SOFT Project: School and Family Together for the Integration of Immigrant Children

Immigrant and native children attending the same school will learn languages together and teachers will collaborate with immigrant and native families.
40 schools, 80 teachers and 800 children from 5 different countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland) will participate in the project for three years, from December 2012 to November 2015. Language learning will be based on the Narrative Format approach, an educational programme resulting from previous European projects, which forms the theoretical underpinning of the method known as “Hocus & Lotus”. This method has proved to be effective for foreign language learning in pre-primary and primary schools as well as within the family environment.
The goals of the project are:
• To improve the language abilities of all children involved (in the language of the host country, in the languages of immigrant children or learning all togeher a new one).
• To facilitate social integration through different collaborative activities shared by families and teachers.
• To strengthen the relationships between school and families for the benefit of children and future school success.