'Learning beyond the classroom walls' is a project that will develop innovative ways in which teachers can deliver a more exciting curriculum for pupils incorporating outdoor learning to enhance enthusiasm and attainment in the basic skills of maths, science and literacy. 'This is an essential component for a successful, professional and social life.' (European commission, thematic working group, 2010-2013) So many pupils of primary age are underachieving, up to 20% of young Europeans are not reaching a minimum level of skills in mathematics and science. In Ofsted, raising standards, improving lives report, (UK) it was found that when planned and implemented well, learning outside the classroom contributed significantly to raising standards and improving pupils' personal, social and emotional development. It is thought that learning outside the classroom can make learning more vivid and interesting for pupils and enhance their understanding. This project will address the under-achievement in key areas of our curriculum and through training, help us to develop ways to motivate children's learning and motivation. Linking the outdoor experiences as stimulii for maths, literacy and science work will improve the quality of the pupils work. There will be 8 partners involved in this project. England, Belgium, Spain (Tenerife), Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy and Denmark. The partner schools are made up of different types (public, private, big and small) from various economical and social backgrounds. This will have a greater impact on the project in relation to experiences, training and outcomes because of precious experience, needs in their schools and expertise to offer through planned training events and shared ideas for dissemination. A wider range of innovative learning ideas will be experienced by using these partners. Some partner schools include a pre-school, important for the early development of key skills. This will be incorporated into training activities planned. The activities will include short term training programs, transnational meetings for coordinators to maintain organisation of the project and activities putting training into practice and high quality materials. This will include data to measure impact such as questionnaires, numbers of participants of training events, training materials for others, DVD's of evidence of materials, blog linked to schools websites. We hope that Methodology to be used to carry out the project will include how the outdoors can have potential on out children's learning. We will use our rich urban and rural environments and we will endeavor to use these to maximize and enhance our children's learning experiences. The rich cultural differences in learning styles and experiences that this project can offer to staff and pupils where possible, we hope will embed progressive and sustainable learning opportunities in our curriculum's through learning about each others initiatives and innovative projects. Well planned activities of this kind, when well planned, can help develop the skills of enquiry, critical thinking, and reflection required for our children to meet the social, economical and environmental changes of life in a rapidly changing EuropeWhen we have shared ideas and initiatives and training specific to our institutions and European countries we hope this will cause a motivation in our attitudes to teaching, impacting on the pupils learning and therefore causing a 'buzz' that can only be experinced in the teaching profession in an energizing project such as this. The results will be vast for all involved within the project due to experience of European projects and an understanding of the importance of dissemination tasks to reach a wide audience to have a long lasting effect and really make us change our views on what we can teach, learn and experience 'beyond the classroom walls'.
The project, 'Learning beyond the classroom walls' was planned to enthuse teachers and pupils more about the curriculum and the learning of skills by engaging them in contexts beyond the restrains of the classroom. The idea was to enable the curriculum to be more engaging to all pupils despite their ability or background. The idea grew from the UK school taking on the forest school initiative and training a practitioner within the field of this. It was important in our school to allow this idea to grow and gain more ideas and experience through training in other partner schools. We hoped to focus on the attainment in the basic skills in maths, science and literacy but in fact the project reached many more areas than that. It was hoped that when planned and implemented well, learning outside the classroom could support significantly to raising standards and improving pupils' personal, social and emotional development. Through new initiatives shared by partner schools, linking the outdoor experiences as stimuli was hoped to improve the quality of the pupils work, understanding and enjoyment of learning. Originally there were 8 partners in the project although Denmark was not approved and so that left 7; UK, Belgium, Spain (Tenerife) Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy. It was apparent that the partners were from differing areas and were from different economical and social backgrounds. The opportunities for outdoor learning differed at the beginning of the project which was down to the location of the school and the vision of what outdoor learning entailed. Some only had a school yard which was thought to be limiting when in fact this was just the starting point. There were 3 transnational meetings, one at the beginning to plan and prepare the project and meet partners and allow expectations of the project to be discussed and agreed. One was in the middle held to assess the progress of the project and to plan the remaining activities and trainings following the application. This gave us chance to review the positive aspects of the project and come up with ways forward to completing the project as planned from the application. Each partner school hosted a training event although the original time scale and order of these was changed at the beginning of the project. This was due to many factors including holidays, climate and school commitments. The training was effectively planned using the application as a starting point although some activities were adapted for various reasons which can be seen later in the report. Some activities were adapted to pre-school to be useful for Lithuania but also for the other partners who also have pre-school within their establishments.