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PROJECT DESCRIPTION
 
Concrete aims
Roles and Tasks
Communication and Co-operation
Active Involvement of pupils and/or staff
Integration of the partnership into the curriculum and/or ongoing activities
Integration of the partnership into the curriculum and/or ongoing activities
Intercultural Dialogue
Special Educational Needs
Other partners

Conctere aims:
- International dimension within curriculum and management of each partner school, increasing and sharing expertise in teaching and treating pupils with Special Educational Needs and the general national values.
- Equal opportunities for SEN pupils promoting their inclusion.
- Efficient parent - school - professional relationships in every partner school.
- Institutional abilities to act as a resource centre within each owns country in order to direct partners to examples of innovation and good practice.
- Continued Professional Development of staff through involving them into comparative studies of different educational systems and enhancing the team building.

Roles and Tasks:
The partnership is very much based on equality between the partners – with the roles and tasks of each partner having been discussed in great detail.  The partnership has decided that the roles and tasks will be divided as follows:
- Kingfisher – central co-ordinating institution.  Directing dissemination of materials and ensuring communication.  Institution for directing partners to examples of excellence and good practice within the UK. Areas of specialism – Autistic Spectrum Disorder, communication, Brain Gym, Moving and Handling.
- Scoala Speciala "Transilvania" – institution for directing partners to examples of excellence and good practice within Romania.  Areas of specialism – Empathic Handling, Hydrotherapy.
- "Maci" Fundation Preschool, Primary School For Children With Multiple Disabilities  And Unified Vocational Service Of  Education – institution for directing partners to examples of excellence and good practice within Hungary.  Areas of specialism – early years and pre-school education.

Communication and Co-operation:
- Roles and tasks have already been agreed, but we have a communication strategy in place in which we agree that all institutions honour deadlines and pass on all necessary information to partners.
- Information and updates will be passed on regularly between all institutions – using telephone or email.
- The central co-ordinating institution (Kingfisher School) will ensure that a co-ordinators’ project meeting will take place at the beginning of the project and a final evaluation meeting at the end.
- Regular email contact will take place between all schools.
- Planned pupil contact will take place by post and email.

Active Involvement of pupils and/or staff:
- The partnership deals mainly with pedagogical and leadership issues.
- Co-ordinators in each school will ensure that all staff are involved in the planning and implementation of activities and mobilities.
- Staff will be involved through meetings and by email.
- Teams of staff from each institution will be involved in the organisation and implementation of programmes for visiting staff.
- Evaluation of project activities will be on 2 levels – direct evaluation from staff who have been involved in mobilities and evaluation of products resulting from mobilities by all staff.
- Pupil links have already begun between some of the participating schools and these will continue throughout the project.
- Pupils will be involved directly in the project: preparing, receiving and analysing products/outcomes within miniprojects, but almost  non-directly via curricular activities that result from staff mobilities and co-operation.
- Each partner institution will have a Comenius team (enhancing team working) with 5-6 responsibilities covered by teachers who have special responsibilities in the project activities, such as: organise disseminations, organize information translation, organise curriculum adaptation, new material realisation…)

Integration of the partnership into the curriculum and/or ongoing activities
- Pedagogical issues will be integrated into the ongoing activities of each institution by a programme of continuing professional development of staff based on focal points for individual mobilities – i.e.: what each participating school feels it needs to learn from its partners to ensure school improvement.
- Integration into the curriculum will take place by pupil information exchanges in the form and emails and/or production of materials.
- Visiting staff will work with pupils to introduce language, cultural and regional information.

Intercultural Dialogue
- The majority of the pupils involved in our project have special educational needs and this project is an ideal way of introducing intercultural dialogue at a level that they can understand.  This will include language, traditions, legends, the geography of partner countries.
- This project aims to broaden teachers’ perspectives for their own professional development by giving a clear view of how provision and education for pupils with special educational needs operate in different countries – for example in differing means of assessment and different curricular provision.

Special Educational Needs
- The main focus of our project is on the education of pupils with special educational needs as has been detailed above.
- We recognise that there is wide range of expertise and good practice in the teaching of SEN across Europe and our project is aimed at sharing and disseminating that knowledge and practice.
- Pupils with special educational needs will benefit from a focus on multi – lingual comprehension aimed at their own specific level of learning.  For example visiting staff will teach simple communication in their own language.  It has already been observed that pupils participating in the current project are eager to ask visitors how to say 'hello', 'goodbye', 'thank you' etc in their languages.  We aim to build on this development.
- Pupils with special educational needs will also benefit from professional development of their teachers and therapists too.

Other partners:
- Inclusive Technology Oldham, UK
- The Charity Foundation "Transilvania" Baita 1, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, Romania
- "Sordan" FoundationThe Netherlands
- "Rotary" Foundation International
- Asociaţia RENINCO România, G-ral Berthelot Nr. 1, Bucureşti, Romania 
- Nyíregyháza, Margaréta preschool 
 
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