INcluded in NAture is a 2-year project of 5 European schools with the common idea to combine social inclusion, inclusive education, the schools' and teachers' professional development with the nature topics. The idea of the project came from the necessity of strenghtening social inclusion in the partner schools. We also intend to improve our students’ education by equipping them with key competences as well as strengthen the qualifications of our teachers. Our strategic partnership aims to exchange experiences and know-how on social inclusion and teaching methods between European schools to produce an innovative 'INcluded in NAture Toolbox – the exchange of good practices'. As a result, we will equip teachers with methods to improve students’ knowledge, awarness to care for the environment and live in symbiosis with nature. We will encourage the participation of students who belong to minorities as well as socially disadvantaged and students with special educational needs. The project is designed for students aged 12-14. The approximate number of students involved in each school is 30-60. However, we intend to engage activly the whole school community into our actions. The students will be involved throughout the project in planning, evaluating, creating products, and disseminating. The project will follow two directions: - activities for students that aim to support social inclusion, close connection with nature, key competences including ICT and language skills - exchange of good practices among teachers The project is divided into fourstages: 1.Food in NATURE (school garden, natural recipes, healthy food, water) 2.Protect NATURE (ecology, recycling, eco-friendly lifestyle) 3.Life in NATURE (animals, plants, insect house) 4.Wellness in NATURE (relaxation, social skills, art, sounds of nature) The fifth part NATURE FESTIVAL will be a summary of the project. We plan project meetings: 5 virtual mobilities between our students and 5 LTTAs. Every part begins in LTTA where students will take part in the topic related CLIL lessons, workshops, outdoor learning and teachers will present their good practices on the particular project topic. The work will be continued at schools. We will have an art exhibition, a school garden, a house for insects, an eco contest for local schools and worshops with specialists. Students will take part in outdoor learning and educational trips. The last LTTA will be organized as NATURE FESTIVAl to prepare a common performance, edit final version of the The Nature Magazine and evaluate the project work. The INcluded inNAture Fair to be organized at the end of the project at each school will be a place to exhibit the results we have produced. All the materials will be collected as INcluded in NAture School Portfolio for future use. All the outcomes will be disseminated on ICT platforms to assure their sustainability. We plan to make digital posters, a NATURE film, School Portrait: Nature and I, ‘The tree of commitments’ and work on the project website, eTwinning, school blogs and social media to share our best results. All the materials created in this project will have an open access so that everyone can consult them and use as a useful tool. The Toolbox will be divided into 5 parts. Four parts will present activities on the 4 project topics in details (subject, target group, objectives, materials needed, timing, description of activities, ways of evaluation). The fifth part will present the schools' policies on social inclusion. The Nature Magazine will be the students’ tangible product which will be the result of the workshops, project activities, field trips, observation of the local nature. It will be divided into five parts: Spain, Slovakia, Finland, Slovenia, Poland. We will also produce the logo, baner, project leaflets, newletters, posters and videos about the schools. This project will be immersed into real-life context of the students' lives. It also offers practical solutions for teaching and enjoyable learning. It will allow to raise the schools' profile as innovative institutions which include all students. We will cooperate with local partners from the nature industry. The activities will be integrated into the curricula of the participating schools. Participating teachers will implement the knowledge and abilities to improve the quality of teaching by organizing workshops for students of all abilities. Through the project the partners will inspire other teachers to be reflective professionals who care for their professional development and the development of their schools.
We have just arrived at the end of the project Included in Nature. We did not have all the members in the first mobility because the Polish teacher announced, before starting the project, that Poland could not participate. As soon as we had this information we worked on sharing all the activities from Poland between the rest of the members of the project. We started in October 2019 with the first mobility in Majorca, Spain and we hosted students and teachers from Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland. We also had the opportunity to host students in Spanish families, as written in the project, and had the opportunity to share as much as possible with them. There were some students from the Spanish school that could share all the programmed activities with the teachers and students. We tried to widen the number of students as much as possible to disseminate the project between more students and families. We were supposed to go to Finland and develop the activities in March 2020 and we programmed the mobility in the meeting that all the coordinators had in Spain. However, we could not do the mobility because of COVID19. After this situation Finland communicated that it was impossible for them to go on in the project and the rest of the countries Slovenia, Slovakia and Spain decided to go on with it. We shared between us all the activities to be done by Finland and we finally did the two mobilities during 2022 after extending the project for one year more. The project was divided into four stages: 1.Food in NATURE (school garden, natural recipes, healthy food, water) 2.Protect NATURE (ecology, recycling, eco-friendly lifestyle) 3.Life in NATURE (animals, plants, insect house) 4.Wellness in NATURE (relaxation, social skills, art, sounds of nature) The fifth part NATURE FESTIVAL will be a summary of the project. Every country was in charge of one of the previous parts: 1. Food in nature for Spain, 2. Protect Nature, Finland, 3. Life in Nature, Slovakia. 4. Wellness in Nature, Poland and Nature Festival, Slovenia. Number 2 and 4 were divided into the rest of the countries and their mobilities to cover all the aspects written in the project. We started the project with some necessities in every school although we did not measure or explain them previously. It was important to know that every country had its own different situations, but we could check that we had the same problems. Students that could not finish the compulsory education with a certificate. We had a big uncertainty while doing the project because of the COVID situation, but we were positive to continue with it and we do not regret this decision because students and teachers could enjoy and work the activities and get a big benefit from them. We were resilient and we spread this attitude to the students and we think it was some of the best part of the project. We did not give up in difficult situations. Most of the students could have the opportunity to travel to a foreign country, meet new people and see that students from other countries have the same needs and interests as they have. Not only the students had the option to be benefited by the project, but also the teachers had the opportunity to share their experiences, good practices and the way to face the same problems at school. As it was written in the project, we have done a Nature Magazine where we can check all the activities that we have done during the time we have developed the project. It will be disseminated through all the rest of the workers at every school, shown through social media and in the webpage created for the project. This is the way to share it with all the people that did not participate in the project. We got the benefits that we had planned in the project although we did not do all the mobilities because of the circumstances. Students benefited from the fact to exchange their lives with students from other countries, to check the way they lived. It was also important to be aware of a different way of life that made them to be more tolerant to something different. We have to consider that being in a host family was only possible in the Spanish mobility, we had to stay at a hotel and it was also positive because we could meet the other students there and even with the children from the same country that had been separated for a long time due to COVID situation. In conclusion, we can say that we could fulfill all the requirements from the project that we had at the beginning of it. We made Erasmus + visible for students, teachers and families and we could share everything we have done through social media, the web page and the dissemination of the final product, in this case the Nature Magazine that can be used during the following years. At this moment we have contacted organizations to widen the final product in their social media. We will also send it to every member of the teachers group.