This project focused on improving equality of opportunities for children with special educational needs. The support was aimed at children from several children’s homes who are generally known for leaving the process of formal education early. The project included an extracurricular English language course or individual tutoring.

Key activities were designed to be enjoyable and educative for children and to strengthen students’ motivation and ambitions. The Department of Special Education at the Jan Amos Komensky University was the project partner to guarantee quality of the key activities and the work with the target group. The project ran in the following organizations:

• Private children’s home Korkyně,
• Children’s home Lety,
• Children’s home Na Celně 2, Mladá Boleslav,
• Children’s home Nymburk,
• Children’s home Unhošť.

The main objective of the project was to use improvement in children’s language abilities and motivation via individual tutoring to increase equality of their opportunities and improve their integration to prevent leaving the process of formal education early. The main emphasis was on strengthening students’ competences and motivation towards education. The attractiveness of the extracurricular English language course and the friendly relationships between the tutors and the students were very important aspects of the project.

Conclusion of the project:

Besides support for children, the project outcomes include teaching materials for an extracurricular course. In the case of individual tutoring, there was a handbook for individual tutors on how to work with this target group, which was complemented with experience gained during the project implementation.

Outputs:

FELCMANOVÁ, Lenka, TOMAIDESOVÁ, Lenka (2012). Handbook for personal teachers.  (download pdf in Czech)

Project team: Libor Pacovský