A helping hand to wellbeing Erasmus Project

Project Title

A helping hand to wellbeing

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

“Building small actions into your day-to-day life can make a big difference to your levels of wellbeing. They will make you feel good and feeling good about yourself and others is a really important part of being healthy”

Four schools in four different countries across Europe found each other in the same wish, to give their pupils a helping hand to wellbeing.
To do so, a project with the same working title has been set up. They use the concept of enquiry beased learning to invite the pupils to be in charge of the change we like to achieve.They like to work beyond national curriculums and stimulate the pupil to ask questions, think critically and focus on finding solutions.

De Noordwijkse school from The Netherlands, the Edinburgh Academy from Scotland, Colegio bilingue Torrente Ballester from Spain and J.V.Veski nim. Maarja Põhikool from Estonia have set up a programme of two years to get their pupils, teachers and parents involved into changing into healthier habits.

The average age of the pupils travelling to pupilmeetings will be 10/11 years old. They will present their schools during the Erasmus meetings and will go back to schools with new experiences. Since this subject is valuable to many age groups, schools will involve all age groups as much as possible and wish to establish a link with the school improvement plan.

The project “A helping hand to wellbeing” is set up in five different sub-projects which will be led by the different countries based on the expertise they have with this specific item.

A first step towards wellbeing will be made with a sub-project called Mediterranean diet. It will bring insight into healthy meals, proportions of food, the importance of breakfast and the most important ingredient of the Mediterranean diet; olive oil. Schools will work on making healthy menus, experience the different European ways to have breakfast and learn about the language involved, Pupils will investigate all about the food pyramid and evaluate their own food consumption. The pupils meeting will be held at an educational farm and at the Spanish school.

The Dutch school takes over with the sub-project Move your mood and will investigate the amount of minutes pupils move during the day and will use activity trackers to measure that. Different challenges in the classroom and on the playground will lead to more enthusiasm to move and will create a wide variety of tools for teachers and pupils.

Maintaining the new healthy habits and taking them a step forward will be made by the Scottish sub-project on mental wellbeing. Emotions will play a crucial role. Pupils will learn how to recognise and how to classify them and will learn strategies that will work for them to stay in charge of a good mental health. All school will benefit from a greater practical emphasis and nurturing good mental health.Schools will stablish an “Emotional first aid group” who can monitor and promote initiatives across school about wellbeing.

From looking after oneself we change toward looking after the environment with the Estonian project Think of Tomorrow. Investigating all about plants and forests, recycling and reducing pollution will be done in all schools. Pupils will work on ways to improve recycling, reducing rubbish and get accuinted with the ecological food sector. In Estonia the pupil meeting will invite the pupils to be create with rubbish and let them come up with new inventions to recycle. All students will also enjoy being in nature and get the chance to hike in the bog and visit a nature park with animals.

To complete the project we will explore what it means to be part of the European Union. How does the European Union affects their daily lives and how their voice can be important in the future of Europe. This all will be linked to the previous aspects of the topic of wellbeing.
To distribute the gained experience the four schools will work together on a digital and paper calendar with suggestions for other schools. It will present ideas on healthy food, exercises to do at school, tips to improve mental wellbeing and suggestions about recycling and reducing rubbish.

During and after the project all school work with observation lists that are connected with their school pupil tracking system. Pupils will be asked to fill in feedback forms in their personal journals and reflect on their growth. An independent student from Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Haarlem, The Netherlands, is linked to the project to carry out independent research on the topic of wellbeing. Results will be used for her personal studies, as well as a Dutch national research about wellbeing. The results of the four schools will be used for the Erasmus+ project and can prove the change in the schools.
This project will lead to a longterm change in our four schools and will hopefully be an inspiration to others.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 116836 Eur

Project Coordinator

De Noordwijkse School & Country: NL

Project Partners

• J.V.Veski nim. Maarja Põhikool
• The Edinburgh Academy
• SOCIEDAD COOPERATIVA MADRILEÑA LIMITADA LA CANTOÑA