Kinder to the Sea

"<< Background >>We applied for this project as all three schools feel passionate about developing a respect for the environment and and an understanding of raising awareness of the importance of combatting climate change in their pupils. This falls under the horizontal priority of ""environment and fight against climate change"".The pupils in all three schools are very young and consequently at learning stages of development were they are predominantly focused on themselves and their immediate environment, thus the idea of climate change as a common global problem is a difficult one for them to comprehend. By engaging in a project that began with an exploration of their local environment, we addressed the need for the children to extend their understanding of local problems to areas further away. By interacting with other children of a similar age group, completing similar tasks and sharing common problems in the three localities we allowed the pupils to understand our interdependence on the environment in a global sense and to move from identifying problems to a place of suggesting solutions to problems and beginning to implement them. For staff too, sharing pedagogical practice addressed the need for professional development in this area.<< Objectives >>We had five key objectives, for staff/pupils to:1. Understand water pollution and climate change as a global problem. The schools had localities of water in common (the Irish and Estonian schools were located on the coast and the Spanish school - the marsh). By pupils and staff completing local field trips and sharing findings with one another further understanding of the impact of water pollution on human health, marine life, climate change, aesthetic damage was developed.2. Develop alternative sustainable uses for litter. Each school introduced new sustainable pedagogical practices to one another.3. Share best practice in environmental education through information exchange, and teacher mobility. The mobilites were instrumental in professional development and the common padlet proved to be a long-term resource for even after the conclusion of the project.4. Observe best early education practices in the area of environmental care.This took place through information exchange on the padlet and jobshadowing opportunities in montessoris and primary school on mobilities.5. Experience a shared identify as European schools. This was developed by learning about one another through the padlet, ebooks, mobilities etc<< Implementation >>We had several key activities:1. Coordinator Planning Meeting - We began our project by meeting together online.2. Project Launch - All schools launched their projects before the end of the 2021/22 academic year. This was via websites and newsletters. 3. Field Trip and e-book: To build understanding of climate change as a global problem each school engaged in a field trip to their locality and presented their findings to the other schools via an ""e-book/ video"" on the common padlet.4. Mascot Introduction: Each school had an environmental mascot that would to other countries to meet its mascot ""friends"" and sent digital postcards home sharing the good environmental work observed.5. Halloween Pupil interaction: To build a common bond pupils from each school sent greetings to one another. This was also carried out at Christmas and Easter.6. Teacher Mobility to Spain: A key part of our project was the observation of good pedagogical practices in early years/ primary schools on mobility.7. Christmas greetings 8. Penpals: To continue building bonds with one another as European friends9. Mobility to Ireland10. Easter greetings11. Mobility to Estonia12. Project conclusion: Online meeting to plan report/future cooperation<< Results >>Concrete results are visible on our shared ""Kinder to the Sea"" padlet, these include:- The shared padlet itself (this replaced the original intended Twinspace, due to technical issues and following National Agency approval)- Shared e-books/videos about field trips to a water locality- ""Green"" mascots for each school- Introductory presentation for each mascot- Mascot digital postcardshttps://padlet.com/mrbrennan3/kinder-to-the-sea-erasmus-8df29s1agi3rl0qgAdditionally:- Mascot diaries/ communication from the mascot - Noticeboards- Newsletters- Zoom virtual meetings- Workshops on mobility (art, gardening, IT)- Penpal letters- Press releases- Presentation by Irish Coordinator to a workshop on ""Small Scale Partnerships"" hosted by Irish National Agency Léargas in Dublin (January 2023).- Final ReportHowever, by its nature the development of environmental awareness is not restricted to physical resource, it is about embedding sustainable practices in schools in the long-term. An overall attitude change has taken place in the three schools - with planning for teaching/ procuring resources/ organising activities and physical space in a sustainable manner. We are very proud of all of these results."