The project 'Achieving Together' responds to needs which have been identified not only in the participating schools, but by the European educational community as a whole. Raising and maintaining standards in key skills and foreign language learning is embedded in the school development plans of all partners and we are constantly striving to develop our methods and find creative and innovative ways of engaging pupils. Pupils who have strong links to their learning community (class and school), who have teachers with the resources, creativity and freedom to respond to their individual learning needs in a practical way, are less likely to become disenchanted with education. Objectives: To share and develop planning and teaching practices which build learning communities where each individual can feel fully integrated. With this as our guiding principle, we have planned activities which will aid raising standards in literacy, numeracy, foreign languages, social integration and employability skills. We will develop a portfolio of lesson plans with hands on activities and practical outcomes, and demonstrate lessons and outcomes in our international joint workshops. There are 6 partners involved in this Project: The schools in the UK, France, Germany and Hungary are coeducational Waldorf Schools for children aged 3 - 18, and the two schools in Turkey are TED schools, one for children aged 5 - 13, the other 14 - 18. The High School in Turkey and the Waldorf School in France have not been involved in a transnational project before. All schools give a high level of support to pupils with fewer opportunities, and we intend that the ratio of participants with such needs is the same or higher than that ratio throughout the partner schools. Methodology: Internal project activities (not mobilities) will take place in each school throughout the project years, during regular lesson times. Preparation in lesson time will lead to demonstration and practice in joint workshops, then feedback and evaluation will further inform lessons back home, making them more relevant to project objectives. Planned activities: - 3 project management meetings throughout the project, including a final meeting to discuss and plan dissemination of results and sustainability activities. - 10 short term joint workshops (7 days each) involving a total number of 343 grant funded and about 70 additional mobilities. Three of these will be language workshops in French, English and German on different themes, which pupils will have prepared in their foreign language lessons leading up to the mobility. The other workshops will take place in English and the themes are taken from the key skills areas: Literacy, numeracy, communication (friendship), employability and entrepreneurship. All workshops will build on, and demonstrate elements of, lessons which took place at the schools prior to the international meetings. In this way, reinforcement and sharing of our work in individual schools takes place on an international level. -7 exchanges for 6 weeks each, involving a total number of 40 pupils, with the objective of raising standards in foreign language learning, self confidence, ability to live in a foreign country, and employability. Teachers who accompany the students will themselves engage with teaching assignments which they will take back to their schools at home in order to introduce foreign language teaching into other subjects across the curriculum. -Staff training event: In the third year of the project we will put together our research, insights and new practices to create training resources for teachers, addressing areas such as classroom management, creative planning for lessons with practical outcomes and catering for individual needs within a class community. There will be 15 participants on the initial training event. Results: - Videos produced by students on the themes of the foreign language workshops. - A portfolio of lesson plans for the teaching of literacy, numeracy, foreign languages and sciences where pupils work towards a common goal and produce a practical outcome. - A collection of internal and external resources to support teachers in making better provision for all pupils, including those who lack connection to their work and peers and/or are in danger of early school leaving; staff training resources for the wider teaching community beyond the partner schools on these areas. Potential long term benefits : new methods integrated into practice throughout the partner schools which will produce better engagement from pupils with low ability in key skills; more understanding for pupils with disengagement issues, and confident use of resources to support them better. The website, which will continue to be maintained and updated, will provide a valuable resource for teachers and educationalists throughout the world as well as raising awareness of the benefits of the Erasmus Plus programme.