5.2. Siete zainteresovaných strán

Guiding Cities joins policy makers and education stakeholders to map policy and guidance and create coherent policy to respond to the complex needs in the fight against ESL.

The project aimed to:
• Analyse guidance actions in 4 countries through country-based focus groups including stakeholders in education and guidance.
• Develop a Guiding Cities Model and Checklist mapping different possible actions, actors community needs relative to guidance and lifelong learning.
• Establish and manage Working Groups and a survey of best practices (involving at least 40 stakeholders).
• Publish online the GCities Model and links to resources and practices for each type of action and/or each target group. The GCities tools will be available in 6 languages (EN, ES, CAT, IT, EL, RO).
• Test the GCities Model and Checklist-benchmarking tools with at least 40 communities or organisations.
• Improve professional development of local service providers and school guidance practitioners.

The Joaquim Ruyra Elementary School is located in a disadvantaged suburban district of Barcelona. In the 2016-2017 school year, 92% students were immigrants representing 28 different nationalities (including Pakistan, Morocco, Georgia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Senegal, and the USA) or from minority background (Romani). The school has a 40% mobility rate.  

National and international press have referred to the school as the miracle school as it had achieved academic outcomes above the average in the Catalan standardised tests, outperforming elite schools in the Catalonia region.

All classes in the school feature group work 40% to 60% of the time. The groups mix students of different abilities, genders and nationalities.  The small groups are designed to ensure that no one is left out, and students are encouraged to participate actively.  Each group is facilitated by an adult (e.g. a classroom assistants, a parent).  Psychologists and special education teachers may also work in the classrooms, and they support volunteer parents, teachers and the students.  The extra support and student interaction are considered as essential for supporting and reinforcing children’s learning. 

"Our School - My Future" was an ESL project initiated within the framework of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for School Education. It aims to support cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices between schools from different countries across Europe.
Part of the problem of ESL is attributed to lack of support and guidance, disengagement from schooling, and secondary-level curricula which too often do not offer enough options for varied courses, alternative teaching pedagogies, experiential and other hands-on learning opportunities or sufficient flexibility and support.
The framework for this project was designed to focus mainly on in-school factors influencing ESL, such as teaching methods and curricular issues, positive/negative school climate, and the parents’ role as a contributing factor to ESL.
A distance education programme, “Promotion of healthy lifestyles and development of the students’ social skills through physical education and environmental activities” was offered to teachers from five partner countries. Some 65 teachers from Greece, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Turkey had the opportunity to participate in this training programme, along with six academics who are also members of the Hellenic Academy of Physical Education.

Projekt Supporting Inclusive School Leadership (SISL) (Podpora inkluzívneho vedenia škôl) skúmal, ako podporiť inkluzívne vedenie na úrovni školy a poskytol podporné nástroje. Projekt dospel k záveru, že cieľom vedenia zameraného na inkluzívne vzdelávanie je dosiahnuť plnú účasť na zmysluplných vzdelávacích príležitostiach, dobré výsledky a pohodu pre všetkých študentov, vrátane tých, u ktorých je najvyššie riziko vylúčenia.