In this paper we present an overview on the key concepts on which the SIPP-project is based as well as on the project design. Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society. In education, social inclusion is about the presence, participation and achievement of all students (Allen & Bowles, 2012; UNESCO, 2005, Wang & Eccles, 2012). The feeling of being socially rejected, excluded and isolated has a profound and long-lasting negative impact on pupils’ school performance school as well as on general wellbeing (De Witte et al. 2013; OECD, 2018). Pupils’ rights to participate in society as full members are also stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989). Creating social inclusiveness in education means to create actively common values among the pupils and teachers in school and enhance pupils’ participation and pay attention to their experience. In the project we emphasize the importance of pupils’ own perspectives. The pupils are recognized as stakeholders and actors during the whole project period by expressing and sharing their experiences of social inclusion and possibilities for participation. Their perspective is the starting point and a keystone for further efforts and development of all activities (Morrow & Richards, 1996; Clark & Statham, 2005; James, 2007). On the other hand, teachers are the key-persons in creating an environment at school in which pupils are both able to learn and enabled to learn, where they can experience agency (UNESCO, 2005). The SIPP-project, funded by Erasmus+ and Movetia (Swiss pendant), focuses on how to create a socially inclusive climate in the classroom and daily education. Teachers in primary education and non-formal education aged 5-12 get support in gaining deeper professional knowledge about social inclusion as well as in developing participatory tools to enhance social inclusion in their everyday practice. They get to know the pupils' point of view better by capturing their perspectives with child-centered methods, they reflect their own practice within the school team and with the researchers by linking them with theoretical knowledge, and finally they get the opportunity to exchange experiences in cross-national meetings and go back to their local context with new perspectives from other countries. The project’s output is a handbook and a toolbox for teachers, educators and children presenting the most successful strategies and activities tested in the five European countries.

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