High School Drop Outs: 'One is Too Many'
PROJECT SUMMARY:
Early school
leaving is a multi-faceted and complex problem caused by a cumulative process
of disengagement. It is a result of personal, social, economic, education or
family-related reasons. Schools play an important role in addressing ESL but
they cannot and should not work in isolation. Reducing ESL can help towards the
integration of young people into the labour market, and contribute to breaking
the cycle of deprivation that leads to the social exclusion of too many young
people.
Reducing the
average European rate of early school leavers to less than 10% by 2020 is one
of the education headline targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy. Investment in
the educational achievement of young people is essential for the employment
prospects of every young person.
In this
Project High Schools from all over Europe prepared a strategic partnership and
they will co operate to tackle this problem at grass roots level: by analyzing
the problem and improving education atmosphere in term of; social activities,
student teacher ,student school ,students society, student-parent,
parent-school relations.
The main
objective of this project is to find new methods for increasing motivation and
creating more supportive school environments to decrease the number of student
dropouts.
Project
activities will include the exchange of the information, sharing and analyzing
best-practice models; comparing them and adapting them to each partner’s own
activities and environment .Our project activities are aimed to reduce ESL by
establishing conditions for successful learning for all the students. Students
should feel comfortable and supported, feel ownership of their own learning and
can engage in the life of their school community. This is important both for
the emotional, social and educational development of the pupil and for the
overall governance of the institution. As a condition of successful learning,
teachers need to strengthen their role as facilitators of learning. They need
autonomy, time, and space for innovation, teamwork, feedback, self-reflection
and evaluation. They need access to enhanced opportunities for continued
professional development.
We mostly
targeted students with fewer opportunities in order to provide them with the
missing opportunities they haven’t acquired by educational system so far. So
our target group is who will be detected as being in danger of drop out. We
also include parents of the students under the risk of drop out and teachers
who need guidance about methods to deal with the students who has drop out risk
as target group.
In long term
we aimed to disseminate the project all the related people and organization who
has a role in students 'educational and social life. They are; teachers,
families, peers, other organizations leading the same type of activity, local
schools in each partner school’s area, local authorities, European authorities
by the help of European partners, public, wider life learning community,
decision-makers at local, regional, national and European level. We believe
that our project results will have long term effects on economy and society
with the help of dissemination activities.
COUNTRIES and SCHOOLS:
Coordinator: Turkey (Kocaeli)
Bulgaria (Sofia);It is a general state school located in the
suburbs of the capital. Drop out rate in Bulgaria is 12,5(EUROSTAT-LFS/2012)
They have a local project called "PREVENT - Involving parents in
prevention of early school leaving", part of the EU program for
sustainable urban development (http://urbact.eu/en/projects/active-inclusion/prevent/homepage/).
For 18 months some teachers have been working on the issue and exchanging good
practices with schools and institutions from other European cities to prevent
students drop out from school.They are experienced in e twinning projects, so
they will be responsible for our project e twinning page.
United Kingdom (London):It is local vocational training high school which
has low progression rates .Drop out rate in U.K is 13, 5
(EUROSTAT-LFS/2012)They have specific reviewing and monitoring systems of students’
progress. They have experience about it and as a good practice they will share
their activities (www.pixl.org.uk) Their project team consist of different
qualified teachers.
Italy (Lecce):It is a high school which operates in a complex
and varied socioeconomic and cultural context .Drop out rate in Italy is 17.6
(EUROSTAT-LFS/2012)They have a regional project: “ Diritti a Scuola” an action
aiming at qualifying the school system, atpreventing early school leaving. They
also have another national project P.O.N. C1 a national operative programme for
the disadvantaged regions. They are also experienced about the Comenius
projects.
Cyprus (Polis Chrysochous);It is a public Lyceum and Technical school .Drop
out rate in Cyprus is 11, 4 (EUROSTAT-LFS/2012). They have prepared some
programs at school for dealing with drop out problem. They have a support
program for students with special skills, The school has a special of support
for student, given by professional psychologist.They also have experiences about
LLP Projects.
Lithuania (Kaunas);It is a high school in Kaunas. Lithuania has 6, 5
drop out rate (EUROSTAT-LFS/2012) which is the lowest and under the Europe 2020
target rate in our partnership. The reason to take this school as partner is,
they are really good example for us how to create a good atmosphere at school.
They say that they have created a well developed methodology which helps them
to minimize behavioral problems and school drop out, improve school atmosphere.
Norway (Oslo):it is a
vocational and upper secondary school . Norway has14,8 drop out rate
(EUROSTAT-LFS/2012). They have a local system for dealing with drop out problem
:Oppfølgingstjenesten(. Following students that have dropped out). They also
have a department of all the counselors, follow-up service (OT). This
department will be in charge of this project. They have an experienced staff
about local and international projects.
Portugal (Vila Verde) ;It is a
vocational high school. Portugal has 20, 8 drop out rate (EUROSTAT-LFS/2012).which
is one of the highest level in our partnership. So there are a lot of national
Projects in Portugal. They have a Psychology and Guidance Service, functioning
since 2002, has solved several extreme dropout risky cases with success.
Greece – Crete (;Chania)It is the
one which hasn’t joined any international project before. It is a General
Lyceum . Greece has 11, 4 drop out rate (EUROSTAT-LFS/2012).They have high
academic level because they apply an extra tutoring program they will be good
practice about the increasing success activities.
Latvia (Aluksne) Aluksne is a
secondary school .Latvia has 10,5 drop out rate (EUROSTAT-LFS/2012). They have
students who has difficulties in learning and students rather drop out instead
of solving situation. So they applied different activities to prevent drop out
.They have a “Shadow Day”programme which will be good practice for us in Career
orientation activities. They have innovative school staff.
ACTIVITIES: STUDENTS, TEACHERS and PARENTS
A1: Creating
project team and tools (Web site/twinspace/facebook ) Each school will create
an Erasmus club.
A2: Online
Logo, poster , motto ,short film competition. Logo competition.
poster/motto/logo/ and short film (The students make a short film based on the
life of a drop-out student. They direct, write a script and perform in it
themselves, using the experience they acquired from the interviews of drop-out
students) Votes for the best film
A3:Career
Planing Organisation - seminars and workshops by professionals, counselors, graduate
students, and visits to further education institutions of the area.
A4: Seminars
to teachers to deal with drop out problems, seminars to students about
effective study methods, Practical students' activities with implementing
results of effective study methods, Workshops with students and with their
families.
A5:European
Parliament - preparation of a Eu Parliament meeting where each country presents
the educational problems and suggests educational reforms. Each partner school
will create their own parliament and students will come together and discuss
about the educational problems in their country and they will vote for the best
reformative measures.The law will be published.
A6:After
school activities with family. Each partner school will organize social after
school activities for the students
7:Sport
Activities - Sport is thought to be one of the ways of creating an equal
environment and a way of preventing the dropping out of those students.
Tournaments
A8: Best
photo of the Project – uploaded on a common platform. An online voting system
and winner photo will be the cover for the project catalogue.
A9:
Preparing Final Works
A10:Dissemination
Activities
Students Mobilities
We want to
find new methods for increasing motivation and creating more supportive school
environments to decrease the number of student dropouts; For increasing
education atmosphere learning and teaching activities will be our main tools.
We will try to change perception of the students by using 'short term student
mobility activities.
One of the
other most important objectives in our project is creating communication with
other countries and understand their culture and exchange the ideas. For
achieving this goal effective use of language is really important and by the
help of language trainings for both students and school staff we will improve
our students’ communication abilities and their language competence
We will give
responsibilities to these students during the project and if they show an
improvement in their attainment and academic performance they will be awarded
with different social activities, mobilities and future opportunities. We will
use mobilities as a tool to motivate our students and increase their skills and
self esteem. During the project they will work in more workshops about
different topics, the methodology of peer learning and promoting formal and
non-formal education . We will train them about successful study methods. We
will facilitate the learners with disadvantaged backgrounds and fewer opportunities
and will make them participate in transnational projects.
Moreover
they will have opportunities to see that they are not alone, there are a lot of
students who have the same difficulties and concerns all around the Europe.
C1: An Outing as a tool
for motivation to improve attendance and academic success of the risk group
students.
Summary :
Students are asked to improve their academic results. Each student gets a
report with the marks obtained in the first term and a goal qualification
established by the educational team. The educational team takes into account
the capacities and abilities of each students so the goal qualification is
different for each of them. During the process they get help from a teacher who
monitors their performance. At the end of the school year those students who
achieve the mark established by the team participate in a workshop in Italy and
join a workshop with other students who have showed a similar success and they
will prepare a presentation about this process. When they come back they will
give a seminar to the students who has low level academic success and under the
risk of drop out by using the presentations they have prepared and they will
share their experiences.
C3: European Parliament:
Summary:
Each school will make necessary preparation of a Eu Parliament meeting where
each country presents the educational problems and suggests educational
reforms. Each partner school will create their own parliament and students will
come together and discuss about the educational problems in their country and
they will vote for the best reformative measures.The students who got the most
vote will join the short term mobility activity and they will join the big
European parliament in Cyprus. They will present their reforms and join international
voting. And the best reforms will be voted, approved and signed
The law will
be published on website,twinspace,facebook page.
C5.Citizenship and arts workshops.
Expected results
- Creation of a European association/ society/club
-EUROPEAN PERFORMANCE
“ONE IS TOO MANY” . An EVENT where students in groups will perform or exhibit
and be voted for by a jury made of students and teachers and local people.
- A collaborative students' blog called ONE IS TOO
MANY
- A DVD
Summary:
We will have
two workshops.
We will use
EUROPASS mobility tool for the students who join the mobilities,each partner
school will apply the certification institute on behalf of their students.
MOBILITIES - PLAN
|
|
Meeting
|
Date
|
Country
|
|
2014/2015
|
Meeting 1
|
October 2014
|
TURKEY- teachers
|
|
2014/2015
|
Short term student mobility
|
April 2015
|
ITALY
Students and teachers
|
|
2014/2015
|
Meeting 2
|
May 2015
|
ENGLAND- teachers
|
|
2015/2016
|
Meeting 3
|
October 2015
|
LITHUANIA- teachers
|
|
2015/2016
|
Short term student mobility
|
March 2016
|
CYPRUS –students and teachers
|
|
2015/2016
|
Meeting 4
|
May 2016
|
BULGARIA- teachers
|
|
2016/2017
|
Meeting 5
|
October 2016
|
NORWAY - teachers
|
|
2016/2017
|
Short term student mobility
|
March or April 2017
|
PORTUGAL – students and
teachers
|
|
2016/2017
|
Meeting 6
|
May 2017
|
GREECE - teachers
|
