PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Vallverda Primary School in the rural village of Valverde, in Elche
(Alicante) aims to initiate a process of environmental improvement that
will lead to an improvement in educational practice and promote
coexistence, global training for the exercise of European citizenship,
quality and educational research, the exchange of good practices and the
development of scientific culture. All this through the coordination of the
strategic partnership for two years with partner pre-schools and primary
schools in Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Latvia and Greece that have similar
experiences in their environment and a common rural context.
The aim is to promote the development of students’ abilities to know,
interpret and intervene in their surroundings, favouring personal
responsibility and involvement in this task, not only of the students, but
also of their families, town councils, European schools, associations and
entities in their surroundings. It is also intended to give continuity to the
Erasmus+ KA1 project developed during this course on the same theme of
school gardens, which has been promoted by the management team and
the faculty that are committed to educational innovation and are in
continuous recycling and training in new skills.
The objectives to be achieved with this project coincide with some of
the Europe 2020 targets for education:
– Improve basic skills.
– Introduce European culture to our environment.
– Strengthen creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at
all levels of education and training.
In addition, other specific objectives are being pursued:
– Raise awareness of biodiversity in other European countries.
– Acquire more knowledge in organic farming techniques through
exchange between partners.
– To improve the academic results of students in the scientific areas.
– Acquire innovative skills and methodologies.
– To make the most of school gardens for their introduction into the
curriculum in a transversal and multidisciplinary manner.
– Introduce the centres to the European Eco-Schools Network
(Ecoschools).
– To encourage students to contribute to change towards sustainability.
– Introduce healthy eating habits.
– Encourage creativity through the development of activities.
– Contextualize the concepts of natural sciences in the physical, chemical
and biological processes that occur in the school garden.
– Develop skills to process information by collecting recipes with local
products from each country.
In order to achieve the objectives and results proposed, seven joint
training events of short duration are proposed, in which two teachers
from each partner centre will participate. In addition, activities will be
carried out in which students and families from the participating centres
will participate, such as competitions for the selection of the project’s
mascot and logo, talks on organic farming and the setting up of orchards,
the creation of dossiers on the fauna and flora and newspapers of the
school garden, ecological awareness activities, the formation of
environmental committees, reflection on the generation of waste,
educational itineraries to natural sites, the introduction of healthy habits,
action plans and environmental codes of conduct, the joint celebration of
the relevant days related to the environment, the preparation of a
European seed bank and surveys on waste and energy consumption
habits.
All of them are aimed at the creation of new outdoor learning spaces,
taking advantage of the rural environment of the association’s centres and
the implementation of ecological values and respect for nature that will
contribute in the future to the creation and development of sustainable
educational communities committed to the environment.
