Full STEAM Ahead – learning through play. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Full STEAM Ahead – learning through play.

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Pedagogy and didactics; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

This project aims to share best practice on how to best nurture and encourage young children’s self esteem, confidence , independence and resilience through play with a particular emphasis on learning through play, STEAM activities and mindfulness with a particular emphasis on outdoor learning. Various studies have been released recently that show that children who spend time in nature have better mental health and children who are allowed to engage in more physical activities outdoors have better resilience. These 6 partners want to come together so the more experienced partners can share their experiences built up over a long period to back up this evidence, 2 of the partners have been running outdoor classes for a number of years and have been involved in other projects that they can use to show why it is so important that young children are not sitting inside at desks all day long. The 6 partners want to come together to establish a working partnership that share ideas of how to best ensure the youngest children in the education system are encouraged to problem solve, take risks and tackle new challenges on a daily basis without a fear of ‘failure’ or giving up too easily. Using a variety of curriculum based activities across the STEAM subjects, the partners want to build up a bank of activities and ideas to share with each other within the project and with a wider audience through eTwinning and clusters of local pedagogues in each of the partner countries.
The partners are committed to offering the best outdoor play/learning opportunities to the young children in their settings and want to share their ideas with the parents and wider families, so they can begin to understand the value of high quality outdoor experiences and how this will help their children develop a positive disposition for learning.
Working in the preschool sector can be isolating, there is less CPD opportunities than for primary colleagues and this project will offer a wonderful opportunity for staff to come together during LTT events to learn from each other and develop tools to share with other preschool professionals.
This project will involve a wide range of staff members from teaching to non teaching, permanent to temporary.
The coordinators at each school are highly skilled and educated individuals who are motivated to always be learning and engaging with like-minded individuals.
All are educated to degree level, with many having Masters level qualifications.
Each school hopes to involve up to 10 staff members directly through the LTT events (both teaching and non teaching) and up to 15 staff members through the project and eTwinning.
Non teaching staff who have opportunities to take part in previous projects either KA1 or KA2 have really benefited from the chance to travel and learn firsthand about practice and pedagogy in other countries and this project will provide similar opportunities for non teaching staff, who do not get the same Continued Professional Development opportunities as teaching staff. As already mentioned there are also less CPD opportunities for early years staff.
As Brexit has become a reality for the UK schools, projects like this offer a wonderful chance for our pupils to engage with their peers across Europe and to learn firsthand that they are not so different.
Over 200 young learners will be directly involved in this project with a further 100 being involved by virtue of their school hosting a LTT event. Over 60 staff will be directly involved through LTT events and eTwinning projects and activities. By sharing about the project at local cluster level and at the conference at the end of the project, many more will be informed about the results of this project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 121000 Eur

Project Coordinator

WINDMILL INTEGRATED PRIMARY SCHOOL LIMITED & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Stedelijke Basisschool Polderstad
• Leikskólinn Stekkjarás
• Highway farm activity centre LTD
• Djecji vrtic Iskrica
• Eikefjord barnehage