On 14 and 15 May 2026, the partners of the Spark project gathered at Nova University in Lisbon, Portugal, for the project’s final transnational meeting. Representatives from the eight partner organisations met in person to continue their collaborative work on developing the project’s activities, research and educational resources. The project officer Vittoria Bernardini attended the meeting on behalf of Fondazione Mondo Digitale [see the news item Spark, meeting in Lisbon].
SPARK – Igniting the confidence and capacity of school leaders, teachers and parents in providing quality Comprehensive Sexuality Education is a project funded by the Erasmus+ programme, bringing together organisations from Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and Italy. The project aims to strengthen the confidence and skills of school communities in delivering inclusive, evidence-based and high-quality Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for children and young people across Europe.
The Lisbon meeting focused on the next phase of the project’s implementation and the development of SPARK’s training materials. The partners collaborated on defining the future training programme, including the online course (MOOC), the trainer’s manual and educational resources aimed at teachers, school leaders, trainers, trainee teachers and parents.
Particular attention was paid to enhancing the training experience by establishing clearer guidelines for facilitators, incorporating realistic scenarios and strengthening references to support services where necessary. The consortium also reviewed the SPARK reflection framework and the pre- and post-training assessment tools, which will help measure changes in participants’ confidence and skills in teaching CSE.
The meeting provided an important opportunity to reflect on the progress made, share experiences from different national contexts and jointly define the next phase of the project.
In the coming months, SPARK will enter an exciting new phase, focused on transforming the results of research and collaborative work into practical tools, digital resources and concrete training opportunities for school communities across Europe.
