LEARNING OUTside the classroom IN the EUROPEan Nature Erasmus Project

Project Title

LEARNING OUTside the classroom IN the EUROPEan Nature

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 : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Health and wellbeing; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The pre-primary organisation 1 Nipiagogeio Voulas, located in the region of Eastern Attica Greece, is the applicant oganisation for a stategic partnership among pre-primary and primary schools from Greece, Estonia, France, Italy and Romania, in the field “Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only” with main objective of the project the “Exchanges of Practices”.
The title of the project is “LEARNING OUTside the classroom IN the EUROPEan Nature” with the acronym “LEARNING OUT IN EUROPE”. The applicant organisation who was the coordinator of the partnership, 1 Nipiagogeio Voulas, has a significant experience in European projects such as participation in education staff mobilities (2003 and 2011), participation in a network of European educational institutions (2008) under the Socrates Comenius Key Actions (Mesures d ‘Accompagnement) and also participated in a scholar partnership (2008-2010). Additionaly, in 2015 1 Nipiagogeio Voulas participated in a seminar on “Outdoor arts and crafts” in Iceland within the annual project (Erasmus+ KA1 School Education Staff Mobility) in 2015-2016 with title “The pre-primary school 1 Nipiagogeio Voulas organizes learning in the outdoors”. The experience derived therefrom inspired the creation of this partnership with coordinator 1 Nipiagogeio Voulas, as it is a reliable pre-primary organisation that pursue continuous improvement and upgrading of the provided educational services with European dimension and also can guarantee the successful development of this strategic partnership with the other European organisations, who except France and Italy, who participated in KA1 education staff mobility in 2014, the other partners from Estonia and Romania have never been involved previously in a European project.
This strategic partnership was a collaboration between pre-primary schools from different education systems, different landscapes, with different languages, but all the educational teams were united in their true interest and care for the natural environment and the sustainability of our planet. The economic and social situation in Europe created the necessity to form a project that, through interaction with nature, would promote the development of creativity, improve health and well being, and provide emotional uplift to teachers, students and their families. All the partners together exchanged innovative methodology of teaching and learning various subjects as mathematics, science, literature, poetry, arts in the outdoors.
This partnership aimed to seek alternative practices that do not require expensive equipment to be applied in the daily schedule, but utilize natural resources. In addition to these objectives of the project was to change approaches and behaviors of European students who have frequent occurrences of obesity and other health problems because of excessive inactive life, as they were born and raised along with technology in a digital environment full of personal computers, mobile phones, gaming systems, MP3 players etc and they are not often out in the nature.Moreover it aims at pointing out the importance of the outdoors for the children’s holistic development (personal and social) through practical ideas for early childhood education, it emphasized the adoption of public spaces as “our spaces” in an attempt to form responsible and active citizens.
The partnership had a duration of 24 months from 1.9.2017 till 31.8.2019, sufficient time to materialize the development plan, carry out the activities, diffuse the acquired knowledge and innovative practices in and out the partners organisations, through workshops, conferences, exhibitions, publications , blogs, websites, social networking.
The results for the participants were improvement of skills and competences, creative use of new technologies, knowledge for innovative outdoor educational practices, that help advancing to the production of original educational material, ready to be used by others in the future.
The impact of the project was and will be important as it promoted the implementation of outdoor activities in a regular basis in the school schedule. It multiplied the communication channels and made known the significance of pre-primary education, strengthening the profile of the teachers. Also it broadened the horizons of the participants for responsible citizenship.
The project activities contributed to personal growth and social awareness and developed skills for life. As outdoor environment is challenging and inspiring especially for the students from lower economic and social environments, who mostly need our help, this project helped in avoiding early school leaving and disadvantage. This exchange of ideas among the European partners added European dimension to the educational work of all the participants organizations.
Finally, the long term benefits on all the partners were and will be the change of attitudes, that promoted and will promote the health of the participants.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 57098 Eur

Project Coordinator

1 Nipiagogeio Voulas & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Arukyla Kindergarten Rukkilill
• DIREZIONE DIDATTICA 8° CIRCOLO PIACENZA
• Ecole Maternelle Saint Exupery
• GRADINITA CU PROGRAM PRELUNGIT NR.21