A whole school approach to transform schools into Inclusive Hubs

The purpose of the project was to help make school spaces places for inclusion where all learners feel welcome, respected and valued, particularly those with fewer opportunities like migrants. The...

The purpose of the project was to help make school spaces places for inclusion where all learners feel welcome, respected and valued, particularly those with fewer opportunities like migrants. The aim has been to reduce the barriers to inclusion, by focusing on education, cultural mediation, health and well-being, and by transforming schools into local inclusive hubs. The project used a user-centered, multi-stakeholder approach to ensure the involvement of the relevant actors. The actions were co-designed, developed and adjusted to the local context, in collaboration with grassroots NGOs with migrant members, local communities, and public authorities to ensure that they are relevant and serve the documented needs. The specific objectives were to: 1. Develop an evidence-based whole school and community program to transform schools into inclusive hubs. 2. Build the capacity of school leaders, teachers, school staff, and local actors to better support migrant learners’ inclusion in the education system and society at large. 3. Develop the wellbeing, and resilience of migrant learners and their families. 4. Build the capacity of migrant parents to act as cultural mediators and interpreters in local schools

The project was intended to address and mitigate several critical challenges migrant learners face in European education including: 1. Significant language barriers, lack of cultural mediation, and higher dropout rates. The project aimed to tackle these issues by developing quality resources, programs, and training for teachers to better integrate migrant learners. 2. Lack of proper support from school staff. There has been a strong need for systemic, evidence-based actions to improve inclusion and diversity in European schools. The project focused on building the capacity of school staff and local actors through training and resources, fostering collaboration among all stakeholders to create inclusive educational environments. 3. Pervasive misconceptions and misrepresentations of migrants persist. Negative attitudes and misconceptions about migrants are prevalent across the EU. The project aimed to raise awareness and promote positive attitudes towards migrants by involving migrant families as mediators and creating inclusive school environments where every learner can participate equally in education and social life.

The concrete outputs of this project include: - A joint report mapping barriers, needs and good practices to inclusion, and action plans for each partner countries. - A Toolkit comprising the following sections; 1. a step-by-step guide; 2. thematic action tools for a)inclusive education, b) school, family and community engagement, c) student wellbeing and resilience as well as d) cultural mediation; 3. a collection of 14 good practices; 4. templates for SWOT-analysis and action plan worksheet. - A Curriculum comprising four thematic modules, corresponding to themes a-d in section 2 in toolkit, and a training and transferability guide. - A Policy Paper addressing practical recommendation and calls to action in the partner country regarding the inclusion of migrants. - The development of 4 schools (1 school per partner country) into an inclusive hub. - A report on capacity building activities taking place, including lessons learnt and concrete examples of how to transform schools into inclusive hubs. In addition, the consortium produced: - 4 Capacity Building activities with Trainers - 4 Capacity Building activities with Schools & Cultural Mediators - 3 Dissemination workshops - 1 Final Conference