Project of the Primary school  “Joakim Krcoski”:
Inclusive education – creating equal opportunities for everyone

Specific project’s objectives

• To promote the cooperation of pupils with different ethnic backgrounds and teachers with parents of different ethnic groups
• To increase the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs – with disabilities in their psychological, physical and intellectual development, of talented pupils and pupils from marginalized groups 
• To adjust the curricular and extracurricular activities according to the needs of the pupils, by implementing technological aids and by upgrading the capacity of the school’s equipment

Project’s main activities:

Activities for multi-ethnic collaboration of pupils, teachers and parents

• Jointly celebrating religious holidays:  teachers will have 4 workshops with 44 first grade pupils to celebrate holidays with the help of their parents. Parents will prepare food and serve it in domastic way, just as at home.
• Eight Art  workshops, organized by pupils’ Art club, will have ice breaking games on multicultural cooperation and overcoming prejudices. After games, pupils will paint works on Multicultural cooperation and exhibit them on the School Day. Participants are 35 pupils  between the 6th and 9th grade from central and satelite school.
• Brochure “Early Childhood Customs of the population in Volkovo, Nikistani and Orman”. The brochure will be prepared by three teachers and 40 pupils from all ethnic groups, from 7th to 9th grade. They have already started the reasearch on customs of various  ethnical groups  which  will last until November, 30  2014.  Printing the brochure will be finnanced by the project on inclusion and publicly promoted on an event where representatives from the municipality and other schools.
• Games Without Frontiers will include about  250 pupils from second to fifth grade  and 15 teachers. There are no winners in the games, jJust fun and multicultural cooperation, promoting  friendship of pupils and teachers.
• Classes in three languages: Albanian/English/ Macedonian and Macedonian/ Albanian/ French
  About 180 pupils from the 6th to the 9th grade willhave opportunity to celebrate birthday, holiday, religious dates and similar on three languages. On that ocasions, the entire class from the Central school would visit the Satellite school and vice versa, They will have lessons in Macedonian, Albanian and English or French with having fun and multi ethnical cooperation.
• A leaflet ‘Know the others – know yourself’ – in Macedonian and Albanian, with a short summary in English, will be prepared by  40 pupils and four teachers in charge,  while  6 teachers will be proof-reading texts in Albanian, Macedonian and English.

Increasing the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs – with disabilities in their psychological, physical and intellectual development, of talented pupils and of pupils that are from marginalized groups :

• Trainings for teachers:
  • - Working with children with autism:  15 members of school staff,  2 days training, 2 trainers
  • - Working with talented pupils: 15 members of school staff, 2 days of training, 2 trainers,
  • - Working with pupils with intellectual disabilities and pupils with attention and focus deficit.15 members of school staff, 2 days of training, 2 trainers
• Organising dissemination in the school for 40 teachers and school staff who did not attend the training.  There will be organized 3 disseminations each stated for 2 days. The teachers have to implement the knowledge from the training in their work at school.
• Monitoring and evaluating: The Principal and the Deputy Principal with School`s Inclusive Team and school`s Psychologist will visit the classes of trained teachers. Analyses of the classes, its strengths and weaknesses,  will be in the School`s Annual Report.

Cooperating with NGOs and Parents’ Associations, that will provide: 

• Training parents of children with special educational needs Where to ask for medical assisance and financial gelp
• Training school staff for using assistive technology and aids that will be purchased
• Foundation Open The Gates will provide the training for using technology free of charge.

Upgrading inclusion with purchaced equipment adjusted to the needs of pupils: 

• Keyboards and computer mice for pupils that are visually impaired and pupils with motor disabilities,
• Specialized toys for exercises for children with motor disabilities,  didactic games and materials for stimulating the intellectual and creative development of the pupils, an 8 CD educational software set
• Materials and equipment necessary for project’s implementation: electronic board, LCD projector, 2 sets of track ball clicks and a joy stick for children with undeveloped fine motor skills, 2 photocopiers, paper, toners, flip charts.

Project’s target groups

• Direct beneficiaries:  554 pupils between the ages of 6 and 15, and 27 parents - all members of the Parents’ Council.  
• Indirect beneficiaries:  41 teachers and 4 expert associates: the Principal and the Deputy Principal, parents and the local community