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The project EDINA - EDucation of International Newly Arrived migrant pupils - has been developed by Emmanuelle le Pichon-Vorstman and Venhar Sariaslan. It brought together policy makers, schools and researchers from Finland (Helsinki), Belgium (Ghent) and The Netherlands (Rotterdam and Utrecht). This project finished succesfully in September 2018. In September 2019 a follow up of EDINA has started, with, partially, new partners. This new project brings together policy makers, schools and reserarchers from Belgium (Ghent and Liège), the United Kingdom (Leeds), Spain (Oviedo) and The Netherlands (Rotterdam and Utrecht).

The main objective of EDINA is to provide support to municipalities, schools and teachers in the reception and the integration into the school system of newcomer pupils. The high inflow of newcomers in and within Europe implies that schools are experiencing a constant increase in the numbers of pupils who do not master the school language. This situation creates a heavy challenge for the European school system. Against this background, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of successful reception of newcomers at their new schools in order to facilitate optimal integration.

Three Member States provide education for children and adolescents regardless of their residential status. However, criteria regarding the reception, duration of special schooling, transition to regular or to secondary school, constitution of learning environments, and instructional background of teachers greatly vary within and between the countries. At present it is unknown which of these different approaches are most effective. There is thus a high need to identify the most successful strategies to improve the education of newcomers and to make this knowledge available in order to empower schools across Europe with the ultimate goal to improve the prospects of this vulnerable group of pupils.

Our project will develop a multimodular programme. This programme will include:

• a training module to develop specific teachers’ skills and (intercultural) competences,
• a training module to promote active differentiation within the classroom,
• and a tool set and resource base to optimize the reception, observation and transition processes of newcomers.

A particular strength of our program is that it is be developed by an interdisciplinary team including schoolteachers, school boards, municipalities, and researchers from pedagogy, didactic, intercultural communication and second language acquisition and is to be used by teachers, schools, municipalities and policy makers. It is based on a thorough qualitative analysis of the situation of newcomers (age 6-18) in the educational system of the three countries involved.

Our goals are:
(1) to reduce disparities preventing under or over referral to specialized care, proposing adequate strategies and activities to help teachers, schools and municipalities to support these children,
(2) to increase the efficiency of investment in the education of newcomers supporting the development of management programs for this group at city level and,
(3) to strengthen education and training paths of school staff fostering the collaboration between schools, municipalities, and researchers nationally and internationally.

With this program, we aim to ensure that newcomers may access the level of education that corresponds to their cognitive possibilities in order to reduce early school leaving and to support excellent schooling attainment.