Final Conference of the FRIENDS Project: Promoting Inclusive Education through Wellbeing in Brussels, Belgium

The final FRIENDS project conference was held on the 4th of December 2019 at the Royal Library of Brussels meeting centre.

In the event participated principals, teachers, students, parents, policy makers, educational authorities from all across Europe, a representative of the Directorate-General for Education of the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science, a representative of the European Commission, and people interested in the Quiet Time based on Transcendental Meditation programme, in education and in inclusive education.

The conference saw the big presence of school representatives from partner countries (Portugal, Belgium, Italy, UK and Spain) and also from countries not included in the project, such as Germany, Romania, Iceland, France and Czech Republic and interested to expand the implementation of the QT/TM project approach in their countries for promoting inclusive education.
Teachers, parents, students and school principals from Portugal, Italy, Belgium and UK talked about their experiences during the FRIENDS project and scientific results from implementation were presented.

The evaluation revealed that implementing the QT/TM approach within the school environment has a positive, significant effect in psychological dimensions with effects on well-being for children and adults. Adults report greater and better connections with others, increase sense of self-competence, increase in subjective well-being. Children report decrease in emotional and relational problems, less anxiety and more resilience.