This project is in line with International Affairs Strategy of Education Department of the Town of Lappeenranta. There it is stated that we aim at creating and maintaining international contacts as well participating in different types of international projects. Furthermore, this project supports our need to update the professional expertise of our personnel according to our new national curriculum. Lauritsalan koulu has not applied for KA1 grant earlier despite the fact that our school has had other types of international activities i.e. Comenius projects, school visits and internationalisation at home (exchange students' visits etc). These courses will enhance our teachers' professional expertise in their own subjects as well support the mastering of cross-disciplinary work on school level, and they will also increase teachers' ability to act in an international context. In the future we expect to see that the example of the teachers attending the courses this time will encourage others to participte in similar courses. All the teachers in our school were offered a chance to apply for a course in another EU country. This time seven teachers came forward with a specific course that they wanted to attend. Three of these teachers are primary school teachers who wish to upgrade their digital competence not only for their own use but also for the benefit of the whole school, and in order to help them to participate in their KA2 project that concentrates on web platforms in school surroundings. Other teachers applying for the courses are from the secondary level of our school and they hope to find support in developing the teaching of foreign languages according to the new national curriculum. On one hand, this means learning about new methods (for English), and on the other acquiring a totally new language. This is because in the new local curriculum each secondary school is to offer Spanish as an optional foreign language. Teachers apply a grant for courses that are either five or six days long. The courses are held in Italy, Malta, the United Kingdom and Spain. We are applying the grant for 12 months now and hopefully the example of the teachers participating this time will encourage other teachers to take part, perhaps even so much so we can reapply for this grant next year. We also hope that our students find teachers' attending international courses abroad encouraging and inspiring to the extend that they also wish to participate in international projects in our school and are open-minded towards any other opportunities to make international contacts outside school.