Hand in hand to a sustainable future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Hand in hand to a sustainable future

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: Creativity and culture; Environment and climate change; Energy and resources

Project Summary

Our porject “Hand in Hand to a sustainable future” was inspired by the huge amount of motivation shown by the participants of the “Fridays for future” movement and their intention to inspire the politics to change their climate plans. We asked ourselves: how sustainable are we, our schools and how can we improve our ecological footprint together?
Therefore we decided to focus on four different aspects: food and lifestyle, water, recycling and upcycling and sustainable energies. Every country was in charge for one of those aspects. Every country chose an aspect suitable to their school profile and the local surroundings and conditions.
The Netherland: Food and lifestyle
Finland: Water
Germany: Recycling and upcycling
Denmark: Sustainable energies
It was planned that every school provides activities and workshops about their topic. At the end of the project the students should have been educated in all of the four aspects, so that they can use their new knowledge and the new ideas to make their own school more sustainable. There also were surveys on a regular basis at every school to see if there is a progress.
In October 2019 the groups from Denmark, Finland and Germany started their trip to Almere in the Netherlands. In Almere there were workshop and activities about the topic “food and lifestyle”. The groups visited an ecological farm and produced a menu by using the products grown at the farm. They also took part in a workshop about cosmetic products and their incredients and tried to find alternatives for them that are more sustainable. With the help of a game they investigated how sustainable the city Almere already is. During a walk in a forest they learned more about the nature in Almere, the local plants and animals as well as about eatable plants. We also visited an exhibition about the climate and nature in a museum in The Hague. To use a sustainable way of transport every student got a rented bike and all the activities in Almere were done by bike. As a teambuilding event and to get to know each other better we also visited a climbing forest.
All of the students were able to grow personally during that time. They got more confident self-reliant. They also improved their English skills a lot by using the language daily and in a natural environment. Their new knowledge about sustainablle food and a sustainable lifestyle was adapted by the students in their private life.
Before the exchange to Netherlands started every school made a survey to find out how sustainable the students and their families are and how sustainable the schools are. After the exchange they were able to have a ciritical look at it when it comes to food and lifestyle. So they could find starting points to implement new ideas to make their schools more sustainable.
As 2020 started the preparations for our second exchange to Finland started. The kids got prepared by talking about the topic “water” in different subjects at school. There also were events to inform the parents about the exchange. On eTwinning the students could find a video of the Finish school. So they could get to know the students and the school a little bit in advance. But then Covid 19 hit the world and our exchange had to be postponed in March of 2020. Soon after that the schools got closed and all of our countries were in a lockdown. This situation was completely new to all of us and other things had to be prioritised. We all thought that this situation will be temporary and we soon will be able to go on with our project as planned. But it didn’t get much easier. The German school started again in June 2020, but with a very limited timetable and strict rules. At this point the Danish and Finish schools already had summer holidays. In Septermber 2020 every country was back at school and we had high hopes to continue our project as soons as the students arranged themselves with the new situation at school and all the new rules. But in December 2020 there was a new lockdown and schools in Germany were closed down again. The other schools were partly closed or had a mix of homeschooling and learning at school in smaller groups. The German school was closed until May 2021 and our project time was nearly over. It was nearly impossible to conduct our project during the lockdown and the homeschooling. A lot of our students were poorly equipped when it comes to digital devices. In addition it was hard to reach a lot of them at all. So the first priority was to hold lessons as good as possible and to reach as many kids as possible without seeing them personally. We couldn’t continue our project as wished and planned before.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 57147 Eur

Project Coordinator

Salier-Gemeinschaftsschule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Aeres vmbo Almere
• Ryomgaard Realskole
• Kalliolan koulu