Project overview
The SPARK project (acronym for: Spark: Igniting the confidence and capacity of school leaders, teachers and parents in providing quality Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) to childre ) is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in School Education (KA220-SCH).
The project addresses the critical need to enhance the confidence and capacity of school communities—specifically school leaders, teachers, and parents—in delivering and supporting high-quality Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for children. By developing and implementing training courses across five European countries, SPARK aims to empower whole-school communities to adopt quality CSE practices. The project will utilize the European approach to micro-credentials to ensure sustainable impact.
Objectives
The overall objective of the SPARK project is to develop and implement high-quality training courses to maximize the potential of truly Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) by enhancing the confidence and capacity of school leaders, teachers, and parents.
Key specific activities include:
- Exchanging CSE expertise and knowledge among the 8 partner organizations.
- Conducting national needs assessments (interviews and focus groups) with target groups in the five partner countries to inform the content of all training resources.
- Creating an extensive CSE curricula resource bank.
- Developing and delivering three training modules, two micro-credential courses, and a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
- Disseminating project outputs via a dedicated website, articles, and an online transnational conference.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The project focuses on building capacity within the entire school community across the five participating countries.
- The direct target groups for training and resources are:
- School Leaders (estimated 500 participants)
- In-service Teachers (estimated 650 participants)
- Pre-service Teachers (estimated 500 participants)
- Parents (estimated 500 participants)
- Trainers (estimated 100 participants), who will help sustain the project’s results post-funding.
Partners
The project is implemented by an 8-partner multidisciplinary consortium from 5 European countries (Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, and Italy).
Consortium partners
• DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY (DCU) — Dublin, Ireland
• ASFALI XENIASTA PEDIA TORA (AXEPT) — Rethymno, Greece
• EPISTIMONIKI ENOSI — EKPEDEFTIKIS, TECHNOLOGIKIS, POLITISTIKIS — KENOTOMIAS & SYNERGASIAS (Labstem)—Lamia, Greece
• UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA (NOVA) — Lisbon, Portugal
• OPEN UP, GREEK SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION OF INNOVATION (OPEN UP) —Larisa, Greece
• KYPRIAKOS SYNDESMOS OIKOGENEIAKOU PROGRAMMATISMOU (CFPA) — Nicosia, Cyprus
• FONDAZIONE MONDO DIGITALE – ETS (FMD) —Rome, Italy
• COLÁISTE MHUIRE GAN SMÁL (MIC) — Limerick, Ireland
