Vasaskolan, Sweden
Vasaskolan – the coordinator of this project – is a nine-year comprehensive school situated in the centre of Kalmar. Kalmar is a town in the southeast part of Sweden with a population of 60 000 inhabitants. Vasaskolan is the largest comprehensive school in Kalmar with about 500 pupils and 45 teachers. The pupils are generally from the local environment . About 10% of the pupils are immigrants or refugees therefore the knowledge of other cultures, apart from the Swedish one, is limited.
I.E.S. Los Moriscos, Spain
The High School is situated in a small village in Extremadura, in the south of Spain, with a population of 4000. Most of them work in the agriculture. Los Moriscos High School has 400 students and 41 teachers. In our School there are just 20 students with special needs (Turner syndrome, Asperger syndrome, migrants from South America or East Europe, two deaf students…), so there is not really a great diversity or origin, religion or social status.
Yalova Lisesi, Turkey
Yalova Lisesi is a General Secondary Public School with 87 teachers and 1423 pupils aged 14-18 boys and girls. It is the biggest and the oldest educational institution in Yalova.
Most of the students come from the town centre, districts and villages of Yalova, therefore there is a large profile backgrounds of the pupils and their families. Nearly half of the pupils come from socially and economically disadvantaged families.
Gimnazjum nr2 im. Polskich Noblistów, Poland
Gimnazjum nr2 im. Polskich Nblistów is a secondary school situated in central Poland, in semi-urban area. Most students are the inhabitants of the town itself, but many of them live in the surrounding villages. The students usually come from families of low or medium income. The rate of unemployment is about 15% which is the source of many problems that our students must face and put them at risk of social exclusion. 20% of them are covered by the help of some social welfare institutions. We have many students whose one or both parents have emigrated to other countries, it happens that they studied abroad and now they continue their education in Poland. Therefore, they can find if difficult to accustom to a new situation.
Smith’s Wood Sports College, United Kingdom
Smith’s Wood Sports College is a large comprehensive school on the outskirts of Birmingham. It is part of the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. The school serves in an area that is in the lowest 20% for depravation. Over 90% of the students are in the most deprived 10% of households nationally. 29% of the students have Special Educational Needs and approximately 3% of those are statemented. We are an improving school; in fact we are in the top 100 most improved schools in the country for GCSE performance. Our examination results continue to improve every year. The school caters for students with differing backgrounds and needs but we have recognized our need to learn more about the different ethnic groups in and around our community. One way that we can do this is to partner with other schools whose students come from a more culturally diverse background. Smith’s Wood’s students are talented and the school offers many opportunities for its students to excel in areas such as Sports, ICT and Music, among others. We welcome visitors with open arms and are always willing to share our knowledge and experience with others.
Colegiul Național “Sabin Drăgoi” Deva, Romania
Colegiul Național “Sabin Drăgoi”, situated in the town of Deva, is a living and modern institution that has already celebrated 140 years of existence. It is the place where students from Deva but also from the surroundings villages and from the Valley of Jiu (a disadvantaged area, that used to be heavily industrialized and where the main activity was coal mining, but due to low efficiency, most of the mines were closed down in the years following the collapse of Communism in Romania) come to study and some of them live in the boarding school. Some of our students (5) with specific needs feel good about participating in all the extra-school activities we organize. Our school also has a parents association, “Edu+” that can provide the necessary support to help us face the challenges of our students.