The Northampton Primary Academy Trust Partnership (NPAT) is a collaboration of the 6 primary schools.With responsibility for approximately 2400 children across Northampton, NPAT is driven by a vision of innovation, high aspiration and achievement, and a commitment to sport and the arts. This approach is encapsulated in our motto:‘Extraordinary Children Doing Extraordinary Things’ NPAT schools all share this common vision and are committed to these principles, whilst retaining the freedom to innovate and develop their own identity and character. The Partnership is built on the principle of synergy; that a collaboration of vibrant and successful schools ensures that we can achieve collectively what a single school couldn’t achieve alone. NPAT improves our schools using collaboration and innovation through partnership working that brings together children, parents, teachers and school leaders, and the wider community. We strongly believe and affirm that ‘My school is your school; your children are ‘our’ children.’ We believe that investing in our children and our school is paramount to developing a harmonious society fulfilling the requirements of a an ever fast changing community.Within the partnership, our schools have differing strengths and needs at different times and all schools are committed to an ethos of mutual support and sharing of practice which is at heart of the work led by the trust. We recognise the important of growing within a multicultural environment and therefore we identify the importance of developing our ethos incorporating values of empathy, sharing, cultural diversity and a belief that we we can all contribute to developing our community both at local and European/ international level.Therefore our project our main objectives are to:* Develop new methodologies across the curriculum* Make links with schools in Europe* Develop further child initiated learning and implement and enhance the creativity in schools* Develop outdoor learning * Develop children's understanding of global issues and implement strategies that support it* Enhance the use of the outdoors to strengthen provision and to develop it further * Further enthuse staff and their motivation* Develop cross trust effective practice * Develop intercultural understanding in view of breaking down barriers through social changes We aim to achieve our objective by undergoing structured training courses in 3 different countries, Italy, Finland and Sweden. We foresee a total of 49 staff out of around 330 staff in total. The opportunities chosen are:* Creative teaching in Early Years and Pre-school education – Italy * Leadership in education: The Finnish education system – Finland* Forest Schools - FinlandThe trust will set up criteria for selecting staff for each course and in line with motivation of staff and ability to implement and drive changes in their practice and across the school and the trust. The trust will select teams of staff from each school ( practitioners teaching and non-teaching) based on position and motivation to implement changes in school, their experience and expertise from new in their position to experience staff who can support the development within their school and across the trust.Amongst the staff selected we foresee:* leaders from each school ( deputy and head) * non-teaching staff supporting the delivery of the curriculum* early years teams* leaders of forest schoolsThe project will impact on our schools, pupils, wider community on different levels.We hope that through our structured approach to staff mobilities and innovation and implementation work at local level as a result of this project, the following will be achieved: * better understanding of creative methods in teaching and learning * Enhanced Early Years and Pre-school provision* Develop leadership skills, styles & approaches * Enhanced leadership skills and \* Improved management skills in order to operate within an international setting* Cultural and up-to-date knowledge of the country and their curriculum provision* Increased awareness of ICT tools * Ability to work collaboratively within a European context through sharing of good practice and links* An increased level of understanding of teaching techniques and methods* Ability to work collaboratively with others* Become a reflective practitioner* Developed knowledge and understanding of the education systems in other countries in order to broaden our own understanding of practices and policies* Increased competencies within own practice* Established links with other schools abroadWe believe that accessing these opportunities provides the ideal setting for training within a European context fostering appreciation and understanding of other countries, languages and education systems. The European added value and the collaboration opportunities available through this programme are certainly unique in the field long term benefits