On June 30, 2022, the international conference “The importance of developing socio-emotional education: good practices and trends” was held in Kaunas, Lithuania.

The event, which falls within the framework of the Erasmus + “Socio-emotional Capacity Building in Primary Education” (PS.smile) project, was organized by VŠĮ “eMundus”, the project leader. For the occasion, guests from Lithuania and the other partner countries attended the conference as speakers, offering very interesting insights on the implementation of socio-emotional learning in their countries, as well as providing participants with useful insights on other related topics, such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the promotion of mental health in schools.

The event was very well evaluated among the participants, who particularly appreciated the quality of the presentations and the topics addressed. It was a perfect opportunity to get more involved with the Lithuanian schools associated with the project. Teachers and principals who attended the conference had a great time and loved sharing their experiences and perspectives with experts from other European countries.

Conference program >>

Video of the conference: https://youtu.be/IJsRz8GyN5E

Between the 6th and the 9th of June, CuBu Foundation carried out a 2 half-day Multiplier Event in the cities of Rakovski and Dolna Banya, both in Bulgaria.

The event counted the participation of 42 members, who were able to deepen their knowledge in the field of socio-emotional education both thanks to the presentations given by the organizers, who spoke extensively about the activities and project outputs, and thanks to the practical activities prepared specifically for the event.

Participants were enthusiastic about the event, as they left extremely positive reviews in the evaluation questionnaires and expressed the desire to participate in more events of this type.

ARCIL organized 2 Multiplier Events.

One in Pampilhosa da Serra’s School Cluster (Portugal), on the 12th of July 2022. This event was planned as a specific training program for teachers and school assistants, relating the topics of Inclusive Education and Socio-emotional Learning (SEL). 

The second Multiplier Event took place in Cantanhede (Portugal) on the 19th of July. It was included in a professional training course about how to increase students’ educational success. The training involved pre-school, primary, and inclusive education teachers.

Both the events were divided into two sessions, one theoretical session, devoted to the illustration of the psSMILE project activities and results, and a practical session, during which teachers trained themselves on practical activities of Inclusive Education and SEL.

All in all, both events have been a success, as participating teachers showed a great interested in using and adapting the psSMILE within their daily activities. 

On the 6th of April 2022, the University of Padova organized the Multiplier Event “Developing life skills and active participation: the contribution of psSMILE project”. The event was organized online on Zoom and it was attended by over 80 participants, mostly teachers of primary and secondary education.

Attendees received extensive presentations on the psSMILE project activities, theoretical background, and results, which have been greatly appreciated by them. In addition, a practical activity of one hour was carried out, in order to help teachers exchange good practices on the topics addressed. 

The event, titled “Building Social-Emotional Skills together with teachers and parents. Experiences and developments in Italy of the Erasmus+ PSsmile project in primary school”, carried out within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA201 – Strategic Partnership project “Socio-emotional Capacity Building in Primary Education” (psSMILE), took place on the 21st June 2022 at the University of Padova, Italy The event saw the participation of 35 people, including the four speakers, but most teachers and school coordinators. In addition, the event also involved psychologists, and future teachers. The event took place in bilingual format (English and Italian ), thanks to the visual translation provided by the authors.

On the 6th of July 2022, Four Elements delivered a Multiplier Event in a blended format. The event was broadcasted on Zoom and also held face-to-face in the evening. Including the speakers, the event hosted over 70 people (29 in presence and 44 online). Participants were mostly primary education teachers (66.7%), followed by students (21.4%), parents (4.7%), and social workers/psychologists (2.4%). The remaining 4.8% did not identify in any of the previous categories.

The event delved deeply into the PSsmile project topics and activities, focusing mostly on the results attained by the project in Greece. All in all, it was a great success as most of the participants found the organization impeccable and the topics addressed very interesting.