In the Erasmus plus programme, we have recognized the benefits that the educators who went on mobility provided both for themselves, as for the colleagues inside and outside the institution, as well as the benefits for children through implementation of better pedagogical practices. Firstly, we wanted to raise the quality of pedagogical practice by referring educators to professional courses that do not exist in Croatia nor are affordable. We wanted to raise the level of satisfaction of educators in order to ensure their greater intrinsic motivation to create positive practice. With the project we tried to ensure a greater networking of educators with educators from other institutions from Europe in order to ensure continuous learning from educators of different cultural and educational background. We wanted to ensure greater self-confidence of our Erasmus coordinator in writing the project and working with the team, which is one of the most important aspects of working on the project. With quality educated staff, we want to modernise our institution and achieve greater internationalization of the institution. We want to become the preferred institution for professional development of educators from Europe.
We are harmonizing our Annual Plans and Programmes within the Kindergarten Varaždin on the basis of the European Development Plan, which we wrote in 2016, and on which all our subsequent projects are built. As the child attending our programmes is at the center of our interest, and his needs are at the center of the child's interest, it is important for us to provide such an environment that will enable the child and children to proactively participate in the creation of their own knowledge (based on the theory of socio-constructivism). All of our educators are trained to work with children of preschool age, and although today's Act on Preschool Education allows non-professional substitutes to work in the kindergarten, Kindergarten Varaždin does not employ such. This fact is good in the context of the quality of pedagogical practice that we provide to the entrusted child.Through the analysis of focus groups of parents, we learned that it is necessary to internationalize and modernize our institution, but since we could not find high-quality courses for teachers in Croatia that would ensure this need, we applied for this grant and secured funds for mobility of teachers with the aim of greater modernization and internationalization.