5. Stakeholders involvement

The project partners designed and implemented a new anti-bullying programme in schools in five EU countries. It drew on the experiences of existing programmes and practices originated by the project partners working in different cultural contexts.  It provided further evidence of effective approaches to the reduction of bullying in schools that will inform the development of improved child centred, whole school strategies for adoption at European level.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and school shutdown in Portugal, the Boa Água school has initiated a number of new pedagogies to support student learning, including mixed commission, interactive groups and dialogic gatherings. These new methods had been introduced as part of the INCLUD-ED project, which the school joined in 2017.

To improve the school climate, a group of schools from the Learning Communities project decided to create the Brave’s Club. It is based on a “dialogical model of conflict prevention”. Since the Club started in 2014, it has made progress in eradicating school violence in both primary and secondary schools. This strategy is making it easier to bring together effective evidence-informed practices on preventing violence in classrooms in general, and more specifically, gender violence.

It is undeniable that medical, psychological, social, educational and legal interventions are required in a number of cases of truancy and early school leaving, but research also shows clearly that in all cases, school and teaching staff can have a decisive influence. This document comprises a checklist for self-assessment of schools, 59 detailed recommendations for improvement of school attendance, pupil engagement and school culture, as well as proposals for behaviour agreements and examples of questionnaires for teachers and parents. The recommended measures are primarily directed at the target group of teachers, principals and parents. The document has been translated from the manual by Nairz-Wirth, Feldmann, Diexer (2012): Handlungsempfehlungen für Lehrende, Schulleitung und Eltern zur erfolgreichen Prävention von Schulabsentismus und Schulabbruch.

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Making good choices regarding school subjects increases the chances of future success for students. This project involves parents and students in the process of making well-considered decisions about school subjects. It provides information on the Flemish education system.

NESET - Network of Experts on Social Aspects of Education and Training publishes reports for policy makers and practitioners interested in promoting equity and inclusion in education and training across the European Union. This paper seeks to examine strategies for establishing community based lifelong learning centres in EU Member States. It explores evidence and research on the benefits and advantages of establishing such centres, as well as the barriers and difficulties impeding both the establishment and effectiveness of such centres. The report concludes that community based lifelong learning centres can simultaneously provide instantiations of a range of key lifelong learning objectives, such as active citizenship, social cohesion/inclusion, personal and social fulfillment, intercultural dialogue, as well as employment pathways.

Dannewerkschule Schleswig, Germany is a comprehensive lower secondary school offering grades 5-10, a quarter of which have a migratory background and learning German as a second language. The school aims to be a place of learning where students with different talents and personalities are welcome and can use a wide blend of learning environments and tools.

Research done in the Netherlands has shown that one year of intensive coaching is likely to reduce school dropout by more than 40 percent and yield a net social gain. The target group of students was the general population of students starting in intermediate vocational education. Results suggest that the largest gains are made in the first year of coaching and effects are largest for students with a larger ex-ante probability of school dropout. Examples of coaching are working on study skills (e.g., planning and organizing), counselling in case of personal problems and contact with parents. Both preventive (before study dropout) and curative actions (among study dropouts) of the coaches have been effective and together resulted in a substantial reduction of school dropout.

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DREAMS is a 24-month Erasmus+ strategic partnership composed of three schools and two non-profit organisations that work in tackling early school leaving, particularly in contexts with strong presence of cultural diversity. The project is being implemented in Spain, Italy and Portugal so far.