Funded by the Erasmus+
Programme of the
European Union
Introducing the fifth WELCOME newsletter, which is coordinated by the Dr. Josef Raabe s.r.o. Publishing House. This is an international European Erasmus+ project, falling under Key Action 2 (KA2), participants include the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. Our partners include the Faculty of Education at the Charles University in Prague, the Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology in Bratislava, the Institute of Mental Health and Development in Sofia, the M7 online agency in Bratislava, followed by all the primary schools and kindergartens in the mentioned countries, which participated in the development and testing of our primary outputs. Namely Kindergarten Mirotice, Elementary school and Kindergarten Zubrohlava and Kindergarten Prikazka bez krai in Sofia.
The primary objective of the WELCOME project is to support inclusion in kindergartens and to offer functional tools to assist working with children with special educational needs (SEN), whose development is affected by disadvantage or disability. We provide teachers with theoretical backing and practical proposals for systemic support of children with SEN as part of group and individual educational work. The primary outputs of the project are:
The Methodology has already been published in print in all three languages – Czech, Slovak and Bulgarian. It has currently been sent to partner organisations in all project countries and our partners are working diligently at distributing it to all kindergartens. We are beginning to collect our first wave of feedback, such as this:
The Methodology is compiled sensitively, clearly and systematically. I appreciate the incorporation and consideration of the individual requirements of kindergarten teachers which resulted from the joint discussions of the Welcome project authorial collective with our kindergarten teachers. I also appreciate the work of the authorial team, able to comprehensively describe the issues of inclusive education of preschool children in such a short time, bring everything to conclusion and publish these materials greatly needed by us – the teachers. I’m sure the Methodology will help kindergarten teachers better understand the issues surrounding the teaching of children with special educational needs and will be of assistance in their education.
Jarmila Svobodová, head teacher at Kindergarten 15 – Erbenova, Písek
At the current time we are also undertaking the preparation of the latest language version, English, which will be available in electronic form.
We are also currently finishing work on the WELCOME IDEA application. All activities have been programmed and our editors are making the final revisions. In parallel with these finishing touches, we are also carrying out testing in several (partner and non-partner) kindergartens. The app includes almost 80 activities for children, such as quizzes, puzzles, image sorting, shape toys or drawing. The last step after completing these final activities and app tuning will be translations into the remaining partner languages.
Workshops were successfully completed at all partner kindergartens, where teachers and groups of children – including children with SEN – could try integrating work with the app into a regular kindergarten day. As part of each workshop, teachers and children carried out one of the original thematic blocks (scenarios) based on activities in the application WELCOME IDEA. Apart from the partner kindergartens, workshops also took place in independent kindergartens which had not previously been involved in the project.
We received very encouraging workshop feedback for individual activities in WELCOME IDEA, as well as the original scenarios whose authors were teachers from the participating kindergartens. Teachers can find all of the scenarios in the manual, which contains comprehensive instructions for teachers, including how to lead integrated blocks and working groups in the use of the app so as to fulfil the requirements of individualization in education.
We still have to finish our work on both the WELCOME IDEA app as well as the Working with and Supporting Children with SEN in Preschool Education (WELCOME workshops). All project outputs will be presented at the final international dissemination conference in Prague on 24 April 2019. This conference won’t be the only opportunity for (not only) the broader teaching public to familiarize themselves with the outputs of the WELCOME projects. Together with the distribution of the printed Methodology, there is also a broad promotion of project outputs through the contribution of all partner organisations. At the end of the project period, educational institutions from a number of European non-partner countries will be informed of all project outputs via a special newsletter.
The public face of the WELCOME project:
Watch our outputs, support the authors and give us feedback on how we’re meeting our goals!
Have a beautiful spring!
© 2016 Nakladatelství Dr. Josef Raabe, s.r.o.
