LET´S CARE: BUILDING SAFE AND CARING SCHOOLS TO FOSTER EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT

Project Information

LET´S CARE

Grant agreement ID: 101059425

DOI

10.3030/101059425

EC signature date 3 June 2022

Start date 1 October 2022

End date 30 September 2026

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 953 671,88

EU contribution

€ 2 953 668,25

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDAD PONTIFICIA COMILLAS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LET´S CARE (LET´S CARE: BUILDING SAFE AND CARING SCHOOLS TO FOSTER EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT)

Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

LET'S CARE investigates how socio-emotional (in)security significantly influences students' educational opportunities from early childhood through secondary school and beyond, and how building Safe School relationships can be a decisive tool to counteract educational disadvantage, especially for the more vulnerable groups.
The project is conceived as: a) multistage, including four different educational stages (ECEC, primary, lower and upper secondary and Second Chance); b) multilevel, framing 4 ecological levels or pillars (Individual – Safe Learning; Relational – Safe Teaching; Community – Safe School; and Policy – Safe Education); c) intersectional, and looking into the impact of gender, ethnicity - especially Roma children-, migrant background, socioeconomic status, (dis)ability and (non)parental care; and d) with a European scope, considering the diversity of educational contexts (PL, LT, BG, IT, SP, PT). These features will be placed at the core of the research design and will be the basis for developing a theoretical model of Safe Education, which will be defined and empirically validated.
LET´S CARE will implement a holistic and co-creative methodological approach, to translate research findings into policy and practice. The project will involve more than 120 schools, 18,000 students, and 2,400 teachers from six EU countries in qualitative and quantitative data collection to develop diagnostic tools for intervention, evidence-based policy recommendations, raise awareness on safe/caring schools, and combating social exclusion of disadvantaged learners. These outputs can be replicated universally, with an impact on populations at risk of educational disadvantage and adapted at the EU level.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During this implementation period, the LET’S CARE project successfully engaged and collaborated with communities that safeguarded its bottom-up approach, including 171 schools, 14 members of a driving group, 12 members of national coordinating educators, and 5 policymakers, along with 6 members of a newly formed team for the fieldwork supervision. These structures have supervised the theoretical model's rootedness in real-world needs and contributed to the model’s validation by involving 51 international experts in the Delphi study and participating in the measurement instruments validation through cross-cultural committees and workshops. School ethnographies have been completed to refine the theoretical model co-created with these communities, and quantitative data collection has begun to validate the model with empirical evidence. The design phase is completed and has met the ethical and legal requirements for school implementation in 2025.
Communication and dissemination efforts have run parallel with the project's technical actions. An integrated online website now hosts the LET’S CARE Hub and is the meeting point for the project’s network of stakeholders. At present, the project teams are focused on developing diagnosis and intervention tools to be hosted in this Hub, including two screening indexes for socioemotional security and early drop-out risk, a comprehensive teacher training program with 14 modules, a safe teaching toolkit for teachers, and a certification system for schools.
All these achievements have been possible thanks to the militainment of strong management practices, ensuring rigorous data handling, continuous risk assessments, and compliance with ethical standards in data collection from vulnerable individuals.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

LET’S CARE has significantly impacted scientific, societal, and economic/innovation. In terms of scientific impact, an innovative theoretical framework with a rigorous measurement approach has been developed, and ongoing data collection is expected to generate large-scale scientific evidence to inform policy and practice. Additionally, educational tools are being developed to diagnose and address relational factors affecting academic achievement and engagement.
In terms of societal impact, LET’S CARE has engaged 24 organizations in its stakeholder network, 171 schools and 5 experts in its PMAB. In addition, the model development involved 51 international experts globally, as well as students, and educators in each LET’S CARE country. In addition, the LET’S CARE outcomes have been widely disseminated through newsletters, social media, and academic channels.
The economic/innovation impact includes one published scientific paper and two more under review. The development of educational tools will enhance practical applications in schools, supporting teachers and policymakers in fostering student engagement.
The refinement of the theoretical model and the validation and piloting of the LET’S CARE tools in the next period will allow the uptake of the LET’S CARE outcomes, exploring their scalability through commercialization and IPR support, and further disseminating and adopting these outcomes internationally.

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