António Torrado Primary School (Escola Básica do 1.º Ciclo – EB1), part of the Abrantes School Group No. 2 (Agrupamento de Escolas n.º 2 de Abrantes – AEN2Abrantes), is located in an area perceived as multicultural and socioeconomically disadvantaged. As a result, it has been the focus of interventions and concerns related to educational underachievement among the children who attend the school, as well as issues concerning school discipline, including disruptive behaviour and reports of higher levels of conflict both inside and outside the classroom than in other settings.
Located in the city of Abrantes, the school occupies a spacious building with extensive outdoor areas in a residential neighbourhood characterised by high population density, from which a significant proportion of the school population originates. In the 2023/24 school year, for example, the school welcomed fifty children from immigrant families originating from several countries. This added complexity to previously identified challenges, such as the low levels of educational attainment of some parents and guardians, difficulties with their professional integration, and other socioeconomic vulnerabilities affecting many pupils. These circumstances inevitably have an impact on their quality of life, as well as their readiness and motivation to learn.
It was in this context, building on other similar interventions, that the Reinvent’ART-E1 Project emerged. The project is based on the premise that Art and Arts Education are fruitful pathways towards social and educational transformation. With the ambition of advancing pedagogical innovation, and seeking to address what “does not work” in entrenched and routine teaching practices, the project aimed to rethink teaching and learning models, avoiding at all costs the approach of “doing more of the same” while expecting different results.
Indeed, with a strategic partnership with the Santarém School of Education (Escola Superior de Educação de Santarém – ESE|IPSantarém) as its cornerstone, the project implemented a set of measures organised around five key areas. In addition to providing consultancy, monitoring the project and facilitating thematic sessions with the parents’ group, the partner institution supported the project by providing continuing professional development for the teachers involved. The five areas were: (i) enhancing the value of Arts Education and integrating it into the curriculum; (ii) providing individualised support and fostering close relationships with each child and their family, through monthly meetings and the facilitation of a parents’ group; (iii) diversifying learning environments, including spacious classrooms with dedicated thematic work areas; (iv) promoting collaborative work, both among pupils and among teachers working in co-teaching arrangements; and (v) food education.
The results of implementing the project with two Year 1 classes, which work together in the same classroom, indicate progress and development in pupils’ autonomy across multiple areas, despite the numerous forms of resistance and obstacles encountered. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that what pupils learn is not the only consideration; how they learn may be even more important. The experience of new ways of engaging with and exploring the curriculum has fostered a range of personal and social skills. In due course, these skills are expected to benefit pupils’ academic work, with clear gains in their well-being and in their relationships with the school and school-based learning.
Nevertheless, educational work is, by its very nature, an ongoing and never-ending process. School organisational dynamics, particularly the difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers for the project whose profiles and motivation align with its underlying principles, require a continuous commitment to training and professional development. This ongoing process seeks to restore and/or develop the skills and knowledge needed to put these alternative approaches to teaching and learning into practice. In this particular case, the focus is on the relationship with language, which proves instrumental in providing access to the world.
