Erasmus+ projects cover a variety of different topics and allow us to work with different countries to find out how they approach different subjects in the classroom.

We share best practice in order to create resources that can be used across Europe.

Erasmus+ also gives opportunities for teachers to visit other countries to learn about different working methods and cultures.

Right Choice Right Move is an Erasmus+ project joining BCC, Yalova, Wycombe Youth Action and Bucks College Group, to develop the knowledge and skills of young people who are preparing to leave school, so that they can make sound career choices for the future.

Sound and informed career guidance preparing young people to work not only in their home country but also across Europe is vital. The project also aimed to engage disaffected young people and develop their ability to make informed decisions.

The professionals involved in the project developed a suite of lesson plans to be used in the classroom and a guidance document for teachers to go alongside the lessons which will be able to support young people looking at their future careers.

Throughout the project we aimed to develop the skills and confidence of teachers to deliver the support required by students when considering their next steps on their career or further education pathway.

The guidance provides a consistent method for teaching good career and guidance counselling through the development of a module of work that can be used anywhere. Included in the guidance are some Career case studies, which are a selection of trades enabling students to look at different career opportunities, and their educational paths in order to help make informed choices. It is very important that the decisions a student makes regarding his future are deliberate and purposeful, that the young person would understand that adaptation to the world of business and their emotional well-being depends on the right choice.

By learning about the education systems in each country, and by sharing the good practices in both regions, we were able to create a package of lesson plans, which not only covered different career paths but also took into account the skills and personalities of young people, their likes and dislikes.

Students in both countries were included in the discussions about what they believe in career guidance should focus on from their perspective and feed their views into planned interventions.

All of the guidance and resources are available to be shared with colleagues locally, nationally and at a European level via the website.

Download the Guidance Document here

Survey Results

We surveyed Students, teachers, head teachers, parents and employers to find out their views on current careers guidance:

• Results
• Results analysis

At the end of the project we repeated the survey to see if the lesson plans had an impact on students and teachers.

Overall with the students and staff that had taken part in the project there was a positive increase of knowledge and skills around choosing the right career path, however it was clear that for those schools that did not embrace the lesson plans there was no change in the views of their students, staff or parents.

View the Transnational meeting notes for the project here

Training Sessions

As part of the project, both countries hosted a number of careers fairs for students and training events for teachers.

• Şaban Temuge Vocational and Technical High School - Dec 2017
• Career Days with Bayram Özrek - Dec 2017
• Career Days with a Private Hospital - March 2018

Bucks Skills Show - Oct 2018

Links to videos and information on these careers fairs, including future details can be found below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV4Xe6Ae06I

It is also on Buckinghamshire's business first website below:

https://bbf.uk.com/news/boosting-careers-at-the-bucks-skills-show

https://bbf.uk.com/news/bucks-skills-show-shines-bright-light-on-future-talent

Career Days with Associate Professor Hüseyin Çeken - Dec 2018

Career Days with The Instructor Dr. Çağla Özer at Istinye University - Dec 2018

PHSE and Careers CPD - Feb 2019 

For further information on these please see the final Guidance document.

Additional materials

We have published a number of articles around the project: 

Sharing best practice: careers in PSHE

Please view what the Insight Project entailed and the outcomes from the project in the shape of surveys and lesson plans.

News

We are excited to announce that the resource, developed by Buckinghamshire Council and colleagues from Highcrest Academy, Wycombe High School and Equaliteach, as well as colleagues in France and Spain, is now part of the Educate Against Hate website:

InSight: Building Young People's Resilience To Radicalisation and Extremism - Educate Against Hate

This is a Government website containing advice and trusted resources for schools to safeguard students from radicalisation, build resilience to all types of extremism and promote shared values.

Insight Project Overview

The InSight Project aims to give teachers the confidence and resources to discuss and equip young people with the knowledge and skills to think for themselves, challenge and debate ideology in a safe environment. It will also give young people the opportunity to learn about different cultures and faiths, building mutual trust and respect.

With increasing tensions across countries there is a need to increase and reinforce community cohesion. The project hopes to make young people aware of their responsibilities to each other is more critical as we see an increase in using social media to express negative thoughts to each other. Discrimination takes all forms but as young people become more sophisticated in their use of ICT online radicalisation and extremism is a growing concern. Therefore the need to be innovative in teaching about becoming European citizens as a way of making young people feel socially included in a wider context is considered a way forward.

InSight Teacher Resource - Final

We are excited to announce that our Internet Safety Erasmus project, BAO (Be Aware online) has been selected as one of the best national educative projects for 2021 by the French Government.

Background

With technology and activity online is moving so fast, there are many different risks associated with the digital age, and it is becoming more apparent that it is young people that are the most vulnerable and most targeted.

For many young people with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND), the internet can be a place where they feel safe, calm and in control. Somewhere they can make friends without having to communicate face-to-face, and build a community which they may not have in their offline life.   Online games and social media sites display the capacity to capture the mind of children with attention problems.  Parents and teachers of children with attention problems, for example, almost universally agree that these children can easily sustain their focus while playing online games, surfing the Internet, or using social media. Whilst recognising the internet is a great resource which young people enjoy using, life online for a child with SEND may pose additional challenges.

Students with Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) have shown particularly vulnerability in a variety of different contexts; nationally and locally observed. This vulnerability needs, and deserves, practical tips, ideas and guidance on how to keep pupils with SEN safe now and in the future.

Parents and carers also find it a struggle to keep up with the games and applications that their children are using, so often don’t feel confident about broaching this subject, or the risks that are posed every day for users.  It is often the case that the parents are also unaware of the risks of being online themselves, and how to address those risks.

This project between the UK, Sweden and France aimed at sharing good practice and together identifying the best ways of addressing what we consider to be a crucial element of education, which is how to keep children and young people safe online. 

The SEN Stay Safe Project aims to give teachers and parents the confidence and resources to discuss and equip young people with Special Educational Needs the knowledge and skills around internet safety and the implications of technology in their everyday lives.  This is a ground-breaking and ever changing area of the pupils’ lives and one that is often over-looked in relation to pupils with SEN.  The project will include creating joint and individual resources for teachers, parents and pupils. 

The Game - Bao - It's a Jungle Out There!

The Jungle, like the internet, is a happy and colourful place, where you can you meet up with friends, take photos and share what you discover and finally find out new things.

However, the jungle can be a dangerous place full of strange and mysterious things and unpredictable events. You may face things that you do not like or make you feel uncomfortable. How will you react to these events? Let’s see as you embark on your journey through the jungle…

Meet Bao

• Bao is a young panda, whose name means “To Protect”.  Bao lives in the jungle with his family and friends.
• Bao dreams of being a successful explorer and has decided to become the first Panda to climb the unchartered mountain. 
• Bao wants to post online about all the travels, and discoveries, made along the way, but is unsure how to do this.
• Bao needs help to navigate the jungle and the internet safely.

Feedback

Feedback has been really positive:

"This is absolutely brilliant. I will definitely be using this. I pressed the link and just kept going. I have not looked at the lesson plans but it is a really rich resource which I think will be a really effective way of building resilience on line and helping to navigate the dangers.”

“I love it!! I have just had a go, I think kids will love it”

How to Access

The game should be accessed through Chrome. It is available in 3 languages and can be found on the links:

• English - https://play.adeptly.ai/internet-safety-en
• French - https://play.adeptly.ai/internet-safety-fr
• Swedish - https://play.adeptly.ai/internet-safety-sv

Guidance 

• English version
• French version
• Swedish version
• Short Guide
• Short Guide Swedish version
• Leaflet for parents / Teachers
• Leaflet for Students
• Mountain Poster A4
• Bao Poster A4

Guidance for staff and parents contains:

• ideas
• information
• details of each section with important areas to discuss,
• lesson plans
• activity packs
• Top tips
• Other resources

and aims to:

• Outline the importance of opening conversations with young people to build their resilience to online risks
• Develop teachers’ and parents’ confidence and skills to talk about the different risks associated with being online.
• Provide guidance to support schools and parents using this resource
• Bring together good practice from across Europe
• Provide signposting information for further support.

The Power of Technology

The idea behind this project stems from the belief that technology has the power to empower, support and transform education. Yet, it is not technology per se that truly helps improve learning outcomes. It needs to come from the pioneers that work with young people and their pedagogical approach to learning. Similarly, we know that children love playing games, as this is something they naturally do and naturally learn from. Yet it is not simply playing digital games that leads to enhanced learning outcomes either. Combining the two ideas was what prompted this project:

The GAMES for inclusion and Learning project aimed to develop innovative teaching methods involving making and playing games to support learning and involve all students including those with special education needs.

This project built on existent approaches in the partner countries by extending and exchanging pedagogic knowledge and expertise and developing new learning paths specifically through making games and then playing them. It aimed to:

• Develop teachers’ skills to take innovative approaches in teaching.
• To show the benefits on pupils using digital games as a tool to create artefacts both individually and collaboratively.

Through a series of case studies based in classrooms in the UK and Sweden, GAMES for Inclusion and Learning aimed to develop teachers’ as well as students’ skills. The teachers collaborated and exchanged knowledge and expertise in using games in diverse settings and with pupils of around 10 years of age (upper primary) in a mainstream (Sweden) and a SEN school (UK).

The games used and developed into lesson plans include:

• Scratch
• Kodu
• Minecraft
• Lego

This web-based project report aims to share materials in order to promote and support the use of games in education. (http://www.gamesforlearning.se)

Led by Buckinghamshire County Council, in the UK, the project collaborated with the University College of London Institute of Education and Stony Dean School in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. In Sweden Gothenburg Region Utbildning worked together with the Interactive Institute and Lexby school in Partille, Gothenburg.
The project was supported by the European Commission’s Erasmus + program and ran from September 2015 – August 2017.

Outcome

Teachers  have been experimenting with the use of games for a while and focused on in this project was to investigate the challenges in implementing this use both in mainstream as well as in SEN classrooms and to understand what it takes to convince teachers and middle managers to use it. 

It was important therefore to establish how digital games can be used to allow for this understanding to occur and to enhance some of the learning processes for the target population.

For example, a recent study found that dyslexic children who trained on action video games showed significant improvements on basic measures of both attention and reading ability, suggesting future directions for the study of dyslexia intervention paradigms (Bavelier et al. 2013).

The game creation process involves many underlying processes and allows many skills to be developed and not just coding or programming skills. The main focus is on learning, not on the technology per se, and the pedagogies are based on psychological processes including motivation, communication, collaboration, self-regulation and utilising working memory.

Specific interests of the child are encouraged when considering the context of the game to be made, and some of the following learning and teaching principles are involved:

• Instantaneous feedback
• support for sequencing
• overcoming anxieties
• accepting failure/making mistakes
• producing an artefact
• motivation and self regulation
• confidence and learner autonomy
• feelings of independence
• taking turns to work together
• working at the right pace
• passive as well as active learning
• variety of learning approaches and of tools
• taking risks
• problem solving and
• debugging

and more….

Based on these principles and processes, which were identified in the case studies described by the participating teachers, we aimed specifically to draw some practice-based lessons learned.