Our Connecting Classrooms to the European Space Project aims to develop teaching resources which will enable partners to engage whole school communities in the European curriculum. The Project aims to develop a Skills Audit Tool which assesses knowledge and understanding of Europe. This tool will be able to be used with whole school communities. The project also aims to produce European Learning Materials and resources which will be accessible on line to enable the delivery of a European curriculum in school. The Learning Materials will be themed around key topics such as family, local and national heritage, traditional cuisine, and celebrations. The partnership consists of 8 partners from 7 countries. All partners are schools and pupils range in age from 3 to 18 some having identified special additional needs. As a partnership we believe that all children in our school will benefit in some way however within each school there is an identified target group. As a result pupils aged 6 to 16 are the key focus as beneficiaries of the project. All partners are committed to developing a formal European curriculum and so each partner will develop their own European Development Plan which will ensure the sustaining of the project activities. A Project Website will be developed as a key tool for sharing information within and out with the project partnership, each school website will be utilized to share information and to signpost where to access information and a etwinning teachers room will be opened where information relating to the project will be accessible THE CORE OBJECTIVES are to: - develop an understanding of what it means to be a European Citizen - encourage our pupils to be sensitive to different cultures - develop a respect of the local, national and European heritage - encourage our pupils to be open minded and thoughtful towards others - celebrate similarities and be tolerant and understanding regarding our differences - develop independent learning skills - encourage our pupils to become self motivated learners - improve reading and writing skills - including the learning of English as a second language - integrate the use of Information Technology into the curriculum and improve pupils' competency with ICT - developing an understanding of being part of the the wider European Community amongst the wider school community eg parents, Governors, local dignatories - provide opportunities for staff to experience different cultures which will enable them to see things from a different perspective - enable staff to experience differencing approaches to teaching and learning -creation of a communication network during the Project which is accessible on an open access basis and can be sustained following the completion of the Project