This project, Back to OUR Future, aims to encourage pupils, staff and whole school communities to explore how we are currently living our lives within the context of the economical challenges that we currently face. It is generally perceived that money is hard earned and that basic life essentials, eg. food and petrol are all very expensive. Similarly on the environmental side, there are global worries about nature, climate change, trade, globalism and agricultural methods which are constantly reported in the news. Traditional knowledge of making things, growing our own food, land use and agricultural methods are being rapidly lost, even in rural areas where they have been a part of the way of life for centuries. In this project we hope to engage our school communities in a real and important exploration of how we are living today. We want to raise awareness of how our rush to progress and improve has actually lost us many of the basic skills necessary for day to day living and general ‘life maintenance’. We aim in this project to re-skill our pupils and educate our school communities with many of the essential life skills and values that we have lost like making things with our hands, entertaining ourselves with games, dance and songs, grow food and know, where it comes from, improve the land,have small businesses, which care for the environment, recycling, and zero emmissions and care for the community.. Our key objectives involve developing: 1. enterprise in both individuals and school communities 2. a connection between the cause and effect of global issues 3. healthy, active lifestyles to support general health and wellbeing 4. a 'can do' approach to making things happen in our lives and communities 5. inclusion for students of all ability levels 6. exciting 'bigger learning' experiences with real outcomes involving the work of individuals and communities 7. a sense of our past heritage and of the skills of those who went before us 8. the learning of a foreign language with a real connection to the country of origin 9. the linking of confidence, real skills, enterprise and connection to European Citizenship and cultural diversity 10. innovative, creative teaching and learning experiences with a focus on staff professional development and pupil choice 11. the use of ICT to link and connect European school communities 12. motivation, improved competences and confidence in all of our school community stakeholders The project is designed to continue the excellent and exciting work of an already established group of ten partner schools (plus one associate partner – Belarus). The partnership formed under the Comenius programme and has established a supportive group of stakeholders with different cultural and religions backgrounds who value the work, aims and vision of the group as a whole. There is a strong European Citizenship dimension to our group ‘thinking’ and whilst the partners all have their own curriculums to deliver we have enjoyed celebrating and exploring our diversity. The challenges faced across the profile of the school group include urban and city challenges and remote rural isolation issues.The schools range from small two teacher rural schools to large multi-stage city schools.The project includes up to 80 teachers / staff and about 500 pupils. Each school will make a plan for term one in partnership with pupils to take forward the four main skill areas: Making Things (Making toys, gifts, food, clothes, seasonal produce, art from natural finds, etc 2. Growing things linked to Global Eco Work (Gardening, nature work and connecting with nature, local and global issues. Connecting with seasons and seasonal activities.) 3. Entertaining Ourselves (Rediscovering traditional games, songs, dances and hobbies, learning the Greek Alphabet.) 4. Saving and Trading (Bank of Comenius, trading, saving and a reward / value system, Blue Economy ) The above plan will be repeated each term with the skill level increasing and connecting with the activities taking place around the project theme and will be referred to as The Four Skills Plan. The 7 workshops will give the students the opportunity to exchange their knowledge, work on the topics and grow together into a European community.