"<< Background >>EYRO addresses critical EU-wide issues relating to youth, particularly worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic: social exclusion. isolation of vulnerable youth, lack of opportunities and lack of civic engagement. Covid-19 has had a massive negative impact on all youth, and particularly on youth who were already at risk of social exclusion (NEET, youth with migratory backgrounds, youth with any addictions etc...) in isolating them further from social contexts and has created a new generation of socially isolated youth, who have a need to re-acquire fundamental social and life skills. According to the OECD (Briefing Paper, 11 June 2020) ""The COVID-19 global health emergency and its economic and social impacts have disrupted nearly all aspects of life for all groups in society...For young people, and especially for vulnerable youth, the COVID-19 crisis poses considerable risks in the fields of education, employment, mental health and disposable income. Moreover, while youth and future generations will shoulder much of the long-term economic and social consequences of the crisis, their well-being may be superseded by short-term economic and equity considerations. To avoid exacerbating intergenerational inequalities and to involve young people in building societal resilience, governments need to anticipate the impact of mitigation and recovery measures across different age groups, by applying effective governance mechanisms"". The project aims to support vulnerable youth, at risk of social exclusion, throughout Europe, by engaging them through music labs organised as a ""remote orchestra"", as a means for them to acquire, or re-acquire, fundamental social and life skills, such as managing the individual within a collective, team work, setting ambitious but realistic objectives etc, as well as stimulating creativity and the desire to learn new skills. The use of music was chosen because """"music is a universal phenomenon and is, therefore, relevant to all people no matter what culture they belong to and what language they speak...it can serve as a common denominator, a common language, for people from different cultures, and thus, enhance communication between them. Moreover, throughout history, music was used to aid and to cure individuals and groups in different cultures (e.g., Sekeles, 1996; West, 2000)At systemic level, the project is expected to reinforce the response of education and training systems and youth policies to some of the main challenges facing youth in today's world, in particular: digital transformation (the remote orchestra) and employability, but also the need to promote social, civic and intercultural competences, intercultural dialogue, democratic values and fundamental rights, social inclusion, mental health and well-being, non-discrimination and active citizenship, critical thinking and media literacy. Finally, it aims to foster a sense of belonging to the wider EU community.<< Objectives >>1. EYRO will create an inclusive, collaborative EU peer-to-peer (P2P) ‘youth remote orchestra’ for young people at risk of social exclusion, offering mentoring and coaching in playing music together across Europe. 2. In order to achieve this, EYRO will also offer music teachers a training programme to allow them to work effectively with specific competences relating to working with vulnerable young people (i.e. emotional intelligence-based competences) and with the selected technology (digital competences). 3. Finally, the project will develop a Guideline to offer EU institutions and organisations across the EU working with vulnerable youth an innovative approach for their engagement and social inclusion, as well as a tool to foster a sense of belonging to the EU. This project result represents a fundamental sustainability and transferability strategy. It will be disseminated widely through the project website, partners' networks at national and EU level, social media, and through multiplier events.<< Implementation >>Project activities are structured within work packages, which are completely connected with each other and, together, lead to the achievement of project objectives and the production of project results. The WPs are organised as follows:*WP1: Project management and coordination Activities: Management and coordination activities include all project preparation, partner coordination, setting up communication systems and management tools for the project, such as partnership Agreements, project Workplan, Risk strategy and Register, shared Google Drive, organisation of TPMs and ensuring that the project meets its timelines and stays on budget.*WP2: EYRO training programme for music teachersActivities: An innovative training programme will be developed through research, collection and adaptation of existing resources, aimed music teachers and focused on: working with vulnerable young people and on using the selected technology effectively for remote playing in an orchestra. The training will have a duration of 10 hours of guided and self-directed learning and be structured on 3 pillars:- working with vulnerable youth and youth group dynamics- music and the remote orchestra- digital tools to support the orchestraThe programme will include a process of self-evaluation (pre and post) to monitor progress and the acquisition of new competences and a final Certificate of Attendance. It will lead to the production of PROJECT RESULT 1: Training programme for youth inclusion though EU music orchestra labs*WP3: Music Labs for EYRO Activities: In each partner country, 1 music lab will be established, where the trained music teachers will work with the young people to ""form and norm"" the national groups. Part of the process will be the selection of music that the young people wish to share with their European peers and play together with them in the Remote Orchestra setting. The music selection process will be supported by the music teacher and has a strong ""team building"" objective. This phase will consist of meetings in the Labs combined with self-directed learning (individual work to research music, learn and play selected music). (overall c. 16 hours - partners will choose the most suitable timings flexibly, based on participants' needs);In a second phase, , the national labs will connect using the selected platform technology and start the process of sharing the selected music and playing together remotely. This is expected to have a duration of c. 24 hours, during which the Labs will progress into the Remote Orchestra.This work will lead to PROJECT RESULT 2: Music for youth inclusion: a guide for EU actors on using music and orchestra as a tool for youth inclusion and engagement*WP4: Monitoring and evaluation (M&E)*WP5: Dissemination and exploitationActivities: Development of a dissemination strategy at local, national and EU level; development of a project Website; development and printing of brochures; preparation of E-Newsletters. Project results 1 and 2 will be fundamental dissemination products, which are essential for sustainability and transferability of the project experience. The principles of dissemination and sustainability will be embedded from the project’s inception and all partners will produce strategies for this at an early stage. All partners belong to a wide range of networks (local and regional authorities, education delivery and research as well as umbrella organisations) and this will ensure effective dissemination and exploitation of the project’s progress and outcomes. Engagement strategies will be included indissemination plans to include individuals, authorities and organisations who will benefit from the project and help to sustain it.<< Results >>OUTCOMES:The project's ambition is to develop a ""best practice"" at EU level to work effectively with youth at risk of social exclusion based on using music and a remote orchestra model as a tool to engage them successfully. During the project implementation, EYRO will create an inclusive, collaborative EU peer-to-peer ‘youth remote orchestra’ for young people at risk of social exclusion, offering mentoring and coaching in playing music together across Europe. It is expected that this experience will develop/strengthen their life skills and foster civic engagement and a sense of belonging to a wider community at local and EU level, as well as making them more employable. In order to create the remote orchestra, EYRO will also develop a training programme for music teachers to allow them to work effectively with the target group, focusing on specific competences relating to working with vulnerable young people (i.e. emotional intelligence-based competences) and the selected technology (digital competences). During the final months of the project, the entire experience will be the collected and a Guideline will be developed to offer EU institutions and organisations across the EU working with vulnerable youth an innovative approach for their engagement and social inclusion, as well as a tool to foster a sense of belonging to the EU. This project result represents a fundamental sustainability and transferability strategy. It will be disseminated widely through the project website, partners' networks at national and EU level, social media, and through multiplier events in all participating countries.PROJECT RESULTS: *RESULT 1: Training programme for youth inclusion though EU music orchestra labsThe Training Programme for Music Labs for Youth Inclusion is a fundamental building block of the project and one of its sustainability and transferability strategies. It will be aimed at music teachers across Europe (1-2 per participating country) and it will be developed as a ""modules library"" covering topics bases on 3 main pillars:PILLAR 1: working with vulnerable youth and youth group dynamics- outreach and engagement strategies (maintaining motivation in the group)- emotional intelligence (particularly empathy, active listening, setting realistic objectives etc)- music as a tool to foster social inclusion processesPILLAR 2: MUSIC AND THE REMOTE ORCHESTRA- playing music together: the concept of a youth orchestra- the orchestra as a metaphor of the individual in the collective (participation, engagement, team work, objectives, ambitions...)- belonging to the EU as a wider perspective for youthPILLAR 3: DIGITAL TOOLS TO SUPPORT THE ORCHESTRA- playing your instrument within an orchestra - dynamics- playing remotely as an orchestra (digital platform use)*RESULT 2: Music for youth inclusion: a guide for EU actors on using music and orchestra as a tool for youth inclusion and engagementThe main purpose of these Guidelines is to offer EU institutions and organisations across the EU working with vulnerable youth an innovative approach for their engagement and social inclusion, as well as a tool to foster a sense of belonging to the EU. Music was chosen exactly because it cuts across all language barriers and allows young people to work together effectively from the start, thus avoiding the sense of frustration, which may be a cause for lack of motivation and dropout.This project result represents a fundamental sustainability and transferability strategy. It will be disseminated widely through the project website, partners' networks at national and EU level, social media, and through multiplier events in all participating countries."

"ContextThe TIK – Tradition & Innovation @ Kintergarten project started from the Europe 2020 strategy that identified, within its educational benchmarks, that by 2020 at least 95% of pre-school children of 4 years or older would participate in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)The importance of effectively addressing the theme of ECEC where also confirmed by the conclusions of the European symposium on improving early childhood education and care that stated: ""benefits from high-quality ECEC are wide-ranging and multilevel, economic and social, for individuals and for societies"".In this field the experience of the project partner and the evidence of their everyday activities shows that quality early childhood education and care can bring the highest rates of return over the whole lifelong learning process, especially for the most disadvantaged groups.ObjectivesThe project identified and succesfully addressed three needs that play a crucial role in order to enhance the quality of ECEC:- Reinforce the capacity of preschool teachers to involve their pupils in activities that, according to appropriate didactical and communication methods, can provide an early start of the development of basic and transversal competences- Raise childrens families awareness of the importance that ECEC can have for the preparation and the passage to primary school and for the integration in the social life- Develop pre-school children cognitive skills through the implementation of cooperative learning experiences, aimed at integrating the normal activities with relational and richer verbal interactions between pupils with a special focus on those coming from disadvantaged backgroundsNumber and type/profile of participants The project, exceeding by far its initial yet ambitious expectations has directly involved in the project activities and impacted on, a total of: - 50 kindergartens - More than 100 pre-school teachers - More than 1000 pupils - More than 200 among parents, grandparents, relatives and child-carersRepresenting 4 different European countries and many more different nationalities and culturesPotential stakeholders, to be estimated in more than 40 000 individuals and 400 institutions have been reached through the dissemination activities.Activities and related OutputsProject partners experts cooperated at transnational level in order to produce and make two Guides for the innovation of pedagogical approaches in ECEC directly available and accessible for free and without limitation on the TIK Portal.- Teachers’ Guide (https://tik.pixel-online.org/teachers_guide.php) providing pre-school teachers with a consistent set of learning materials to develop the necessary skills for improving achievement in basic cognitive and transversal skills of their pupils in early childhood education, through a fruitful cooperation with the pupils families- Family caregivers of pre-school pupils Guide (https://tik.pixel-online.org/families_guide.php) in order to raise their awareness on the importance that pre-school has in developing cognitive and pre-cognitive skills that are fundamental in the transition to compulsory schoolProject partner partners have also worked in close cooperation with pre-school teachers and children families, to develop IO 2 - Didactical Toolkit addressed to preschool pupils. The Toolkit contains didactical materials presenting traditional tales both of the local area in which the children live in and of the countries/traditions of the children from other countries and/or ethnic groups who are present in the participating schoolsThe Toolkit combines:- Exemplary materials related to the methodology adopted for implementing the storytelling activity carried out in each kindergarten https://tik.pixel-online.org/storytelling.php including the collection of drawings / collages / clay sculptures with which children will have represented their understanding of the tale itself- Media based products presenting selected tales through a visual based storytelling and the text of the tale to be used by educators to transfer the contents at transnational level https://tik.pixel-online.org/storyplot.php Results and impactThe TIK project successfully impacted on its target groups by:- Strengthening the capacity of pre-school teachers and of pupils’ families to build cooperation patterns- Providing pre-school pupils basic and transversal competences through the transnational comparison of traditional tales linked to the local territory in which they live with the ones linked to the cultural backgrounds of pupils coming from other countries/ethnic minorities- Enhancing pre-school comprehension and communication through innovative audio-visual based approaches and tools- Promoting a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to pre-school education supported by innovative pedagogic materials and references methodological concepts in order to develop children’s cognitive and social skills"

<< Background >>COVID19 emergency has dramatically increased the focus on the needs of educational institutions, and schools in particular, of being ready to make full use of digital technologies to provide accessible education to all. On the other hand schools experimented the difficulties and the challenges that the passage to a fully virtual lessons has caused in dealing with the equally important theme of inclusive education and management of diversity.During the lockdown period, the students that suffered more have been the ones that already before, were at risk of underachieving at school, students:- Coming from minorities or immigrants families, due to linguistic and cultural obstacles- With learning disabilities that need special support and attention- Coming from disadvantaged social and economic environments and/or less developed areasAll of them, regardless the nature of their difficulties, have in common the rapid emerging of a sense of isolation and consequential demotivation towards their participation at school activities.For this reason the IDEAS project, intends to provide school teachers with the skills to exploit innovative teaching practices and digital technologies to promote the delivery of high quality inclusive education.The needs the project aims at addressing are: - Need of Secondary school teachers to acquire a deeper understanding of how to make use of digital sources and technologies to improve their teaching methods, overcoming the potential obstacles that might lead students at risk of losing motivation.- Need of Secondary school students (aged 14-17) to benefit from a more inclusive educational offer, that combining and making full use of new technologies, is able to involve and motivate them in the at distance lessons regardless to their social, economic, cultural and physical situation.The specific identified needs of teachers are:- Need to improve the skills and competences to effectively make use of digital teaching resources and methodologies - Need to adapt digital skills to make sure to be able to prevent students, with special regards with those with disadvantaged conditions, from losing motivation and feeling excluded. - Need of adapting their teaching activities to the full potential of digital and ICT based approaches, effectively preventing and dealing with the problems that weaker and at risk of exclusion students might experience.- Need to implement digital education practices within their teaching activities without affecting the participation and motivation of students more exposed to underachieving and of feeling excluded.The specific identified needs of secondary schools students are: - Need to include students in school initiatives and to access all the educational opportunities, regardless their social, economic, cultural and intellectual personal situation- Need to overcome all those obstacles that could affect their motivation as a result of the intensive use of digital base / virtual educational solutions.<< Objectives >>The main objective of the project is making secondary school teachers prepared to cope in the short / medium term with the new ways of learning, teaching and communicating with students at risk of exclusion whose situation has been further endangered by COVID19 emergency and in the longer term to develop an aware capacity to use innovative ICT based methodologies (e.g. blended learning) guaranteeing full access and equal opportunities to learn to all students.On the matter the project aims to remove the potential barriers that students already at risk and underachieving, are experimenting in adapting to virtual lessons and at distance didactic.These barriers might have different motivations according to the conditions of the students (e.g. language barriers for migrants, technological barriers for social / economicdisadvantaged students, cognitive delays for those who have learning disabilities etc.), but do have a common consequence, the resulting lack of motivation and involvement in theeducational activities.For this reason the IDEAS project intends to provide teachers with skills, knowledge and practical oriented interventions patterns to combine advanced and effective digital educationwith appropriate and successful inclusive pedagogical solutions and strategies.The IDEAS project has identified the following objectives to be reached in order to answer to specific needs:- Improvement of the skills of secondary school teachers in identifying, using, creating digital technologies based teaching and learning sources to promote inclusion and prevent early school leaving.Provide teachers with technologically and pedagogically validated digital sources specifically adapted to address inclusion related issues.- Improvement of awareness on the potential of digital technologies for the promotion of inclusion at school- Involvement of Public Authorities in charge of education making them aware of the project achieved results and outcomes, so that they will be able to take them into account for future policy planning- Providing teachers with the skills and competences to effectively make use of digital teaching resources and methodologies adapting them in order to make sure to be able to prevent students, with special regards with those with disadvantaged conditions, from losing motivation and feeling excluded.- Providing secondary school teachers with easy to use guidance tools (PR1) to be prepared to adapt their teaching activities to the full potential of digital and ICT based approaches.- Providing teachers with user-friendly teaching tools (PR2) selected, analysed and adapted in order to deal with the shift toward digital education while increasing self-awareness of students and make them ready to make full use of the resources according to an active participation to their educational path.- Providing teachers and educators through the online training package (PR3) with the skills to master all necessary processes to effectively implement digital education practices within their teaching activities without affecting the participation and motivation of students more exposed to underachieving and of feeling excluded.<< Implementation >>The following activities will be implemented before and during the project lifespan: Management and coordination of activities such as: - Participation of at least one representative for each partner in the 4 meetings of the steering committee - Coordination of the project activities of the international (mainly the University of Turku as applicant organization and Project Result leaders) and national workgroups (each project partner contact person/project manager)- Appropriate reporting activities and preparation of the Interim and Final reports- Monitoring of the respecting of deadlines - Constant sharing of information and solutions among the partnershipProject Web SiteThe project web site will contain main project information, a dedicated section for project results produced being introduced by explanatory texts guiding the target groups in making full use of them, dissemination and exploitation sections and a specific area to be used by the project partners to share the information about activities and results achieved.Monitoring and EvaluationMonitoring of the project achievements will be implemented through a detailed calendar of the activities also defining the indicators to assess the compliance of the activities and results with the expectations. Evaluation strategy that will involve representatives of the project partners and of the target groups (i.e. school teachers and students). The evaluation strategy will produce both qualitative and quantitative data, that, collected through questionnaires and testimonials and duly analysed, will be the basis of the final Evaluation Report.DisseminationA clear Dissemination Plan will be created committing, throughout the project period, the members of the Consortium to implement specific dissemination activities. The Dissemination plan will define the target groups to be addressed, and for each of them the most effective means of communication to be used. Exploitation and Sustainability Project partners will promote the project sustainability through the commitment of the partners, and more specifically the schools involved, to include the project results in their everyday activities. The deliverables produced, indeed, will be used by the schools involved for updating their teachers and as teaching sources for their students. Furthermore, the partners are committed to involve other schools as associated partners to be added to the ones already supporting this application and who will also use the project results.From the content development point of view the activities for the creation of the Project Results are believed to be the most appropriate to ensure the creation of innovative, consistent and transferable outputs and impact on the needs of the identified target groups.For each Project Results a clear methodology and set of activities have been outlined and are believed to be the most appropriate to ensure the creation of innovative, consistent and transferable outputs and impact on the needs of the identified target groups. The project will last for two years and the creation of the Project Results will be spread organically through the project period with a clear periodisation of the activities, according to which the end of the creation and testing of Project Results will lead to the starting of the production of the following one. During the whole two years, a constant transfer of knowledge among the different schools and language teaching institutions will be fostered being one of the most important methodological concepts of the project based on a peer to peer approach.<< Results >>The main result that the IDEAS project expects to achieve on its completion is making secondary school teachers prepared to cope in the short / medium term with the new ways of learning, teaching and communicating with students that are required and imposed by the COVID19 emergency and in the longer term to develop an aware capacity to use innovative ICT based methodologies (e.g. blended learning) guaranteeing full access and equal opportunities to learn to all students.On the matter the project focuses on the potential barriers that students already at risk and underachieving, are experimenting in adapting to virtual lessons and at distance didactic.These barriers might have different motivations according to the conditions of the students (e.g. language barriers for migrants, technological barriers for social / economic disadvantaged students, cognitive delays for those who have learning disabilities etc.), but do have a common consequence, the resulting lack of motivation and involvement in the educational activities.For this reason the IDEAS project intends to provide teachers with skills, knowledge and practical oriented interventions patterns to combine advanced and effective digital education with appropriate and successful inclusive pedagogical solutions and strategies.The expected result of IDEAS project is therefore a very tangible and important one in order to contribute to build resilient and future-looking education systems, as a key strategic feature of the European Education Area.The project also expects to achieve, as a result of the involvement of different partners in 4 European countries, a transnational and inter-sectoral cooperation among experts in the field of digital education, experts in the field of inclusive pedagogical strategies and practices and teachers and school leaders, so to pilot and mainstream solutions that are at the same time consistent, technologically advanced and tailored made to the needs of the end users and students.The cooperation pattern will be exploited to achieve the fundamental results of providing teachers with skills and appropriate training materials to use digital teaching solutions while ensuring full inclusiveness and motivation to learn to their students.For the purpose the IDEAS will develop and test 3 project results:1) Methodological Guidelines for promoting inclusion of students at risk and underachieving via the application of digital technologies and virtual teaching and learning. Methodological Guidelines will take account and transform in easy to use and applicable solutions, based on best practices and in depth exemplary real life case scenarios, the different perspectives (e.g. students, teachers, directors) of the actors involved.2) A Repository of quality, OER, digital based teaching sources to foster inclusion at secondary school level. The sources will be selected according to their digital standards, thanks to the technological experts, their pedagogical consistency and their inclusive potential, through the contribution of pedagogues and adapted to the specific needs of the teachers with the contribution of schools staff.3) Online course for teachers focusing on three main issues:a. How to identify and assess quality digital technologies based teaching sources in the field of school inclusion.b. How to implement and effectively use them in a blended/online based environment.c. How to create new digital technologies based teaching sources for promoting inclusion.

<< Objectives >>The CAMPS project aims to:- Promote an effective application of the CLIL approach in elementary schools, focusing on pupils aged 6 – 8 and on specific curricular subjects related to Arts and Music- Motivate primary schools to insert CLIL in primary education for an early start of language learning<< Implementation >>The CAMPS project will implement the following activities:- Providing primary school teachers with the necessary skills to effectively teach Arts and Music subjects according to the CLIL methodology and to design lessons that correspond with student’s individual needs - Enhancing the motivation of primary school education teachers and decision-makers to insert CLIL in primary education for an early start of language learning<< Results >>CAMPS creates three main deliverables:- Online training package on how to implement CLIL for teaching Arts and Music at the elementary school level. - Collection of CLIL based Educational Videos and related Teaching Sources providing primary school teachers with the necessary vocabulary for teaching specific arts and music-related topics. - Case studies and best practices to motivate primary schools communities on the successful applicability of the CLIL methodology at primary school level.