which they listened to their national, regional and local legends. Then they selected two of the most interesting national legend and one regional and local one. After choosing the legends, they made drawings that illustrated the published books, and developed their own texts. In order to understand the process of creating books, students participated in bookbinding workshops and visited professional printing houses. The result of strenuous work were series of 9 books in a bilingual version (in national language and English). Each partner of the project published a series of books in several or over a dozen copies. They were donated to the local libraries and school libraries to promote the project. The Selected legends were read by the teachers and school staff and recorded in the form of audio books. In the second year of the project were implemented activities related to animated and puppet fairy tales. While watching cartoons students chose their favorite national fairy tales. The two most popular tales from each country were distributed among partners and presented at a specially organized meeting. Then, drawing and puppet workshops were organized, during which students learned the secrets of cartoon characters and puppet tales creation . A trip to the animated film studio was made, where participants learned about the history of animated and puppet cartoons in their country. The ending product of the second year were mascots made by workshop participants, namely the three most beautiful ones were selected in a competition. The third year of project activities focused on puppet theater and actor. While carrying out these tasks, students had the opportunity to participate in puppet theater performances and the actor, where they had the occasion to watch the art of acting.In schools the theater classes were also held for students preparing the final performance, who were the authors of script as well. The main character of each performance was the winning mascot from the second year of the project. All performances were recorded and distributed among the project partners, and then presented during several showings. The prepared performances were the product of the third year, and also the culmination of the entire project. The implementation of various tasks contributed to the development of social and civic competences by increasing their knowledge of art in its broad sense and reducing their belief in being alienated from society. Through international activities, they became acquainted with the diversity of cultures and different perspectives on art. By participating in the workshops, they developed their skills in simple professions that they will be able to perform in the future, which gives them a sense of being needed on the labor market. In an innovative way, their reading competences were strengthened, and the international products of the project, in the form of a series of books with stories and legends of each country donated to libraries, increased motivation to read, not only among the students of partner schools, but also the local environment in which the project was realized. The created series of books and the recorded audio book are permanent evidence of the successfully completed project. In addition, ""Our story - a true story"" contributed to increase the level of language skills among teachers, and established contacts have developed into acquaintances and friendships."

The idea of the project is to implement activities to equip intellectually disabled primary and secondary school students with universal knowledge of traditional cuisine, national music and folk costumes as well as handicrafts of each of the participating countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Northern Macedonia, Latvia, Turkey, Portugal and Poland. Another important aspect for us is the desire to bring the skills of people with intellectual disabilities to a healthy society by organizing at least 5 exhibitions with photos presenting their skills and a gallery of products made during the workshop of the handicraft technique of partner countries. The target group will be about 250 intellectually disabled young people of school age. Due to the set objectives, the project will be implemented in two planes: 1.WE! - ABOUT US, FOR US!In this part, we plan to organize National Weeks of each country during which each partner will present, using information and communication technologies enabling live coverage, cooking a regional dish, learning national or regional dance steps, regional folk costume, as well as dance music of a given country, at which everyone will be able to have fun at one time. Thanks to the use of existing IT capabilities, disabled students will be able to see and meet each other, as well as hear the sound of foreign languages. On the last day of the National Week presentation, craft workshops proposed by each country will be presented. The interactive method of communication will allow all viewers to participate actively in this meeting and learn new handicraft techniques that will be permanently included in the school's work program during art therapy classes . Model making workshops run by a school from the Czech Republic, ceramics by a school from Turkey, wicker and salt dyeing by a Portuguese school, rug weaving by a Macedonian school, tailoring - weaving by a school from Latvia and scrapbooking by a Polish school. Portfolios will be developed from the National Weeks conducted by each school, which will constitute a compendium of knowledge in the presented field about each of the participating countries. At the same time, a photo course will be organized for students who will learn how to take pictures. The photos they took, documenting their skills and products made with the techniques learned, will be presented in the second part of the project, which will be implemented under the slogan: - 2.WE ! ABOUT US, NOT ONLY FOR US! The activities undertaken in this part will be the organization of a photo exhibition and gallery of handicrafts made with learned techniques. These exhibitions will take place in at least 5 cultural or public institutions that will condition a large flow of people, thus ensuring a large audience. The implementation of the project will help to improve the manual skills of disabled students, which will help them enter the labor market, thanks to which their sense of value and self-acceptance will increase. Participation in the photo course will equip them with skills that will allow them to present their skills and present the world seen through their eyes. Purchased equipment for making handicrafts will remain in school and will be able to be used in subsequent years of working with other youth. Parents of the project participants will feel satisfaction with the skills of their children, and the increased employability after graduation will reduce anxiety about their future. Teachers will improve their language and workshop skills, as well as improve the organization of their own and team work. Contacts and friendly relationships will be strengthened. Prepared exhibitions organized in cultural and public centers will contribute to changing the perception of young people with disabilities in the environment of people with an intellectual norm, which will help them accept their participation on the labor market. The exchange of international handicrafts traditions and information on cooking, music and dance will guarantee mutual knowledge of their cultures and the exchange of European cultural heritage.

"In the teacher mobility, which took place in October 2019 in Dej/Romania, 10 teachers from the 5 partner schools met and got to know each other, exchanged information about the project goals and plans and organized the process of the first student mobility. The main topic in Romania was MOVE ON with therapy (mindfulness and therapy with animals). In this regard, 3 trainings (positive psychology, mindfulness training and animal assisted therapy) took place in Dej for the teachers. In November 2019, 24 students from the project schools participated in the trip to Romania. Speaking English as the project language, they tried to communicate and make friends with the support of teachers and mobile devices (cell phones, iPads). Every morning there was a mindfulness exercise led by the Spanish teacher and singing of the project song ""MOVE ON"" (composition of the Spanish school). The students participated in classes and class projects in different classes. Furthermore, cultural excursions took place, to the salt mine ""Turda"", to an animal farm and to the monastery of Nikola. The Romanian hosts organized a traditional evening during which numerous student encounters were possible. In mixed groups, project logos were designed by the students and one chosen to be printed on T-shirts. Mobilities were always evaluated by teachers in Skype conferences. The student mobilities were evaluated by the students in a final round. They described their positive impressions and their challenges. At the end of the digital closing activity, a teacher training session was held digitally, in which the project as a whole was evaluated in the exchange of all. All project activities were prepared and followed up in Skype conferences. Pupils and teachers from all project schools worked together on the eTwinning platform in the Twinspace of MOVE ON. A small Christmas Secret Santa project was carried out. Packages with local specialties and small Christmas gifts were sent to each other. In winter 2020, further travel plans had to be stopped due the Corona pandemic, and the partner schools decided to continue the MOVE ON project nevertheless with digital activities led by each partner school. Latvia (sports): In preparation for the project activity in Latvia, students designed various surveys and posters about their favourite sports and published this on eTwinning. On 4 days, 24 students from all 5 schools met to livestream the respective sports and quiz together (video conference with MSTeams). All of them wore the project T-shirt in their respective colour, so we got to know each school in its diversity. Spain (music/dance): the Spanish school created the MOVE ON song, which all the students in Romania already knew, sang daily and choreographed (gestures). The song was further developed by each school during lockdown/restricted school hours creating lyrics in their local language to the verse melody and singing them. The Spanish school put all the building blocks together into a video song and this was singing along by everyone in the digital activities over the course of the project. Italy (social participation/integration): Italy was hit hard by the pandemic in 2021 and had students at home for a long time. The teachers were in good exchange and described the hard times of crisis in their schools. Therefore, Italy took over the graphic design of the project: PPP and letterhead with project logo and design, design of the project logo and poster printing with project photos as a means of dissemination. Germany (vocational preparation): Finally, the 3-day digital project on ""preparation for the world of work"" from Germany took place. On the first day, all countries created a typical Bavarian snack in livestream (video conference). For this, a package of ingredients was sent to the schools, on the second day the students created a bird out of wood (sawing, filing, painting) in a joint videoconference and on the 3rd day there was a joint conclusion by sending gas-filled project balloons with postcards as a reminder to the partner countries. The whole project was accompanied by the weekly Erasmus lessons where students learned simple English and were prepared for the project activities and country trips. The geographical location of all participating countries was elaborated and their specific peculiarities. As a project result/memory, a European menu was created in a recipe book, in which each partner school entered a dish of its country for re-cooking. This can also be viewed digitally on eTwinning."

Our completed project has been a multinational approach which has examined best inclusive practice among community organisations who support the health and well-being of young people with S.E.N.D e.g. SAFC Foundation of Light. Our project partners have collaborated to produce a Universal Training Tool for Healthy Living which to train and implement Health Ambassadors within our institutions who will promote healthy lifestyles in schools and build links within the community as advocates and promoters of Inclusive Practice. The aims of our project are to address some of the deficiencies in current provision and to support and enable our students to make the greatest success possible of their lives. This includes being healthy, active and happy and therefore recognising that they have a valuable contribution to make in their local and global community. Studies have shown that young people with Complex Learning Needs in our communities are subject to social exclusion. Most are segregated at an early age and are sent to schools outside our communities. Many community organizations within our localities do not provide facilities or programs which are accessible or appropriate to the needs of our young people; in many cases social inclusion is not encouraged or understood. All partners have tremendous expertise in the area of educating young people with special educational needs with a wide range of learning disabilities and have used this knowledge and expertise to develop learning and curriculum materials in all our schools. We share a philosophy which is to improve the life of those citizens with disabilities by giving them the same opportunities as their mainstream peers. We have been involved in a number of Comenius partnerships and more recently an Erasmus+ project which have been recognised as exceptional by the EU. We have worked collaboratively for many years and value the opportunity of sharing our expertise and experience. To further develop our partnership we have been joined by a new partner from Sligo in the Republic of Ireland. This exceptional special school will enhance and provide additional expertise to our existing partnership. Our partnership aims to address some of these issues and problems by sharing our expertise to provide a Universal Training Tool for Healthy Lifestyles which will be shared in our local communities by Health Ambassadors, these Health Ambassadors will be recruited and trained from our student populations. This will be developed by sharing good practice, allowing our facilitators to visit schools and places of inclusive excellence within our partner countries. We will track 2 groups of 10 year old and 14 year old learners who have severe to moderate learning disabilities throughout our project. This will include information on students awareness, interpretation and ideas for a healthy lifestyle, participation in community activities as well as information on student's literacy, numeracy, social skills, independence skills and aspirations for the future. This will inform the content of the Universal Training Tool for Healthy Lifestyles in order to be effective. Data will be regularly collated, analyzed, used by all partners and shared at transnational project meetings. Each transnational project meeting will include an international seminar or workshop which will engage us in conversation and debate about the areas we consider to be important in the development of a Universal Training Tool for Healthy Lifestyles including: community social inclusion and cohesion, social Inclusion in education/health (specifically Roma) and outreach programs, social inclusion and well-being in the workplace, enterprise as tool for social inclusion and well-being, rural inclusion and community enhancement, provision for SEND both inclusive and non- inclusive in the world of sport,promoting and sharing healthy lifestyles, shared excellence SEND community groups, a forum to introduce our Healthy Lifestyle Ambassadors and launch our Universal Training Tool for Healthy Lifestyles. In addition all partners will visit examples of best practice linked to each seminar/workshop and partner country expertise.Students will complete a variety of activities which will include knowing what constitutes a healthy lifestyle and how they can educate and promote a healthy lifestyles to others; these activities will be decided on by all partners at the first transnational project meeting. A timetable of activities is attached to this form as a word document. Representatives from local community groups and sporting clubs will visit school and our students will visit local community groups to work together to develop inclusive practice. Inclusive community and sporting events will take place in each partner school to enable students to develop the skills needed to become Healthy Lifestyle Ambassadors.