Classroom Reboot Project Kick-off Meeting in Belgrade

On 9–10 May, we attended the kick-off meeting of the Classroom Reboot project in Belgrade, hosted by Open Communication. This was the first opportunity for all partners to meet in person in this project and set up the project´s direction.

Timeline and responsibilities
The partnership agreed on a clear timeline: all three materials (the Structured Discussion Guide, the Debate-based Learning Resource Kit and the Set of Student Assignments) are to be completed by the end of 2026. Two more in-person meetings are planned, in November 2026 and March 2027, to review progress and finalise the outputs.
Partners also discussed the project budget and agreed on the division of responsibilities across the consortium.

Student research first
A key part of the meeting was dedicated to the student research which will shape the first resource. Before we start writing the Discussion Guide  we want to understand how students actually think about difficult topics. That´s why we will run a survey of circa 300 secondary school students across all partner countries. 

Tackling sensitive topics
One of the more interesting discussions was about how far the materials should go in addressing controversial issues. We agreed that the project should cover topics that teachers usually avoid, but in a supportive way, rather than putting them in a difficult position. The materials will include a step-by-step approach for introducing sensitive discussions, starting with the easier ones and moving on to the more complex ones.

Next steps
With the structure of all three work packages agreed and responsibilities distributed, the immediate priority is collecting the survey results. Once we have them, work on the Discussion Guide will begin. In the meantime, partners will continue coordinating via email and regular online check-ins.

The Classroom Reboot project brings together six organisations from five countries to develop free, practical debate-based resources for high school teachers.
Classroom Reboot is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union (KA220-SCH – Cooperation partnerships in school education).