Brussels, 24/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - School partnerships have a clearly positive impact on pupils, teachers and educational establishments. This is the main finding of a recent study of the impact of European school partnerships funded through Comenius, published on Thursday 24 January. The report was commissioned in 2007 and examines a sample of 8000 establishments participating in the programme over the last decade. It reveals that: social and computer skills improved: more than 70% of their pupils boosted their social skills and their ability to work in teams. Two-thirds of pupils gained specialist knowledge and ICT competences, and they became more self confident and motivated to learn. Moreover, 75% of the teachers improved their capacity to work in inter-disciplinary teams and deal with new subject matter and learned about new teaching methods; competencies in languages boosted: more than 75 % of the pupils become more interested and motivated to learn foreign languages; while 62 % substantially improved their proficiency in English and 23 % in a language other than English. In addition, two-thirds of the participating teachers improved their English skills; - Improved school climate: 60% of respondents reported an improvement in the school climate. Project work reportedly became increasingly popular, and the more intensively and actively pupils participated in project activities, the more positive was the impact of the school partnership. A large majority of all teachers (79 %) saw a stronger European dimension in their school as a result; - Increased inter-cultural awareness: more than 80 % of teachers noted that their pupils became more interested in other countries and cultures. Tolerance towards other cultures and foreigners also increased. 90% of the teachers improved their knowledge and understanding of the partner countries' school system, and 82% established lasting personal contacts with teachers from partner schools. For further information, go to: http: //ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/impact_en.html (I.L.)