ISIS Europa promotes inclusion by designing a hybrid learning environment that connects physical, digital and virtual spaces. The school prioritises elements that support well-being and belonging, such as colour, visual identity, and purposeful organisation of classrooms and common areas.

Learning extends beyond the classroom through dedicated spaces for collaboration, including labs and an Erasmus classroom that supports international students’ integration. Students are directly involved in creating and shaping their own learning spaces. Several classrooms are designed as “classrooms on display”, meaning they are dedicated, themed environments co-created with students and continuously improved over time. For example, one dedicated room is themed around film director Tim Burton, with the space designed to reflect his aesthetic and creative ideas. Importantly, this is not a one-off decoration project but a cycle of case study, verification, and improvement, so the environment is tested, refined, and then implemented more systematically. Another example is the collaborative virtual project “Innocent Stories”, where students explore a chronologically organised virtual corridor using avatars and work together in the same digital environment.

This hybrid model supports participation through multiple formats, encourages dialogue and peer learning, and creates flexible pathways for engagement. Overall, the approach strengthens an inclusive culture by ensuring that every student can access learning, contribute meaningfully, and be heard.

Schools can move towards hybrid spaces in two ways. The first is to develop dedicated rooms for specific activities, such as media production, future classroom labs, ICT labs, language learning etc. The second is to treat the classroom as a blank canvas for teachers and students to adapt depending on the learning objectives. This flexible use of space is particularly valuable for project-based learning and flipped classroom approaches.

Specific subjects can benefit greatly from these hybrid approaches. For example, a World War I history lesson can become an immersive experience even without VR equipment. Students can transform the classroom into a hybrid exhibition by using a projector to display YouTube footage. Classroom furniture can be rearranged aiming for students to create different thematic stations for exploration, such as “the home front” or “peace negotiations.” They can draw timelines, design posters or newspaper front pages, display photos and add labels and short explanations around the room to guide classmates through the experience. In this way, the classroom becomes a flexible canvas for learning and discussion, helping students engage with content through multiple formats and ensuring more inclusive participation.

At ISIS Europa, teachers design learning experiences so that all students can access content, engage actively, and express their understanding in different ways. In this framework, MLTV, Debate and Service Learning are not arranged hierarchically, but as complementary and equally inclusive approaches.

Making Learning and Thinking Visible (MLTV) supports learning through thinking routines, documentation and collaborative inquiry. It helps make students’ reasoning explicit and shareable, enabling both teachers and learners to reflect on how understanding develops over time. At ISIS Europa, it is used across all years, with increasing complexity according to students’ age and task demands and is often integrated with digital tools to create shared documents, interactive images and digital artefacts.

Debate provides a structured way for students to develop argumentation, listen to different perspectives, and participate in disciplined discussion. It supports inclusion by giving learners clear formats, playing different roles according to their interests, shared rules and opportunities to build confidence in oral expression, critical thinking and respectful exchange.

Service Learning connects learning with meaningful action in real contexts. It enables students to engage as active citizens, linking curricular goals with community needs and reflection on experience. In this way, participation becomes authentic, socially relevant and accessible through multiple forms of contribution.

Teachers value these methodologies because they make learning processes observable and actionable. Through visible routines, structured exchanges, documentation and reflection, teachers can identify misconceptions, recognise learning gaps and plan targeted next steps. At the same time, students produce meaningful artefacts such as collaboratively edited documents, annotated images, multimedia products, short digital essays, presentations, or other outputs that document progress and understanding over time.

These approaches are applied across many subjects at ISIS Europa, including second language acquisition. In inclusive language teaching contexts, they are particularly valuable because they allow students to engage through oral, written, visual and digital modes. By offering multiple ways of participating and demonstrating understanding, they support diverse pathways to language development and reduce barriers to learning.

Taken together, MLTV, Debate and Service Learning are consistent with the principles of Universal Design for Learning. They promote access, participation and student voice, especially for learners who may otherwise be at risk of exclusion. Their emphasis on multimodal learning, reflection and active engagement helps create learning environments in which every student can contribute meaningfully.

The central aim of the school is inclusive participation: enabling every learner to access learning, express ideas in different ways, and have their voice heard. This includes learners who are too often perceived as unable to participate fully or are described through deficit-based labels.

In practice, ISIS Europa teachers apply these methodologies through simple but consistent steps that strengthen inclusion:

1. Start from a clear and shared purpose: design tasks so that all learners understand what they are doing, why it matters, and how they can take part.
2. Offer multiple ways of engaging and contributing: use methodologies such as MLTV, Debate and Service Learning to create different entry points for participation, expression and collaboration.
3. Make learning processes visible: encourage students to document stages of their work and thinking through notes, drafts, reflections, visual supports, dialogue or digital products.
4. Create and collect learning artefacts: over time, student outputs can become part of a learning portfolio that captures progress, reflection and development. Artefacts may include collaboratively edited texts, annotated images, short multimedia productions, interactive diagrams or problem-solving tasks.
5. Use digital tools to support inclusion: digital environments can facilitate collaboration, documentation and multimodal expression, making it easier for students to participate in ways that suit their strengths and needs.
6. Connect participation, reflection and action: whether through classroom dialogue, visible thinking routines or real-world projects (as in Service Learning experiences), learning is strengthened when students are supported to reflect, discuss and act in meaningful ways.

This systematic attention to participation and visibility fosters deeper understanding, encourages dialogue, and supports shared reflection among teachers, students and the wider school community. When learning is made visible, discussed collectively and connected to inclusive design and student agency, it contributes to a stronger culture of collaboration, inclusion, and continuous improvement.

At ISIS Europa, adopting the CDC approach has fundamentally reshaped the learning dynamic, enabling students to be active author-creators. A central innovation has been the self-production of textbooks and learning materials with and for students. For over ten years, language learning resources have been co-developed by teachers and students rather than relying on a traditional language textbook. This ensures equal access and allows the curriculum to remain flexible and continuously updated.

This shift is reinforced through radio productions and publications on the school’s website, which amplify student voice and make their work publicly visible. Students not only manage a website but their participation is clearly reflected online, where a dedicated Students category with filtered content addressed directly to them. In addition, the school’s multimedia studio enables students to produce content they feel comfortable with. By giving students real agency, the approach encourages them to take responsibility for both the quality of what they produce and how it is presented.

Digital technology aligned with appropriate pedagogies can support student voice. The CDD approach focuses on creating Digital Education Content that students are comfortable with, rather than relying only on fixed national content for each subject. Adopting technology in a meaningful way is inclusive because it offers flexible pathways for access, participation, and understanding.

Typical strategies to meet students’ needs include:

• stimulating questions and brainstorming with collaborative tools (e.g., Mentimeter, Nearpod) 
• guided video viewing, made interactive in Nearpod or created with Adobe Spark/Express 
• short video lessons shared in the classroom (e.g., Screencast-O-Matic) 
• “talking images” and interactive visual navigation (e.g., ThingLink) 
• quick assessment (e.g., Kahoot, LearningApps, Google Forms, Nearpod)
• brief teacher clarifications when additional explanation is needed

To ensure technology works meaningfully, teachers are encouraged to follow a simple documentation routine: Observe, Record, Interpret, and Share.

• Observe: Note how students interact with the platform and where they struggle or succeed.
• Record: Describe what students produce and where it can be accessed.
• Interpret: Analyse the work against the criteria shared with the class and identify what needs improvement.
• Share: Discuss findings with students and agree on next steps.

In short, the school has built a culture where students are actively involved in creating digital materials, promoting the idea that learners can take the lead and produce outputs that matter to them. This form of student agency has developed into a whole-school ecosystem, leading to initiatives such as student-led radio productions and a student website. Together, these outputs promote an inclusive culture in which every student has a voice.