The CEIP La Vallverda of the rural village of Valverde, in Elche (Alicante) intends to initiate a process of environmental improvement that entails an improvement in educational practice and promotes 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 strategic partnership for the care of children with backgrounds in Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Latvia and Greece who have similar situations in their environment and a common rural context. It aims to promote the development of skills in students to know, interact and intervene in the environment favoring responsibility and personal involvement in this task, not only of students, but also families, municipalities, European schools, associations and organizations of its environment. It is also intended to give continuity to the project Erasmus + KA1 developed during this course on the same theme of school gardens, which has been promoted by the management team and the faculty that bet on educational innovation and is in continuous recycling and training in new skills . The objectives to be achieved with this project coincide with some of the Europe 2020 Objectives for education: - Improve basic skills. - Introduce European culture in our environment. - Strengthen creativity and innovation, including the entrepreneur spirit, at all levels of education and training. It also aims to achieve other specific objectives: - Increase awareness of biodiversity in other European countries. - Acquire greater knowledge in organic farming techniques through the exchange between partners. - To improve the academic results of the students in the scientific areas. - Acquire innovative skills and methodologies. - Take advantage of school gardens for their introduction in the curriculum in a cross-disciplinary and multidisciplinary way. - Introduce the centers in the European Eco-Schools Network (Ecoschools). - Encourage students to contribute to the 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 through the collection of culinary recipes with local products from each country. With the achievement of these objectives it is intended to achieve the following results: As tangible results it is intended to make a dossier of teaching resources for teachers, school garden diaries, a teaching methodological guide, presentations on start-up and maintenance of organic gardens, joint celebration of emblematic days for the environment, publication of works and workshops for students and teachers, surveys for families on habits of respect for the environment. As strategic results we propose the achievement of innovative work dynamics to be applied in the partner centers as "outdoor learning", "learning by doing", and learning by projects starting from the garden as a center of interest. In order to achieve the objectives and results proposed, seven joint short-term training events are proposed, in which two teachers from each partner center will participate. In addition, there will be activities in which students and families from the participating centers will participate such as pet selection contests and project logo, lectures on organic farming and start-up of gardens, making dossiers on fauna and flora and school garden diaries , ecological awareness activities, formation of environmental committees, reflection on the generation of waste, educational itineraries to natural landscapes, introduction of healthy habits, action plans and environmental codes of conduct, joint celebration of the relevant days related to the environment, development of a European seed bank and surveys on waste habits and energy consumption. All of them, using a proactive methodology, are aimed at creating new outdoor learning spaces, taking advantage of the rural environment of the centers of the association and the implementation of ecological values and respect for nature that will contribute to the future to the creation and development of sustainable educational communities committed to the environment.
The CEIP La Vallverda from the rural district of Valverde, in Elche (Alicante) began a process of environmental improvement which has led to an improvement in educational practice and has favoured coexistence, global training for the exercise of European citizenship, educational quality and research, the exchange of good practices and the development of scientific culture. All of this has been achieved through the coordination of the strategic partnership that has been maintained for three years with partner centres of pre-school and primary education in Portugal, Italy, Latvia and Greece that had similar experiences in their environment and a common rural context. It has been possible to promote the development of skills in pupils to learn about, interpret and intervene in the environment, encouraging personal responsibility and involvement in this task, not only among pupils, but also among families, town councils, European schools, associations and organisations in the area. It has also been possible to follow up the Erasmus+ KA1 project developed during the year before starting this project on the same subject of school gardens. The main objectives of the project were: - To improve basic competences. - To introduce European culture in our environment. - To strengthen creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. - To increase awareness of biodiversity in other countries. - To broaden knowledge of organic farming techniques. - Acquire innovative skills and methodologies. - To take advantage of school gardens to introduce them into the curriculum in a cross-cutting and multidisciplinary way. - To introduce schools into the European Eco-Schools Network (Ecoschools). - Encourage a shift towards sustainability: applying the 3R rule in everyday life (reduce, reuse and recycle). - Introduce healthy eating habits in our educational communities. - Encourage creativity through the development of different activities. - Contextualise natural science content in the physical, chemical and biological processes of the school garden. - To develop information processing skills through the compilation of culinary recipes using local products from each country. The results of the project correspond to what we had planned to achieve when we applied for the project. Having achieved the objectives we set out in the application, we have managed to achieve the following results: As tangible results we have produced a dossier of didactic resources for teachers, school garden diaries, organisation of lectures on implementation and maintenance of organic gardens, joint celebration of emblematic days for the environment, publication of works and workshops of pupils and teachers, surveys for families on habits of respect for the environment (waste, food and consumption), dossiers on native fauna and flora from all participating countries, a dossier of typical recipes from the participating countries, leaflets on measures to save water both at home and at school, leaflets on healthy eating guidelines. As strategic results, we have implemented innovative work dynamics such as "Outdoor Learning", "Learning by doing" and learning by projects based on the school garden as the centre of interest; in addition to the development of teamwork skills and the involvement of students, teachers and families in the organisation and development of activities, as well as the development and implementation of codes of conduct for saving energy and resources. The proposed objectives and results are related to the priorities selected in the application, as they were aimed at promoting the acquisition of key skills and competences through the development of high quality skills, by using an extraordinary resource of the project centres (school garden), which has allowed us to address the priority of achieving sustainable centres. All the activities carried out have been aimed at the creation of new outdoor learning spaces, taking advantage of the rural environment of the partnership centres and the implementation of ecological values and respect for nature, which has contributed to the creation and development of sustainable educational communities committed to the environment. The main problem occurred at the beginning of the project with the withdrawal of the Belgian partner, which finally decided not to sign the grant agreement with its National Agency. In view of this situation, the first meeting between the partners was used to look for possible solutions, following the recommendations of the Spanish National Agency at the project launch days, all possibilities were considered and finally the partnership decided to continue with the project, with the rest of the partners taking on the tasks assigned to the Belgian partner who was no longer going to participate. The other major difficulty of the project was caused by the spread of the pandemic by Covid_19 in March 2020, coinciding with the implementation of the C6 activity in Portugal, which two of the participating partners, Greece and Italy, were unable to attend due to restrictions in their countries at that time. The activity was able to take place in Portugal despite the fact that new restrictions were being imposed in the country, and the end and return of the participants to their countries of origin coincided with the declaration of a state of alarm and subsequent confinement. From that moment on, and thanks to the request for a 12-month extension in the execution of the project, we were able to continue working on it virtually.