Challanges for rural schools

Our team consits by three partner countries: Italy- Poland - Spain. The partnership included two organizations already experienced (Italy and Poland) and one newcomer (Spain). As rural schools all the three schools have similar needs. All our schools are located in small villages, with a strong sense of community and they have developed close links with local associations to enhance the traditions, cultural, historical and natural heritage. We started to plan our project bearing in mind that: The education system, especially in rural areas such ours, must consider all opportunities to promote the local resources and to plan its action outward. Likewise, the school has to be innovative in order to meet the needs of the students, who are deeply different from the past.The isolation of our local areas can be partially overcome thanks the new technology. Promoting the use of new technologies helped schools to be more actrative for pupils, made students aware on the safetly use of internet, found out new ways to enhance pupils basic and soft skills. We involved in the Project three/ four classes from each school with a total of 260 pupils and 32 school staff ( teachers, head teachers); 52 pupils from 10/14 years old participated in short exchange of group of pupils ( physical mobilities) , while 30 from Spain and Poland took part at the virtual mobility organized by Italian team. Our objectives were: to become more autonomous in the new and innovated learning environments; to use space in the classroom and in the school to work, play and investigate;to make students aware on the safe use of internet; develope key competences; to enhance basic skills ( linguistic, matematics, historical, geographical and scientific); to recognize the different identities, cultural and religious traditions, in a perspective of dialogue and mutual respect.Activities planned were: Dialogue, reports, descriptions, creative writing, drama, video. Collaborative groups, literature circles, drama circle, in order to create spaces for interacting. Exploreìing cultural, historical and archeological heritage of their own country and the partner countries through excursions ( real tour) and the use of new technolgies ( virtual tour). Engaging the students with the support of ICT and encourage their imagination and creativity to create a story book, making a video and other promotional materials of their heritage. Results and impact were: introduced changes in the classrooms setting; created new and more flexible spaces in the school; created more links between natural/ historical learning environments and school environment. Integrated good practces into the organization to have a modern, innovative, dynamic learning environment. Increased the capacity to plan at national and EU level. Increased the management and professional skills of the teachers and school staff involved in the project.The school became more attractive both for families and other teachers. We reinforced links with the local Community ( local agencies and Municipalities).