The reason for our project arose from a visit by the Department of Education inspector who was unsatisfied with the level of teaching and subject knowledge of our teachers. He recommended that one way of addressing this issue was to encourage teachers to attend professional development courses in all subject areas of the curriculum. A further survey of our teachers also revealed that they were lacking in confidence and knowledge around certain subject areas. Attendance at an annual professional development course is now a necessary requirement in order for a teacher to maintain their registration on the teaching council of Ireland register.We researched the large amount of professional development courses that are found on the schooleducationgateway.eu website and we believe that taking part in these courses can help improve professional development in our school. It will help us address the teacher short comings that were identified by the Department of Education Inspectors visit and the necessary training that teachers require in order to improve their subject knowledge and teaching skills.All teachers were invited to take part in the project and over 75% of teachers in the school have signed up to take part.The specific aims of the project include:1.Firstly we hope to improve teachers knowledge and confidence in all subject areas by encouraging teachers to attend professional development courses.2. A core part of our school improvement plan (SIP) and school self evaluation (SSE) is to strive to improve all areas of our school by encouraging staff to attend professional development whenever it is available.By attending Erasmus professional development courses, staff will continue to upskill and improve their knowledge.3. The Teaching Council of Ireland are presently proposing that teachers should attend professional development courses and that this should be a requirement as part of a teachers ability to maintain their professional teacher registration. By attending the Erasmus plus courses, we hope that our staff will improve their subject knowledge, teaching ability and hopefully also their registration requirement.3.Staff survey and staff efficacy ( confidence) levels in their own training . An internal staff survey conducted amongst staff in our school revealed that over 95% of staff in our school would like further training in some aspect of the primary school curriculum . Having looked through the available courses on the Erasmus plus database, 90% of our staff would like to avail of training courses that were on the school education gateway database. Most of the teachers felt that this training could provide them with new ideas and teaching methods to enhance their teaching knowledge and skill level in the classroom.4.Teachers hope to use the courses to prepare themselves for the new language curriculum and new curriculum subjects and reviews that the NCCA ( National Council for Curriculum and Assessment) has introduced into Irish schools. 5.Help prepare staff for a new History and Geography Erasmus plus key action two project partnership with another European partner school. 6. Allowing staff to attend SEN courses to equip them with the skills and knowledge to improve their teaching skills when teaching children with Special educational needs. These Special Educational Needs (SEN) can be very specific and using the Erasmus plus funding will allow us to access the best possible expertise in the area of special educational needs.7. ICT was also identified as an area that 82% of the staff felt they required additional training . Having seen the high standard of courses provided by course providers our last Erasmus plus project, some staff are still very enthusiastic about attending ICT training in an effort to improve their standard of understanding and ICT skills. 8. The courses in school leadership will help the develop leadership ethos and expertise in all staff members. This will also be part of the school improvement plan.9. Hopefully the friendships and partnerships made with other European teachers during the Erasmus Key Action 1 project will provide the platform further E twinning and Key Action 2 Partnerships.On return from the courses teachers will disseminate what they have learned their colleagues. This will build a professional learning network in our school and make staff more enthusiastic towards professional developmentStandards of teaching will improve and hopefully standards of student learning will also improve. Teachers will be surveyed to establish improvements. The Department of Education Inspector will revisit the school to assess improvements. Teacher will measure improvements by comparing their pre course and post course template and rubric.