Coming to Ireland has helped me gather ideas and realize that the activities don’t have to be complex. Start with little things and expand throughout the year. During the first visit, we went  to Scoil Mhuire, Tullamore. I really liked the QR codes that were used on the students’ drawing, this is something we would like to implement in our school. We are going to use this idea during our children’s week in October due to the ban of cell phones in schools. Also, the idea of empowering female students to go into STEM with hall posters was wonderful.  In the presentation of Dr. Deirdre Kirwan, I liked the example of writing a short essay in the target language as well as in L1 of the student. I am sure our primary teachers would use this idea.

The next two visits to local schools gave me more ideas of what to implement in our school. For example, the Welcome sign, flags on the wall, The culture day. Our meetings were very beneficail; we got to know each other better, exchange ideas and see specific examples in three schools. Also, I loved the Irish culture and the people.

First, I’d like to thank our lovely hosts Catherine Doolan, Liam O’Neil and Niamh Campion, who have made our stay in Port Laoise so enjoyable and enlightening. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them, visiting different schools, talking to lots of Irish teachers and being inspired about the community of belonging. Being a language teacher myself, another highlight was getting to know Déirdre Kirwan and her views on the plurilingual approach. Thanks for that.

What probably impressed me most, though, is the great collaboration between the Education Center and the schools that take part in the project. Seeing first hand how the principles of the community of belonging are applied has given me enough food for thought for activities in my own school.

Going along with guidelines of the program, our first steps will be to install a project team, get a clearer picture of how many different home languages our students have and making them visible. At the beginning of the next school year, I hope to have set up a way of welcoming and tending to parents who struggle with the German language.

Altogether this visit has inspired me greatly and I hope I can pass that inspiration on to my colleagues.

I really enjoyed my stay in Portlaoise although it was quite packed as we only had two and a half days. It was very helpful to visit three different schools from the Schools of Belonging project. I was especially impressed by the visit of Dunamase College where one teacher explained to us how they managed to welcome newcomer students and their families. She emphasized that there are already many things that already exist in a school which you have to showcase.

As a whole I got inspired by many examples how to welcome and integrate all kind of diversity, from welcome booklets, maps and illustrations on the wall, cultural days, linguistic support etc. It was also very interesting to listen to Dr. Deirdre Kirwan’s presentation on Embracing Linguistic Diversity.

Although the main focus was on welcoming newcomer students I learned how one of the primary schools managed to integrate children with special needs into the school community.

I left Portlaoise inspired by many new ideas and hopes.

Visiting several schools that already make part of the project Schools of Belonging was a great way of realizing the true meaning of the expression schools of belonging.

It was in fact the best way to see how small things can make the difference and how several small changes can make a huge change.

I was inspired by the examples seen and have already started to build up a team that will implement some of the examples seen in Agrupamento de Escolas de Oliveira do Hospital.

The world is a small village. The speed and easiness of communication justified the expression. But nowadays the sentence can also refer to migrant movements. We can find people from anywhere everywhere. It was not a surprise that all the schools involved in the project are facing the same reality, the arrival of new students every week.

So it is really important that we are together, trying to do better, in different parts of Europe. And that sense of belonging to a project we, the team, also felt.

First Meeting of Erasmus + 2023-2-IE01-KA210-SCH-000170240

Creating European Schools of Belonging Project

26/02/24

Present: Catherine Doolan, Niamh Campion, Liam O’Neill, Renate Esber-Trost, Cristina Borges, Anela Milin and Silvia Kreiner.

Liam welcomed the teachers to Laois Education Support Centre and hoped they enjoyed the visit and found their visit to Scoil Mhuire, Tullamore on the morning of the meeting useful and enjoyable. He explained that there will be two other school visits over the course of the visit, one to Tobar an Léinn NS and one to Dunamase College, to ensure that participants get to experience both Irish primary and post-primary schools.

Catherine gave a presentation on the Community of Belonging Project that is currently running through Laois Education Support Centre.

Catherine shared the Grant Agreement with the group and explained the financial implications of the Grant Agreement.

As per the Agreement, each school will receive 150 euro per month towards the costs incurred for running the project.

These costs could be extra administrative support, purchase of materials and resources etc.

This money goes directly to the school and is managed by the school.

Subsistence: 150 euro per day and 350 euro for flight and travel costs.

2000 euro payable to the host school for hosting a visit.

Each school will receive their funding at the end of each quarter but as participants have already purchased flights and paid for accommodation, we will endeavour to ensure that the first tranche of funding will paid as soon as possible. Partners will complete the Grant Agreement which Catherine will send to them on March 5^th and payment will follow this.

There will be 4 more exchange of practice visits, one to each individual country and then a final mobility which will coincide with a Conference in possibly Croke Park depending on availability and costs.

A website will be developed to capture the work of the schools in the Creating European Schools of Belonging Project.

Information on Individual Schools will be uploaded to the Website and each school will regularly update and create content for the Website.

It was agreed that all persons present would form the Project Management Team.

Liam and Catherine are the Project Leads and will attend all the visits. Ireland will also send a school’s representative as well as per Grant agreement.

It was decided to defer any other plans until the Next Steps meeting.

The meeting concluded with each partner school giving a presentation on their school and sharing of sweet treats from their locality.

Cultural activities for the visit included a trip to the Rock of Dunamaise, a visit to an Irish thatched premises  and the Raheen Mass Rock. Training on linguistic diversity was provided by Dr. Deirdre Kirwan, TCD, to introduce the rationale for celebrating, valuing and making visible linguistic diversity – this to take place on Tuesday afternoon. 

Second Meeting of Erasmus + 2023-2-IE01-KA210-SCH-000170240

Creating European Schools of Belonging Project

27/02/24

Present: Catherine Doolan, Niamh Campion, Liam O' Neill, Renate Esber-Trost, Cristina Borges, Anela Milin and Silvia Kreiner.

Members of the Project Team reflected on and reviewed the information provided by Dr. Deirdre Kirwan at the Community of Belonging Seminar held earlier in the day.

The group gave feedback on their visits to Scoil Mhuire Tullamore and Tobar an Leinn NS, Raheen.  The group expressed that they had a much better sense of what the project was about and could now more readily identify their next steps and what is achievable and practical for their own school setting.

Each member agreed to use the Audit Document provided by LESC as a starting point in their own school.

An audit of the Home Languages spoken by students in each school was agreed as a priority.

Each member commented on the positive atmosphere in each of the schools.

It was agreed that each European School involved would work to achieve and be awarded a School of Belonging Plaque.

At the end of the two years, it was agreed that as a group, we would review and update the existing audit document.

It was agreed to use the Padlet provided at the Seminar today including additions to the Padlet from the European Conferences attended by LESC personnel.

Catherine said she would also share four Padlets from the Dept. of Education and Skills with the group too.

Catherine offered that Dearbhla could do a Webinar on using Information Technology to help support the development of Home Languages in schools.

A Catch up Zoom will be held in mid-April . A Whatsapp poll will be used to arrange time and date.

It was decided that the First Exchange of Practice Meeting will be held in Germany from 12^th-15^th May and Renata will send on details of local hotels and travel links etc.

Serbia will the 2^nd Visit in October 24

Austria will be the 3^rd Visit in February 25

Portugal will be the 4^th visit in May 25.

Ireland will be the 5^th visit October 25

Catherine will send out the Grant Agreement next week. The form needs to be completed by each school. Each form must have the school’s bank details and the school stamp and signature of the school’s Legal Representative.

It was agreed that a maximum of 9 people would travel to each host country – additional costs if incurred to be covered by individual schools outside of the funding specified for travel and subsistence in the Grant Agreement.

Catherine will send a letter to each school confirming the dates for Exchange of Practice Visit 1.

The host country will cover the cost of one evening meal.