Clare Education Centre is one of a national network of 30 Education Centres charged by the Irish Dept of Education and Skills with providing Continuing Professional Development for teachers in all the Republic of Ireland’s schools. Clare Education Centre itself is responsible for in-service training for all 140 schools in Co. Clare at both Primary and Post Primary Level. In-service training is delivered in a variety of ways – these include day release for teachers, evening classes and on-line resources. The schools involved in this project have a particular interest in retention of pupils and have been involved in a number of school improvement projects in conjunction with Clare Education Centre. The schools in this consortium have developed a common European Development plan with a firm focus on school improvement in conjunction with the Education Centre and the retention of pupils who are likely to drop out of school. The main areas of improvement for the consortium are as follows. - develop an understanding among the school principal of international best practice in school leadership and management , especially in the context of preventing dropout at an early stage. - supporting the professional development of staff within each school by opening up an international dimension. - examine new methods of teaching and learning using ICT to enhance and enliven the Curriculum and thus encourage reluctant pupils in their learning. -explore and disseminate the best practice among Regional Education Centres in Europe in providing first hand experience and examples of how a school can cope with a wide variety of nationalities, with particular reference to the Romany minority. - to raise staff awareness and understanding of other cultures and countries, offering them the opportunity to build networks of international contacts. We have a consortium of 7 - Clare Education Centre is the lead/ co-ordinating partner. There are 6 Primary schools involved - Ennis Ns, Clarecastle NS, Scariff Central NS , Corofin NS, Gaelscoil Michil Ciosog, Holy Family NS. All 7 have agreed to attend an inservice course during 2015 and /or 2016. The inservice to cover the area of ELS/ dropout /absenteeism and school improvement strategies in dealing with this issue. It is hoped that the mobility will allow the participating teachers access to a much wider variety of methodologies and approaches than they could normally access. It will lead to reduced absenteeism and ESL as a result of new and innovative approaches to this issue , developed in tandem with our European Partners. The long term effect will be to show clear improvements in participating schools in ESL and also a greater knowledge approaches to the issue in the region as a whole.