"The project <<""Inclusive me!"" The exchange of good practices in inclusive education of students with disabilities>> was implemented by two special schools: Guardian Angel Secondary Education Resource Center in Hamrun (Malta) and the Special Education Team in Słupia near Kępno (Poland) for 26 months. The aim of the project was to exchange good practice in the field of education involving people with disabilities in the following areas: 1) learning non-verbal communication, alternative communication methods 2) gaining civic competences 3) mutual tolerance, 4) good peer relationships 5) social development, 6) adaptation in a different environment 7) ability to cooperate 8) respect for one's views, 9) troubleshooting 10) dealing with difficult situations. Objectives were achieved through the project's activities: 24 employees and 39 students together with 31 carers in a weekly visit to the partner organization (learning / teaching / training activities).In addition to the above activities we developed extensive project documentation, including learning program based on integrated education and learning by experience. This program, as well as other tools created thanks to our cooperation, may be used by other institutions providing special education. Access to it is ensured by placing materials in open educational resources, specifically on the Erasmus+ Dissemination Platform and in our schools web sites."

"Project ""Inclusive education and shaping the competences of special school students"" was implemented by two special schools: Special School in Słupia near Kępno (Poland) and Guardian Angel Resource Center in Hamrun (Malta) for 22 months. The aim of the project was to create an educational project ""I am in a new place among new friends"" and to implement it with students with various disabilities, mainly with intellectual disabilities. The second of the main objectives of the project was to acquire / develop the following competences for at least 40 out of 50 students included in the project: 1) the ability to connect with newly met people from a different environment (its components include: other physical environment, different nationality, other language, different cultural circle), 2) the ability to cooperate with recently met people, 3) the ability to choose clothes adequate to the weather, 4) the ability to safely explore a new environment expressed by safe spending free time near the accommodation. The above-mentioned goals were achieved through training, education, workshop, exercise and other activities implemented during the project, including share of 20 employees and 50 students along with 30 carers in a visit to a partner organization.Thanks to the project implementation, other results were also achieved, such as- development of 22 different publications, including social story scripts, a dictionary using PECS for non-speakers, descriptions of methods, tools and approaches, etc. - the main product, i.e. the ""I am in a new place among new friends"" project has the potential to be used by other educational establishments involving students with the need for special education. Access to the materials was ensured by placing materials on the Platform for Dissemination of the Erasmus + program and on the websites of our institutions;- broadening students' competences in such areas as friendship, tolerance and understanding, respect, openness, dialogue, identity in the community, verification of stereotypes and prejudices, communication without barriers, integration, cooperation, social inclusion, eliminating barriers; participants also learned to apply basic principles of savoir-vivre, obey safety rules in public places, on roads with left and right hand traffic, follow the rules in hotels and restaurants, effectively use alternative methods of communication, use knowledge and skills gained in practice during classes and to expand them, be tolerant towards people from another country, culture, cooperate in a group around a clearly defined goal, promote themselves, school and Malta abroad; participants rebuilt their faith in their own abilities, they feel a full member of the European family, they have increased the degree of their social inclusion and they have reduced the social barriers occurring in the environment.- expanding the competences of teachers, eg knowledge of methods and tools used in the partner organization, the ability to use newly learned methods and tools at work, group work skills around a clearly defined goal, the use of educational project methods, interpersonal and social competences that increase their chances the labor market; ability to: develop project documentation, implement integration processes at the international level, teaching globalization, analyze documentation, increase innovation in the education process, work with the project method, use of ICT, develop pedagogical innovation; new methods in inclusive education, in social inclusion of students with disabilities, mainly intellectual ones."

"Project entitled ""The use of information and communication technologies in education and therapy of students with disabilities as a chance for their success and social inclusion. Exchange of good practices between special schools from Poland, Finland and Malta"" was implemented by three special schools: Special Schools Complex in Słupia near Kępno from Poland (coordinator), Valteri Ruskis from Finland and Guardian Angel Resource Center from Malta. These facilities are attended by students with various types of disabilities, including those with intellectual disabilities. The main assumption of the project was the exchange of knowledge and skills in the use of information and communication technologies in the education and therapy of people with various types of disabilities. It was planned that each organization would bring to the project unique practices, absent in other schools: the use of RSA / EEG Biofeedback and PECS (Poland), proprietary development and use of a set of devices, programs and applications for therapy, inclusion and self-empowerment - incl. ""Graphical Notes"" (Finland), use of OptiMusic and Multisensory Room (Malta).All educators / therapists and all students attending our facilities were involved in local activities in each school. It was possible thanks to the commencement of the exchange of good practices already in the first month of the project through on-line cooperation of the staff. Moreover, 10 employees in each school and 10 students in each school were recruited to participate in short training programs. The implementation of the mobility allowed for testing the use of specialized devices, programs and applications that were not available to the sending school in work with students from these institutions. During the project implementation, each school purchased the missing ICT, thanks to which all students of our institutions use them today.The results of the project include, among others increase of specialist skills of the staff, implementation of new solutions in the field of ICT to work with students with disabilities in our institutions, increase of students' skills in various areas (e.g. alternative communication, artistic expression, key competences) and increase in the degree of social inclusion of this highly disadvantaged group people (e.g. by giving concerts, staging shows, taking part in contests, competitions, etc.). As a summary of the effects of our work, as well as for the sake of tools for disseminating the solutions we have developed, we have prepared 26 publications in English (additionally also in Polish), available e.g. on the websites of our branches. We are convinced that the results of the project will be long-lasting and the above-mentioned competences will increase not only in the children and adolescents attending our institutions now, but also in our future students, because the methods and tools that will be the subject of the transfer have been introduced into the work of our institutions on a permanent basis."

"The Project ""Numeracy is fun! Supporting numerical skill acquisition and competences in students with intellectual disabilities"" will be carried out by three schools: Guardian Angel Resource centre (Malta), IES San Sebastián de La Gomera (Spain) Zespol Szkol Specjalnych in Slupia near Kepno (Poland) for a period of 24 months.All three schools are special needs schools, where students with intellectual disabilities (mild, moderate or severe), who also have multiple disabilities (e.g. ASD (Autism Spectrum disorder), hearing impairment, vision impairment, and others) attend on a full time basis and they face numerous educational challenges and problems, which are mainly: - confusing addition with subtraction, and multiplication with division - it is an impaired ability to perform the right mathematical operations,- students are unable to associate the appropriate mathematical operations to real life situations (shopping, measuring, etc.);- the inability to understand the relationships which are needed to perform mental calculations;- students don’t understand relationships and significance between numbers;- students find it difficult to apply new knowledge based on mathematical appreciation, e.g. mathematical operations which have been learned in class to different life and challenging situations;- students find it very difficult to read and write.Students with various types of intellectual and physical disability and their teachers will be the participants of our project.Through the project activities, our students will develop their cognitive-social skills in difficult areas as described above, and also educators from our schools will develop their skills and tools. It will happen through the exchange of good practices, which will help our educators to be more effective in helping their students with learning difficulties; Furthermore our students will effectively gain the skills and competencies they need for their present and future lives.We aim to achieve these goals through activities implemented during the project: 20 employees and 30 students with their 30 carers will participate in a week-long visit to the partner schools (activities related to learning / teaching / training); students and educators will also take part in online meetings on eTwinning platform, where they will do certain project activities.An extensive project documentation will also be prepared, including curriculum and skills training based on learning by experience. This program will be open to use by educators from other special education institutions in the future. It will be made accessible by placing the materials in open educational resources, including the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, eTwinning platform and in professional magazines / websites."

Strategic partnership – cooperation between schools was held between four special schools from different European countries: Poland, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Malta. Special School No. 3 from Krakow was the leader of the Project. The Project was held for 36 months. Teachers from these schools and children with profound and multiple learning disabilities were the direct participants of the Project. The indirect beneficiaries were the families of the children, teachers from the participating countries, students, academic teachers, and the employees of psychological and educational dispensaries. The participating schools were exchanging good practice in terms of Information Communication Technology (ICT), especially innovative solutions in the field of ICT. Schools worked on the implementation of the innovative projects in everyday educational practice with disabled children, in order to achieve better results, and to work more effectively with special needs children, who are especially exposed to discrimination and societal exclusion.General aims:- Exchanging ideas in terms of Information Communication Technology ( ICT ) tools, used by teachers in educational process, with severely disabled children and children with multiple disabilities as well as comprehensive implementation of organizational and methodological solutions in partner schools, participating in the project, in order to achieve permanent effects and to show different dimension of education.Other aims: - Upgrading teachers’ knowledge of how to use modern Information and Communication Technology as an important tool in inclusive education, to level up educational chances and societal inclusion of disabled children. - Supporting classical teaching methods by digital methods – elaborating innovative teaching tools: Omnidu, smart boards, multimedia projectors, OptiMusic, tablets, RehabKinect, interactive carpet, Android applications, professional software, adaptation of assistive technology tools, implementing new ideas, innovations which lead to long - term solutions and improvement of the quality of teaching.- Improving language competences and increasing teachers’ mobility.- Reducing “digital gap”. Specific activities included mutual international trainings and exchanging good practice, in terms of using ICT equipment to support the education of disabled children. After completing the trainings, the participating teachers instructed other teachers from their schools, how to use ICT in educational process. Teachers learned about the innovative hi-tech equipment and software like OptiMusik, Omnidu, Orion Tube, RehabKinect, Mówik, interactive carpet and adaptation of assistive technology tools. The other aim of this Project was to create a library of open educational resources, which included lessons scripts, using ICT technology in education and revalidation process with disabled children, didactical resources in teaching used by teachers, instructional videos used by pupils, teachers and parents. The library of open educational resources was developed by all participants of the Project, teachers from Poland, The Netherlands, Malta and Great Britain. The aim of this library of open educational resources was to encourage and facilitate teachers to use ICT technology in everyday work, and to be a methodological support to them. This library of open educational resources was presented during local conferences which were organized in partner schools. The International Workshops were to have taken place in June 2020 in SOSW Nr3 in Krakow. Due to the ongoing pandemic of COVID - 19 International Workshops were cancelled. During the conference we were to show examples of the positive influence of ICT on education, therapy and inclusion of disabled pupils. We were to talk about software and hardware, applications, educational exercises, which could be used in educational process of disabled children, children with Autism as well as physically disabled children. All materials the partner schools prepared for the Workshops are available on school websites, project websites , Erasmus+ platform. We also sent the materials to Boards of Education and special schools. In the future such activities will become an essential part of the process of creating open attitudes towards people with disabilities, building a new quality of special education, creating concepts and strategies for inclusive education. Thanks to the established contacts and cooperation between partners schools, it will be possible to maintain the contacts and international cooperation, setting up new projects, cooperating between curtain classes, using social media and instant messengers (like Skype or Hangouts, WhatsApp). The teachers, by participating in the Project and seeing the advantages of international cooperation, will be encouraged to improve their language competence, by continuing the cooperation with colleagues from other European countries.