Our Time flies fast when you have a great time together as collaborators, and with our two-year project KA2 “IncED: Inclusive Education” slowly coming to a close in March of 2024, it was time for us all to come together again in one place for a closing meeting.
As both project results have been published, and with the newest Toolbox being translated into several languages, we had to have an evaluation, a cheerful celebration of a job well done and discussion of the final stages and dissemination of the project results.Our main goal?
To encourage participation of young people with fewer opportunities and special needs in active social life and for the organizers of all kinds of social events not to be afraid of working with mixed ability groups but to see it as a possibility for more enriched learning environments.
From 5th to 8th November 2023, coordinators from Spain, Estonia, and Latvia met in Cēsis (Latvia) in Cēsis Bērzaine primary school, to share their evaluation with the project results and to discuss final stages of our project.
More in detail, the main objectives of the closing meeting were:
To have an evaluation of project progress with all the partners.
To create a final plan for the closing of the project and the dissemination of it, sharing upcoming plans of activities and additional ideas from each partner.
To have a promotional event with representatives of Cēsis municipality Education Administration and local press.
To develop a sustainability strategy for the project long-term result.
To have some project management details straightened out.
How did it all go?
As we had visited schools from our project partners both in Tallinn, Estonia (the first training activity in Estonia in July 2022!) and Rio Maior, Portugal (the second training activity in Portugal in July 2023!), at the beginning of the first day the first activity was a guided tour throughout Cēsis Bērzaine primary school. To see the schools from our project partners and their learning environments was a great opportunity and experience when we were creating project results and when we needed to plan for their dissemination. Meeting in person has always been very valuable for our project organization.
First objective: Evaluation of the project progress
With the second project result, the Toolbox, being the newest addition, we shared our opinions, impressions, experience and first reviews from our fellow educators or youth workers with whom we already had shared it. The consensus being highly satisfied that the Toolbox is practical with well-structured nature, easily accessible, printable, and adjustable for different uses. Plus, the additional comments from the field provided valuable insights. It has already been used by Vivere Kool and by Cēsu Bērzaines primary school. Translations are on their way, with new translations being added weekly or bi-weekly. It was noted that together with the first result, the (Un)Manual, they both serve as a great starting-kit for everyone interested in working with mixed ability groups and inclusive education. The first result, the (Un)Manual was discussed briefly, as it was published already in March 2023, and discussed in detail over the second training activity in Portugal in July 2023. Which was evaluated by partners 10/10 for its organization and as a great learning experience.
The general overview of the project results were satisfaction with the design, being very attractive, with the partnership, coordination and communication. With the project steps and timeline well thought out, and managed, any delays encountered did not impact on the overall project.
Second objective: Dissemination of the project results
With the dissemination part of the project, it was important to have many events organized of different levels: with open events, presenting the project, sharing our experiences with audiences in educational and youth work fields, and with experience events, for smaller groups of teachers and/or youth workers with practical, focused on practicing Toolkit exercises, both organized by each partner separately. And with much larger multiplier events, two in two regions – one in Estonia, and one in Portugal.
All the events are coming soon to each respective partner countries.
During the second day we also met with local stakeholders, introduced the project results to representatives of Cēsis municipality Education Administration and local press.
For these events special materials would be prepared, and shared. And one way of reaching open eyes and ears for inclusive education, it was decided to create short videos. So, during the meeting our team created scripts and shot some videos to be shared easily across social media and via direct messages to colleagues or any other interested ones. We created 4 videos about the project: one altogether – “Introduction”, second about inclusive education – “Don’t be afraid”, third about “The (Un)Manual”, fourth about “The Toolbox”, and additional one on how to use it.
Third objective: To develop a sustainability strategy
As creators, we can always hope that our work reaches a wide audience. But knowing that our work has been done for long term goals, the results must be reached long after our project comes to a close. So we started to develop some sustainability strategies, to be fine tuned until the end of our project. First, to ensure the project website with the results is available online. Second, to integrate and maintain using both the (Un)Manual and the Toolbox in project partner schools – Vivere kool in Tallinn, and Cēsu Bērzaines primary school in Cēsis. Third, to print out the materials and distribute them to teachers and youth workers during dissemination, multiplier events, and future events. And fourth, to share the project’s material in future projects, trainings and seminars on diversity and inclusion.
And lastly
We finalized some project management details, for everything to come together nicely. As this was our last in person meeting (at least official) all together we were reminded of the importance of good partnerships. Over these three busy days, the project partners managed to do important work, but we also had an opportunity to have a great time together, experience the historic Cēsis town and Latvian culture, hosted by colleagues from Cēsis Berzaine primary school. To see how people make an effort to create even ordinary days meaningful and make a difference with their everyday actions gave the closing meeting a wonderful touch.
“IncEd: Inclusive Education” is a Strategic Partnership project is implemented by Vivere Kool (Estonia) in collaboration with Shokkin Group (Estonia), Produções Fixe (Portugal), Ticket2Europe (Spain) and Cesis Berzaine Primary School (Latvia), with the support of the Erasmus+ programme through the Estonian National Agency.
