8. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SCHOOLS

Coordinating school:

Școala cu clasele I-VIII „Matei Basarab” ("Matei Basarab" School) Târgoviște, Romania will be the coordinator of this project sharing all activities with both partners, cooperating in all stages of the project. Our school lies in the town of Târgoviște and is a medium-sized school. We teach about 610 students aged 6-15 years. They come from a variety of backgrounds such as stable families, divorced families, unemployed and migrants as well as children living in state institutions experiencing placement. There are about 60 SEN students integrated in ordinary classes but also working with specialised staff. Some students commute to school daily or weekly from the countryside. There are also students coming from multicultural families (such as Romanian and Chinese, Romanian and Turkish) as well as Roma ethnic students. We offer equal opportunities to all our students to get easily integrated, stimulate them in learning foreign languages and get to know other cultures and education systems and overcome different barriers.

Partner school 1:

Osnovna Škola „Pavle Rovinski” was founded in 1994. It is situated in Podgorica, the capital city of Montenegro. There are 1490 students, divided into in 51 classes. There is a pedagogue and psychologist. Within inclusive education which has been going on for nine years, there are now 5 students. 100 teachers work at our school. Our school has all the necessary equipment (computers, audio-visual equipment, musical instruments, sound system) for providing good education. It is involved in a great number of projects and has great cooperation with NGOs. Three languages English, Italian and Russian are studied at our school. It is member of UNICEF project, called „protecting from violence”. Our students are very successful in competitions of all subjects, especially Russian, Biology, Chemistry, mother tongue and Maths. It’s got a very good cooperation with the British organisation “Save the children” and this year it joined ENO - environment from Finland. It’s got a confession for protecting the environment, „BELLS”. It’s got its own magazine, called „Let” which is published on its birthday

Partner school 2:

Osnovna Škola „Stevan Nemanja” has 546 students. It’s got 2 separate 9 grades’ schools and a number of remote schools. Under Inclusive Education, the school has 10 students with special needs (students with learning difficulties with multiple development disorders) and works on their appropriate integration, having special curriculum for each subject. Although with poor teaching tools, the school has made several important achievements in Regional / Republic Competitions in English, Maths, German, Mother Tongue and Physical Education. The students have an e-mail exchange with a school from Finland, as a result of our active interaction with a LOT Team from Finland during their mandate in B&H. This school is open for all new ideas targeting at improvement of teaching and learning methods. Presently, the school is forming a collection of Mind Map presentation created by its teachers, to be shared by teachers from other schools in the region. Regular interactive classes in all subjects and workshops have prepared the students for their active involvement in decision making, preparing and implementing a project. The teachers have attended various trainings and seminars, among which the Training on Intercultural Education in November 2010 - project supported by MDG Achievement Fund.