The project aimed to address the transition from the first to the last years of school in a progressive and coherent way, with the objective of achieving a formula that, taking inspiration from early childhood education, resolves the identified challenges that Primary Education faces today, by applying a change in its pedagogical approach. The goal was to promote pupils' personal development as well as their academic development, by establishing dynamics that favour interaction between peers and with adults, decision-making and problem-solving, group work and creativity, while respecting the individual needs of each pupil. To achieve this, modifications were necessary, not only in the methodologies used, but also in the transformation of physical spaces and the training of teachers in order to empower them with this new approach. This project followed a logical phased approach in researching, developing and testing an alternative to traditional teaching and learning based on the use of innovative learning environments in primary education.
Partners’ long-term observations and additional research established that many children lose interest in going to school as they progress through the compulsory education system. Reflecting on this and observing the changing attitudes of pupils in the classroom as they progress through their schooling, our partnership concluded that there is a critical point at which this shift takes place. This is the transition from infant to primary education. It is also at this time that there is an important methodological change, moving from working in spaces centred on the wellbeing of the pupil to spaces centred on the achievement of academic success. Knowing, thanks to numerous investigations, that the emotional state of the student is key for meaningful learning to take place, we wanted to extend and adapt the practices that have proven successful in early childhood education to primary education in order to reduce the struggle that both children and teachers often experience in the classroom, due to lack of motivation, lack of autonomy, diversity in the rhythms and styles of learning, decrease in group cohesion, short attention span and lack of interaction; all this leading to a decrease in aspirations and academic success.