Fundatia EuroEd (www.euroed.ro) from Iasi is the promoter of the SMILE Model in Romania.
After the Training of Trainers (ToT) in Bulgaria, the SMILE team from EuroED embarked on the translation and adaptation of the “One School For All” Model to the Romanian context.
The SMILE team from EuroEd Foundation organised a focus group session with mainstream teachers, psychologists, speech therapists, support teachers and counsellors from several schools from Iasi, our city. After getting familiar with the “One School For All” Model and its self-assessment instrument the participants were invited to reflect on inclusive education and the application of the “One School For All” model to the Romanian context.
We contacted principals and counsellors from several schools and invited them to EuroED headquarters to present the project and its idea (inclusive education) and discuss their participation in the SMILE project. The schools we contacted are among our partners interested in creating an inclusive education environment and enhancing the quality of education in schools.
We chose three schools: two from the suburbs and one in the centre having a diverse background of the families (Roma, very young families who live abroad, well-off; poor, international).
Considering the context (the school year makes it difficult to have common trainings with all 30 participants) we planned to have two training sessions in each of the three selected schools and a final common one during the winter holiday (October- December 2019/ January 2020).
The three team members from EuroED (Elza Gheorghiu, Cosmina Paraschiv si Loredana Danaila) delievered the Smile training course to a group of 30 principals, teachers, and specialists. The training sessions were organized as workshops encouraging active participation and accompanied by the implementation of the ideas presented in the training session by each school. This strategy enabled schools to immediately apply to their context what they had been trained and then to discuss this with the other participants at the next sessions with a view to sharing their experience and improving it.
The participants were enthusiastic about the Model, especially its self-assessment instrument which allowed them to assess their school inclusive environment and devise an action plan to enhance the quality of their work in their school. They were confident that it will help them to improve the existing situation and implement inclusive principles in their own context (considering the four levels of indicator achievement).
A SMILE Facebook group was created where teachers could share their experiences and keep in contact with each other.\
The SMILE Project is:
