Healthy Kids – Active Kids Erasmus Project

Project Title

Healthy Kids – Active Kids

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Health and wellbeing; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

“Active” and “healthy”. These two words can be regarded as key words when it comes to describing positive habits and a lifestyle that guarantees participation in all aspects of social life in the short and long term.
Looking at our students however, we have to state that their lifestyles can more often be described with the words “inactive”, “stressed” and “unhealthy”. Outdoor activities and activeness in general are decreasing, even young kids are frequently stressed by the demands of school and modern life, their diet is often unhealthy and not balanced and obesity in increasing. Our project “Healthy Kids – Active Kids” aims at tackling these problems. The project’s main target groups are students aged 9-12 and their teachers at Hadrian Park Primary School (UK) and Gymnasium Marienschule Hildesheim (Germany). Both schools have different strengths and wish to learn from each other and with each other in order to improve the situation at both schools, to enable their teachers to develop professionally and to support their students to lead a more active, healthy and stress-reduced life now and to ingrain this for their future. These students are of an age where they start making important choices for their lives but at the same time are very receptive for the chosen topics, meaning that by fostering their personal development in these aspects a change to more positive habits can be reached. Critical thinking and reflecting upon one’s behaviour patterns are important to reach this change and will thus be supported in the project by age-appropriate methods such as games, workshops and setting each other challenges. The cooperation between the students (virtual on our twinspace and in real life during the four LTTs) will also lead to the creation of forward looking skills such as being able to cooperate and discuss strategies, to be open-minded towards new ideas and people and to create an interest in languages. Personal bonds between the students but also the teachers will develop in the course of the project leading to a decrease of prejudices and to a long-term cooperation of the two schools. In order to trigger changes in their students’ behaviour the teachers have to be knowledgeable in the three project areas (outdoor activities, students’ wellbeing, healthy food) and in related teaching methods, pedagogies and creation of informal and innovative learning arrangements. Therefore the teachers’ professional development will be another pillar of the project. Here the two schools can use the other partner as a provider of teacher workshops and for support: The German partner with extensive experience in the field of pastoral care and promoting students’ wellbeing will support the British partner, who – with its very successful outdoor education scheme – will in turn help the German partner to introduce a similar scheme. Both partners together will develop a conclusive healthy-food-curriculum and implement it at their schools. This will take place at the two teachers’ meetings but also continuously using the project’s twinspace. Starting from the two target groups which will include about 300 students and 20 teachers in the course of the project, the ideas of the project will spread across the two schools, involving more students and staff but – via the children – also the families. Students will survey the situations at the schools and develop and exchange ideas to improve them. They will set each other challenges to increase healthy eating and outdoor activities in a fun and age-appropriate way. Together they will collect their best ideas, tips, recipes, games etc. and produce a booklet on healthy eating (1st year) and a blog on outdoor activities (2nd year). Teachers will share ideas and cooperate with each other and local organisations in order to engage the students in more outdoor activities, increase students’ wellbeing and a healthy diet. These opportunities can be school internal like healthy food days, encouraging sport activities at break time etc. but also involve external partners and events such as participating in a fun run/parkrun, hiking or inviting a nutritionist. Additionally families will be involved and informed by events in the “Elternschule” and FamilyLearning@Hadrian Park.
The project will benefit the two schools as they will add new and important aspects to their curricula, develop a sound partnership and embark on further projects together. Furthermore it will benefit teachers who will develop professionally and learn about new methods and pedagogies and will gain a deeper understanding of the other country’s school system. First and foremost however, our students will benefit from the project as they will learn about the project’s topics, shed negative habits and adopt positive habits that will stay with them for a long time and benefit them personally in many an aspect such as good (mental) health and the possibility to be an active member of society now and in their future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 61294 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Marienschule Hildesheim & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Hadrian Park Primary School