Comenius Project

Coordinator:  Paola Arduini

Project Title

"The Challenge of running a  school: multiculturalism, integration, parents' participation"


Partner schools

 

Project meeting in Rome: Greek an Spanish teachers visiting our school

Summary of the Project

 A

Nowadays school faces a new reality that we feel very much concern about it. That is the

new population arriving into the European countries looking for a better life and

opportunities. These families bring with them their youngsters, therefore the school has to

respond to a big challenge. The challenge to educate in a multicultural environment; and to

take good care of those students with special needs. Along with that, we have to ensure the

participation of their parents (all parents) in the school life.

    The beginning of the new century has brought a radical change in the European society.

Thousands of immigrants from different countries are getting in our cities, towns, and

villages. They bring their kids with them and they have the right to be educated. They come

with no local languages skills, however they bring with them such as richness that can be

share with all of us. However, we have to find the ways to exchange our differences,

appreciate them and learn from each other. It is very important task schools have.

   Another very important task is to acknowledge those kids with special needs. More and

more school systems come up with the human resources needed to help these students. We

are talking about children that can either face a learning disability or to be socially in

disadvantage, and be considered at risk. It is crucial that schools address this issue.

    Finally, we want to find ways in which we can open the school doors and motivate the

parents to come in and be part of the school process. We strongly believe that parents have

a lot to say, a lot to do in all platforms of school life.

PROJECT CONTENT
  1. To find strategies to include all staff members, students and families to develop a better integration, cultural differences acceptance and more participation.
  2. To study the national standards of each associated country related mostly directly with interculturalism, integration and family involvement. (addressed in the first year)
  3. To analyse and find ways to appreciate cultural differences within a school.
  4. To study ways of integrating students with special needs, ethnic minorities, kids at risk, etc, in each associated school.
  5. To study ways of parents involvement in the school life.
  6. To analyse and compare the different ways of integrating students in each institution involved. (addressed in the first year)
  7. To encourage parents participation in their right to associate in the institutions that represent them (PTA´s, etc).(on going)
  8. To find ways to encourage parents to become part of the school government’s teams.
  9. To develop ways of having parents associations to be in touch from the different associated schools, so they can exchange ideas.(on going)
  10. To find ways to encourage students to be part of the school life.
  11. Analyse the mass media and ways to use it within the school and among the associated schools so students, teachers and school community members can relate to each other.

List of activities carried on in the school  V. Piccinini referred to the project from 2001.

  v     December 2001: Project meeting in Rome. Visit of Spanish and Greek teachers in our school.

·        Meeting with teachers and students. Interwiev to the teachers done by the Italian students, published on the school web site.

·        Discussion among the group members and the Principal of the school, Mrs Filippini, about the topic of Integration and teaching method for special needs kids.

  v     Students activities:  

·        Exchanges by mail and e-mail with students of the Spanish and the Polish schools about some themes ( traditional dances, habits, food, climate conditions, schools and families) using English language during English classes.

·        Infant school Sabin: children exchanged  drawings with Infant schools in  Perales and Sofia. Through the teachers’ descriptions of other European schools , the photos and the videos they could reach the awareness of the other pupils’ reality and of the existence of  other countries and other languages.

·        All the works are published on the web site of the school. Students prepared texts and pictures for the web page working directly in the computer lab.

·        Students exchanged also videos realized during their shows in the school and during school activities . The Italian students could see their friends from Poland and from Spain dancing folk dances and playing traditional games.

Planning and organization of the school web site with a special page for Comenius Project. In the Comenius page there are texts, pictures, drawings made by the students about the topics of the project and the didactic activities. Another section hosts all the materials for teachers and parents shared during the Project meetings.

v     Teachers activities and achievements.

·        Sharing of results and achievements.

·        Production and exchange of materials among teachers.

·        Discussion and analysis of materials about multiculturalism, integration and parents’ participation

·        Increasing of motivation towards cooperation in Europe.

·        Increasing of motivation towards learning new languages.

·        Some teachers of the school attended a special course of English language at advanced level.

v     Project meeting with a group from Kindergarten Tavria in Rome in may 2003.

·        Meeting with teachers and principal in Sabin school with a deep discussion about schools organization, integration of special needs kids, teachers’preparation and qualification and many other topics.

·        Meeting with other members of the project, continuing the sharing and the discussion about our project goals and activities.

·        Visits to our schools, meeting with children and many teachers of the school.

·        Meeting with the Parents’ Association .

·        Exchange of materials about infant school organization, educational plan, structure of support team.

·        Meeting with municipality responsible for Infant town schools.

  v     Dissemination in the school community

Exposition of the letters and reports from Comenius Project in June 2002 during the last week of the school.

Preparation and printing of a booklet with part of material translated in Italian ( participating schools educational plans, meetings reports, final reports, comparative tables for the different school systems)
Exposition of all the material exchanged in the project meetings (documents, photos, pictures, presents, books, etc.)  in the hall of the school, where the School Council and the Teachers’ Assembly meetings take place.
Exposition of children works and materials of the project in the Sabin school.
Publicity of the Comenius web page of the school in the school brochure.
Discussion of the main topic of the Project and of the results we can reach in our school with the participation at the project during meeting with parents ( Class Councils), in Teachers’ Assembly, in the School Council meetings.
Informal sharing of personal impressions and achievements among teachers after each project meeting.

   All the documents in English about Comenius Project can be found at this web address.

Web  Site of the Comenius Project http://www.ipsiaeuropa.roma.it/Comenius.htm

Works made by the children in our school can be visited here:


I lavori delle classi


materiali per insegnanti e genitori

Link utili sul progetto Comenius

Scuola Primaria Vittorio Piccinini
Via F. Fiorentini, 48 - Roma
tel. 0643530647- 0643566602 - 0643566511 - fax 064383209
e-mail rmee109009@istruzione.it - sito Internet www.piccinini109.it