Project titled: „Children in the forest - prevention of nature deficit disorder” will be carried out within 14 months by two schools: Non-public Primary School of the Foundation of the Queen Saint Jadwiga in Przyłęków (Poland) and Preilu Briva Skola (Latvia). The main aim of the Project is to enable the teachers from both the schools to share their experience and knowledge concerning the methodology of Montessori education, ‘’forest education” inspired by the idea of forest classrooms, tutoring programme as well as methods of informal education. We are going to develop new methods of teaching by combining all the already mentioned forms of education in order to establish the work through the way of connecting in order to attain complementarity pursuant to individual needs of the environment of the social education. Through the exchange of the good practices we would like to develop pedagogical work at our school in order to help better our students to gain skills and competences necessary in their current and future adult lives. Moreover, the teachers’ participation in the international project will allow them to get incomparably better results than as if they participated in the regional projects. Apart from that, professional Montessori teachers are ready to implement good practices and new methods to everyday activities. They are willing to cooperate with the organisations working in different fields. International cooperation would enable us to implement innovative practices as well as to understand better the connections between formal and informal teaching and learning methods. The next goal of this project is teachers’ professional development. This development will improve the quality of teaching giving positive and long lasting results. What is the most important, our school is situated in the mountain region which has smaller chances for development. The project’s grant could help us to equalize chances for the teachers as well as to build European partnership in regard to close similarity between our schools. The main aims of the Project: 1)sharing the knowledge and experience in the scope of informal education in Montessori, “forest education” inspired by forest kindergartens, forming of social abilities (Ashoka), tutoring, TRIZ, Waldorf, the ways of cooperation with the parents and the partnership with the local community in order; 2)modern professional commitment in searching for good practices and new methods, finding a way of connecting the methods of work in order to attain the complementarity pursuant to individual needs of the environment of the social education; 3)improving the skills and qualifications of employees in the use of forest education in kindergartens and higher education levels and combining educational tools and methods; 4)development of original curricula in the fields of mathematics - natural sciences, language and emotional development, including forest and field education methods on a European scale; 5)improving teachers' skills in foreign languages; 6)exchange of the knowledge about creating the optimal environment which will help to better develop in children and young people not only the knowledge but also social skills, i.e. work in a group, creativity, openness to changes, empathy, leadership and mindfulness; 7)promotion of a healthy lifestyle -prevention of nature deficit disorder; 8)establishing contacts and permanent cooperation with a school in Latvia; 9)preparing the school as a place and team for national and international trainings in the field of outdoor education; We will achieve these aims thanks to the activities accomplished in the course of the project: participation of 10 teachers from our school and 10 from the partnership school in the course of one week’s visits in partnership organizations. The planned activities will have sustainable influence on the participants and especially on increasing of the attractiveness of the educational program. The teachers will widen the knowledge and experience worth sharing with the colleagues from the parent educational facilities. The Project by its range will also include the pupils from our school as the teachers who teach them will use considerably richer methodical experience using various methods of teaching (the added value of the Project). Introducing of innovative solutions in the future will serve the exchange of experience between the pupils of the partnership establishments. The method of carrying out of the project, i.e. the trips abroad, is a more attractive form of learning and acting on the pupils in a motivating way. Except for the above activities we will elaborate a rich documentation of the project including the syllabus and forming of the abilities based on learning through experience the access to it will be provided through placing of the materials in the open educational resources, among other, on the Propagating Platform of Erasmus+ program and in professional magazines/internet portals.
Project entitled "Children in the forest - prevention of nature deficit disorders" was carried out by two schools: the Private Primary School of the Queen Saint Jadwiga Foundation in Przyłęków (Poland) and Preilu Briva skola (Latvia) for a period of 24 months. The main goal of this project was to enable the teachers of our school, together with a partner organization, to share knowledge and experience in the field of specificity and methodology in Montessori education, "forest education" inspired by the idea of forest kindergartens, development tutoring among students and methods of informal education. We have developed modern working methods by combining the above-mentioned methods in order to obtain the best educational effect for children and adults . Through the exchange of good practices in our schools, the workshop of educators was developed to help our students gain the skills and competences needed for their current and future functioning. Participation in an international project brought much better results than in the case of local projects. The professional environment within the Montessori organization began to introduce good practices and new methods to everyday activities not only in the school in Przyłęków, but also in other facilities of the Foundation, including in Koszarawa, Kęty and Grodzisk Mazowiecki. Cooperation at the international level allowed to implement innovative practices, a better understanding of the links between formal and non-formal education. The experience related to the implementation of the project had a significant impact on the improvement of the quality of teacher education - it should bring positive and long-lasting effects in building the image of the teacher in the school community. The received funding allowed equal opportunities for teachers and built a lasting partnership in Europe. The main goals of the project: 1) sharing knowledge and experience in education in Montessori, "forest education" inspired by forest kindergartens, shaping social skills (the five principles of Ashoka), tutoring, TRIZ, Waldorf, ways of cooperation with parents and partnership with the local community; 2) modern professional involvement in the search for good practices and their implementation in their school environments; 3) improving the skills and qualifications of employees in the use of forest education in kindergartens and classes at higher education levels; 4) improvement of proprietary teaching programs in the fields of mathematics - science, language and emotional development, taking into account the methods of forest and field education on a European scale; 5) improving teachers' skills in the field of foreign languages; 6) exchange of knowledge on the creation of an optimal environment that will allow children and adultsto better develop not only knowledge but also social skills, such as team work, creativity, openness to change, empathy, leadership and mindfulness; 7) promotion of a healthy lifestyle - prevention of nature deficit disorders; 8) preparing the school as a place and team for national and international training in the field of education; We achieved these goals thanks to the activities planned in the project: participation in physical mobility of 10 teachers of our school and 5 in virtual mobility, as well as 8 teachers from the partner school (physical mobility) and 5 in virtual mobility. The planned activities have a long-term impact on the participants, and in particular on increasing the attractiveness of the educational program in partner schools. The scope of the project also covered students, teachers and the entire local community of schools not directly involved in the activities planned in this project. The developed good practices were implemented in other schools of our Foundation (value added project). The very way of implementing the project, i.e. trips abroad, was a more attractive form of learning, which motivates both students and teachers. In addition to the above activities, we have developed a rich project documentation in the form of an e-book "Handbook for outdoor education practitioners", articles disseminated on the Polish educational platform E-mi (meaning Education can be different), the Edukacja pod Chmurką webinar and on the websites of partner schools. In addition, we conducted an international training on the eTwinning Live platform on forest pedagogy and the possibilities of its implementation in various forms of education. Access to the above materials will be ensured by placing them in open educational resources, incl. on the Erasmus Plus Dissemination Platform.