For the last three years we’ve been working on our Comenius Project: ‘Twinning of special education schools in Europe’.

The main goals of our project have been as follows:

• To make students and staff of the special schools involved conscious of the European dimension in our society.

• To develop a partnership between special schools for physically disabled pupils within the European Union.

• To increase the access for pupils who are restricted in their mobility and communication skills, due to their physical disabilities, to new technologies.

• To strive for added value in the education of the pupils by means of mutual European activities.

• To offer continuing training to teachers and opportunities for professional development and thus enhance the educational experiences of the pupils.

The topics we worked on:

The European network

Facts

We started the project with 5 partners:

• Sint-Lodewijk, Belgium
• De Monnikskap, The Netherlands
• Rheinische Schule, Germany
• Fleming Fulton, Northern Ireland
• Fondation Richard, France

During the project 2 new partners joined us:

• Lord Mayor Treloar, England
• Centro Dato, Spain

Strong points:      

• We are schools with a high degree of similarity concerning population, goals and problems.
• We learned from our partners that there are different solutions for similar problems; this stimulated our creativity in our never-ending search for solutions.
• The geographical location

 Weaker points:     

• A lack of regular communication.

 The European dimension

Facts:

• Pupils’ exchange
• Assignments
• Websites
• The international meetings
• Visits to the European institutions

Strong points:

• Getting to know each other better, mutual understanding, unofficial friendships, the personal experience with other cultures.

Weaker points:

• The difficulties of finding enough financial supports to cover these activities.
• A lack of awareness with pupils and staff who aren’t directly involved.

Pen pal links

Facts:

Pen pal ads on the Website

Strong points:

• create an opportunity to come into contact with foreign students in class or on a personal level.

Weaker points:

• There weren’t enough computers for the students to work on at the beginning of the project.

• Now there are!

Case study

Facts:

The study of the aphonic pupil.

Strong points:

• We made a list of all communication systems.

• We learned from each other’s experiences, solutions…

• The exchange of information.
• The demonstrations of technologies.

Weaker points:

• We should make a kind of manual.
• Industry, experts should be contacted.

Educational structure

Facts:

The presentation of the different school structures.

 Strong points:

• The knowledge: how do schools operate, e.g. when a pupil visits another country

• In answer to questions of a national government we can refer to similar situations with our European partners.

Teacher exchange

Facts:

• Carla went to the Rheinische Schule for one week
• One teacher from the Rheinische Schule went to Fleming Fulton and two people went to Lord Mayor Treloar.

Strong points:

• These contacts are very useful.

• The input of information is very high.
• There is contact with a lot of colleagues.
• Very good as a preparatory visit to organise a pupils’ meeting.
• One week is the minimum.
• All partners should stimulate the teacher exchange.

Weaker points: None!

Technology

Facts:

Strong points:

• Each partner school has made efforts to install the necessary hardware and software in his school during this project.
• A united partnership, easy communication, a lot of useful ideas is transmitted…

Weaker points:

• Internet has only recently been installed with all the partners. Not everyone uses it on a regular basis. Different versions of programmes cause problems…