The project ' Step Forward ' was planned by our teacher team in the form of an European development plan of the institution we work in. The main aim of this plan is to improve the overall quality of teaching in our school. We focused on several issues: the development of language competence among the teachers (and consequently the students), improving the processes of teaching in our school, as well as promoting tolerance and European integration. The actions: The project assumes training courses abroad for teachers, who will be sharing gained skills and knowledge on trainings and workshops in their own school. Thus, the benefits of the courses will be applicable not only to the teachers, but also to the students, the school and the local society. Moreover, the courses will give an opportunity to start cooperation with other international institutions and organizations promoting Europe and foreign language learning. The project context: We are an educational institution in which the great majority of students come from rural areas. In our school there are a lot of gifted children, who are involved in a variety of extracurricular activities, since it is often the only chance for them to gain additional knowledge. Due to the place they live in, the students have limited access to other educational institutions (language schools, courses, workshops) so we try to satisfy these needs as much as possible. In our school there is also a group of students from poor families with problems. There is also quite a large group of children whose parents went abroad to work. Under these circumstances, we feel obliged to ensure equal opportunities to young people from our school comparing their peers from big cities. We would also like to use the potential of our students as much as possible. We know from experience that our students are motivated to learn and they do not lack enthusiasm in participating in the additional activities which are beyond the regular school lessons. The only problem is students' prejudices and language barriers resulting not only from the lack of their skills, but their low self-esteem and little experience. The aims: The aim of the project is a multilateral development of our school and improvement of the quality of its work including European priorities. The areas to improve include: - foreign language teaching (methods and techniques, the real-life contexts, intrinsic motivation, language use, communication with native speakers of a given language); - developing students' knowledge about different countries, their cultures and their openness towards Europe; - improving our institution by using modern technologies in teaching (ICT, project work, multimedia tools, learning by experience); - giving the activities of our school a European dimension through cooperation with other European schools and enabling the students to get in touch with the peers from all over Europe (including the teachers of different subjects to cooperation and execution of the projects). The participants: There are four teachers qualified to participate in the project. Two English teachers are willing to participate in methodological courses aiming to improve and modernize their teacher skills. Moreover, two teachers (of Polish and Geography) want to participate actively in the current execution of the international projects in our school and accordingly they need to improve their skills in using English as a foreign language. They are both motivated and experienced. After completing the training courses, we plan to continue our actions through cooperation with the schools abroad. We also plan to involve the majority of the teachers and workers of our school in the project. During the execution of the tasks we are going to act using project work and all the available ICT tools which enable us to contact other partners in the project (multimedia tools, oral and written communication, eTwinning space, social networks, video conferences). The results: We expect the results of the project will improve the quality of foreign language teaching in our school. We assume that all introduced changes and innovations, new didactic materials, effective methods of active teaching and ways of developing certain students' skills will contribute to increasing students' language efficiency. In addition, the opportunity to contact peers from different European countries will increase their motivation. The teachers of different subjects will significantly extend the scope of our participation in different international projects. The above changes will be a step forward to development and modernization of our institution and the undertaken cooperation will make our school more European. All these activities will have a positive impact on the overall education of our students and will ensure their better preparation to enter the European labour market.