START - A good start for all: Sustaining TrAnsitions across the Early Years

Scientific coordinator Prof. Lucia Balduzzi

Project Team: Arianna Lazzari; Michela Schenetti; Patrizia Rampioni.

Applicant: The Educational Research Institute (SL)

Partners: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna (IT); Pen Green Research Base (UK); Vernieuwing In De Basisvoorzieningen Voor Jonge Kinderen (BE); Direzione Didattica di Vignola (IT); OS Tisina (SL); Rockingham Primary School (UK); Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Primary (UK); Kinderdagverblijf Mezennestje vzw (BE); Kolva vzw SMI Basis Moorselbaan (BE).

N.ro Partners: 10

UNIBO’s role: partner

Project Duration (in months): 30

Start Date: 01/09/2016

End Date: 30/04/2019

Status: closed

Total Budget: 349.137 euro

EDU Budget: 58.000 euro

Project’s Topics: ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) and the Transition to Compulsory School Education

Description: In line with European Commission priorities, the general objectives of the project are:

- to ensure a good start in education for all children, by enhancing the quality of ECEC and by ensuring that the benefits of ECEC are carried through to other school education levels;

- to support teachers to adopt new methods and tools for dealing with complex classroom realities and diversified groups of learners.

In the context of the needs identified at local and transnational level by the partners involved, the project proposal aims to develop innovative approaches, methodologies and tools for facilitating children’s transitions across home, ECEC services and school institutions.

Within this framework, the specific objectives of the project are:

1) to examine existing transition practices with different focuses at each project location in order to take into account the diversified needs of target groups in each context;

2) to involve teachers, families and local stakeholder in designing innovative practices for smoothening transitions, with special attention paid to the school success of children facing complex situations (eg. socio-economic disadvantage) and to the engagement of families at risk of social exclusion (eg. Roma);

3) to increase the competence of ECEC/school professionals by involving them in action-research and experimentation projects, with the support provided by experienced researchers;

4) to promote the educational innovation of ECEC and school institutions by experimenting new pedagogical approaches and educational methodologies that support children – especially those who are most at risk of school failure – in facing successfully transition processes;

5) to identify principles of good practices that could contribute to trans-national exchange and learning as well as to the improvement of educational policies at local, regional, national and EU level.