The short training event on promoting the health of students and staff in Education took place in Silves, Portugal at 06-08 September 2022.
The short training event on promoting the health of students and staff in Education was completed with great success in Silves, Portugal. The training took place within the framework of the European project Erasmus+ “Whole school Approach for Youth with migrant background” (WAY) – way-project.eu.
In total, more than sixty teachers and trainers from Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Poland participated in the meeting.
The purpose of the meeting was to promote the health of students and teachers through school units as a necessary component of the educational process, in order to reduce school leakage. More special mention was made for students with an immigrant background. Through interactive and experiential activities, the trainees participated in a three-day training in the above subject in order to transfer the specific knowledge and practices to their school units and to reorganize their approaches to the specific field.
The meeting started with the welcome of the participants by the Director of the school unit Agrupamento Escolas Silves (aesilves.pt) Mr. Antonio Martins, who hosted the training meeting, the presentation of the three-day agenda by the coordinator of the project Gabriele Sospiro and continued with the presentation of all participating countries and their actions.
This was followed by the detailed description of the project and its objectives (Gabriele Sospiro) as well as the requirements-need analysis (Vittorio Lanuti). The participants were then divided into groups and attended lessons and activities related to the following topics:
- Self-esteem, anxiety and social pressure
- Participation of parents in the school unit
- Initial integration of students into the school community
- Information and access to health services
The lessons and educational activities continued on the second day of the meeting, while on the third day, the professor of the Biccocca University of Milan, Mrs. Veronica Velasco, presented the diagnostic tool to capture the situation in the school units regarding the promotion of health in the school. Also through interactive activities, the participants at the end suggested ways in which they can improve and promote health through the school. This was followed by the presentation of a related article that has been written after a questionnaire survey in the participating schools in the project. The program was concluded with the presentation of the project website as well as with the evaluation of the educational meeting. The heads of the participating organizations renewed their appointment for Italy, in an international meeting to disseminate (Multiplier Event) the results of the WAY project with more than a hundred guests.
As far as the expected results are concerned, by the end of the project we will have achieved two types of results. As for the first type and in the long term WAY project will have contributed in having promoted the social inclusion of people coming from a migrant and low socio-economic background and having contributed in reducing the early school leaving for students of migrant origin. On the other hand, coming to the second type of expected results, i.e. tangible results, the WAY project will have supported 60 teachers, educators, youth workers in developing the competences of the whole-school approach.
It should be noted that in addition to the educational activities and lessons, the participants visited the town hall of the city of Silves and met with the Mayor where she warmly welcomed them. They also visited the museum and the castle of the city.
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