Supporting Positive Mental Health through Outdoor Games and Sport Erasmus Project

Project Title

Supporting Positive Mental Health through Outdoor Games and Sport

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: Access for disadvantaged; Creativity and culture; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

Our project will focus on improving students’ long term physical and mental health through developing enthusiasm for and motivation in taking an active part in sport and outdoor games. This is our focus because as technology has developed our children are increasingly communicating with each other through digital media. This has led to many children spending their leisure time static in front of technological devices instead of actively playing outside and making real-life friendships. Research has shown that this can have a negative influence upon their physical and mental well-being.
Our project directly addresses these issues for over 2500 pupils between the ages of 5-14 and will contribute to the professional development of more than 290 staff members. The countries in this project are diverse in their national and cultural settings and in the age ranges they teach. Although the methodology used will be the same across all the schools the implementation will be flexible to take advantage of the educational stages. The diversity of the participants will widen and enhance the schools pre-existing curricula, open up dialogue to aid professional development and the development of a Good Practise Model.
Schools in Turkey, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, Germany and the UK will initially learn more about their own and their partners traditional outdoor games.
This co-operative learning will not only be designed to be fun but will install in the children an understanding of what constitutes a good game. The unique opportunity for the children to learn and together participate in the games of other nationalities will emphasise for instance the similarities between nations; leading to greater understanding, friendships and tolerance. Thus, the pupils will in the first year research, analyse and play traditional games from their own country and from the other participating schools. The pupils will then in year two, based upon their criteria of what is a good game, develop in co-operation with each other, their own games. Student School Sports Leaders will be trained to support and lead the students in their activities. This indirectly will lead to the development of specific leadership skills and hopefully greater student participation.
The legacy for each individual school will be an enhanced curriculum offer with a greater emphasis on pupil involvement, a network of schools that will continue to work together to further develop the project and children who will have had the opportunity to develop a strong foundation of active participation with others leading to the development of the skills necessary to develop firm friendships. The overall result being more resilient, creative and happier child armed with a firm foundation of personal skills needed for positive mental health. All partners will share the project activities, outputs (e.g. webinars on best teaching practice, project website, handbooks for student leaders, competitions, workshops ) and which will enable us to build up a common database on the details of the activities to share them with the project partners. Project partner schools’ project outputs will be exhibited in a ” EU Project Corner ” and further afield through eTwinning activities. The project will lead to a more pupil-led learning curriculum within a cross curricular thematic approach to learning. Additionally the project will:
• Work first-hand across age ranges and national systems enabling all the staff to evaluate and reflect upon the different approaches enabling them to develop their professional skills
• Is part of new research which is currently been carried out nationally by the Youth Sports Trust into the impact of high quality Sport and Games with engaged pupils on the attainment, attendance and behaviour of pupils.
• It will, by focusing on the positive attitudes and behaviours underlined in the project completion, underline the necessary skills and attitudes required for positive mental image.

The involvement of the Youth Sports Trust will contribute to their own research, which would enable the results to be disseminated to a much wider audience; nationally and inter-nationally.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 159480 Eur

Project Coordinator

Banstead Community Junior School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Hisar Anadolu Imam Hatip Lisesi
• Zakladna skola s materskou skolou
• Istituto Comprensivo Capol. D.D.
• Osnovna skola “Bogoslav Sulek”
• Mittelschule Fuerth, Kiderlinstrasse