Globally there is a growing wealth of evidence in support of taking children’s learning outside the classroom. Every Experience Matters Karen Malone (2008) reviewed over 100 studies drawing on research from around the globe identifying the positive impact of learning outside the classroom on children’s whole development.Learning outdoors offers a wide range of benefits to all children and young people. It provides access to fresh air which encourages sustained pupil concentration levels and their alertness as well as supporting the development of a healthy immune system. Outdoor learning facilitates the opportunity to be physical and in turn develop physical literacy.Social interaction is enhanced when pupils and staff work together outdoors. Not only does it foster a more relaxed raport between teachers and learners but it is also a chance for different individuals to excel by supporting different learning styles. It can be particularly beneficial to those with additional support needs such as ADHD. So why not take children outside to the school ground, which offers suitable conditions for outdoor learning? In Slovakia, most of the lessons are taken indoor. Staying outside is more or less sporadically, not regular or systematic. But in survey Slovak teachers expressed their interest to implement the outdoor education at their schools. In contrast, in the UK, outdoor education is implemented in several schools and teachers are regularly trained to improve their skills. Germany is also partially successful, although it is mainly pilot projects not a national practice.The project objectives were set as a result of internal research and communication between project partners to support the overall aim of the project - to support the skills of teachers for transforming the spaces for outside learning and develop children through meaningful outdoor education implemented in improved school yards.The objectives were:- To transform their school grounds or nearby public places for better outside learning.- To motivate teachers to take their everyday learning outside.- To offer the ideas for outside learning activities.- To support teachers` confidence in application of new methods of outside teaching and learning.- To gain skills of project partners in specific field of complex planning the re-design of spaces for outside learning.- To provide guidance on how to ensure the sustainability of change through collaboration in the school community.- The last, but not least, foster quality improvements, and innovation excellence at the level of education and training institutions, in particular through enhanced transnational cooperation between education and training providers.To achieve the project goals, Slovak, German and British organizations shared their experiences and expertise, while each project partner adapted the project outputs to the needs of national target groups.Learning through Landscapes (www.ltl.org.uk) is a UK charity whose priority is to promote benefits of outdoor education. The partner's expertise is based on more than 20 years of experience in supporting kindergartens and elementary schools to implement sustainable outdoor education into daily practice.Tree of Life (www.stromzivota.sk) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that has been dedicated to environmental education and cultural heritage protection for 40 years. The organization prepares and coordinates environmental education programs in which approximately 150 schools from all over Slovakia participate. The aim of the civic association INAK (www.trochuinak.sk) is to support and develop innovative approaches, to use creative methods in the educational process of children, youth and adults, to support lifelong learning and to improve the key competences of learners.The Unabhängigen Institut für Umweltfragen (www.ufu.de) is a public research institute active in the field of conservation of natural resources, emission reductions, and promotion of participation, social justice and sustainable economics.In this project, we created a handbook (O1) - a comprehensive guide for primary and high school teachers who seek to improve teaching outside, either through inspiring activities or directly transforming the school ground. The aim of the handbook is to help schools make the most of their schoolyard's potential for regular and constantly improving outdoor education.The content of the handbook is supported by online modules (O2) and suggestions for outdoor activities or school ground changes (O4). Links to these additional resources are provided in the relevant sections of the handbook. All materials were created in 3 languages - Slovak, English and German.In addition to the handbook, we have also organized a pilot training course. The content of the course was implemented in training modules, and during the course we also introduced the outdoor activities available for download (output O4).

Environmental education in Slovakia, and also in other EU countries, doesn`t comply with its elementary mission and it`s more symbolical or theoretical, than practical or real. Teachers in primary schools should implement environmental education into daily education of general subjects, though they might be missing relevant skills, knowledge or, more often, motivation for environmental education.One of the consequences of the absence of quality environmental education is that young people are not able to undertake the responsibility for their own impact on local environment, because they are missing the linkage between general information and knowledge presented at schools and real life in local community. Therefore one of the key roles of environmental education should be not only to deliver the knowledge but to change the attitude of young people and to increase their activities towards the sustainability of local communities.For this reason, within the project BIOPROFILES - Implementation of practical environmental education in schools, an educational program, teaching materials, worksheets and suggestions for teachers in practice were designed and developed, focused on practical environmental education with a link to the local environment and the impact of individual activities on the community, in order to strengthen their skills and competences and to help acquire knowledge of environmental issues and problems.Within the BIOPROFILES project, in which 6 partners active in the field of environmental education from 4 countries cooperated - from Slovakia (INAK, Tree of Life, CPU Nitra), Italy (CNR-IBE), Spain (VITA XXI) and the United Kingdom (LTL), innovative materials for practical environmental education have been developed for the target group of primary school teachers and pupils, with the aim of:- support professional development of teachers in environmental field,- support the skills of teachers in active use and implementation of environmental topics into daily teaching,- deliver high-quality teaching and adopt a new pupil-centred method of research-based learning,- increase the environmental awareness of teachers and pupils through monitoring of local environment,- provide teachers of primary schools in SK, IT, ES and UK with innovative teaching materials, nowadays missing on the educational markets of the above mentioned countries, combining general subjects, while integrating practical environmental concept into teaching process.These GENERAL OBJECTIVES of project and OVERALL PROJECT GOAL aimed at “Supporting the skills of teachers in primary schools in the implementation of practical environmental education into teaching of general subjects” was reached through development of 4 project outcomes:- TRAINING PROGRAMME “ENVIRONMENTAL MINIMUM” (O1) for teachers, divided into 4 days, aimed at acquiring the basic knowledge and skills needed to implement environmental education (EE) in practical teaching,- THE HANDBOOK “TEACHING GREEN” (O2), presenting in details 7 key themes of environmental education - water, biodiversity, natural and cultural heritage, air, energy, waste and the human environment, for the acquisition of basic knowledge of the teacher on the given topics,- INDICATORS BOOK (O3), representing 14 indicators for monitoring the quality of the local environment, in the form of inspirations for students` research-based activities, for the practical teaching of EE,- COLLECTION OF BIOPROFILES (O4), with 52 examples of research-based observation aimed at monitoring the quality of the local environment of selected cities in 4 countries - Slovakia, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.The target group of the BIOPROFILES project were project partners and teachers of pupils aged 10-15 (i.e. 2nd grade of primary schools in Slovakia and relevant schools in the partners` countries). These teachers should implement environmental education in everyday education, mainly as cross-subject, though they often lack these skills, knowledge or, more often, motivation for environmental education. 29 teachers and 15 project partners were involved in the project activities as follows:- testing of O1 / TRAINING PROGRAMME through active participation in educational activities in Italy, Spain and Slovakia,- testing of O2 / HANDBOOK while using materials in their teaching,- monitoring the quality of the local environment while using the O3 / INDICATORS BOOK,- practical monitoring and summarizing their findings in O4 / COLLECTION OF BIOPROFILES.Project outcomes have the potential to significantly contribute to filling the gap in the availability of relevant training programme and materials for gaining relevant knowledge and skills in the field of environmental education while complying with European priority in the national context of “Strengthening the profile of the teaching profession”.

In Europe, positive child outcomes are a major goal of ECEC programmes. Also, the competences of the workforce are considered one of the more salient predictors of ECEC quality. Based on the opinion of Slovak Commitee of the World organization for Early childhood Education, reviewing new State educational programme for pre-schools in Slovakia, 2015, there is a discrepancy in the number of performance standards in different educational areas, while more emphasise is put on mathematics and processing of information (47) than e.g. on health and physical movement of children (13). Therefore, the more balanced approach is recommended. Concrete educational programmes or relevant materials for teachers, supporting the elimination of this discrepancy, however, were missing before the project. The need for relevant training programmes, focused on outdoor education, was clearly defined and confirmed also by the Slovak pre-school teachers, participants of the online research, in February 2016.Through this research, 286 responders (88% of the total number) expressed their interest in new training materials and resources for outdoor activities. The situation with integrating the outdoor approach in ECEC, differs in European countries greatly. The idea of using this approach, originated in Scandinavia in the 50ties, is nowadays practiced in many European countries, e.g. SE, DK, UK, DE, CZ and other. So called „Forest schools“, based on this approach, providing alternative to mainstream education, are well established in the UK (over 300 schools). Few of them can be found in CZ (120), where they were officially recognized by the law in March 2016. Very few can be found in Slovakia, too (less than 10). In Denmark, it is common to integrate the aspects of the Forest school approach, into the regular pre-school environment, linking it to official curricula. Research in the UK and Scandinavia, as well as all the other countries, where outdoor education is commonly used in ECEC as a mainstream education approach, or integrated into the mainstream, shows following benefits of this approach on child´s development: - Increase of self-confidence and self-belief- Development in social skills and awareness of their actions on others- Increased language and communication skills- A keenness to participate — motivation and concentration- Improved stamina and gross and fine motor skills- Development of respect for and interest in the natural environment- Increased health and overall wellbeing of childrenBased on these proved benefits, the project focused on:- transferring of verified ECEC teaching methodology, built on outdoor education concept, originated in and inspired by Scandinavian educational traditions, nowadays used in the UK and other European countries, to countries, where this concept is less used and underdeveloped;- adapting this methodology for the use in the public pre-schools to make it accessible for as many ECEC teachers, and, at the same time, reaching as many children as possible, in 4 countries (SK, UK, DK, EE)- through developing project outputs: O1/Handbook for the pre - school teacher on outdoor education, O2/ Online training modules, O3/ Standards of the outdoor teacher and O4/ Ideas for outdoor activities - fostering the skills of pre-school teachers on outdoor education, supporting their implementation of outdoor education approach in practice- developing additional motivational tools for teachers, to encourage the use and implementation of this approach - to support international cooperation in ECEC and developing new thematic network focused on outdoor education, including pre-schools, public and private institutions, NGOs, Universities and VET schools, supporting the use of new teaching approaches and sharing of best practices in the sector of Early Childhood Education and Care on European levelIn order to achieve project objectives, all together 6 partners, 3 from Slovakia (2 NGOs and University, focused on informal or formal education), one from UK (educational institution), Estonia and Denmark (kindergartens with outdoor approach quite differently integrated) were involved in the partnership. Expertise of above institutions contributed to development of a strong network, leading to successful fulfillment of project objectives, with developing bases of future long - term cooperation for the benefit of all involved. Project outputs and the structure of new training programme (based on practical use of O1&O2), developed in the project, has the potential to positively influence large group of pre-school teachers and workers with children and bring positive impact on great numbers of children across Europe, and thus contribute to Enhancing the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC).

The project developed an environmental education programme called One World Learning (OWL) in which we promoted diversity, citizenship , language learning, integrated science, team work and critical thinking in an environmental context for children, youths and adults. The overall aim was to trigger behavioural changes that will lead to inquisitive, empowered, socially inclusive and environmentally responsible individuals and communities. The project addressed the urgent need for encouraging active citizenship, critical thinking and intercultural exchange across communities in Europe as recognised in the Lisbon Treaty. The resources and events delivered encouraged participants to be active citizens, to think critically about how they can improve their local environments and learn and share knowledge and experiences from other individuals and communities across cultures and countries. OWL has combined best practice, innovation, research and experience from five environmental NGO’s to develop One World Learning into a project which is relevant on a European level and beyond. Through transnational cooperation and exchange between education and training providers and other stakeholders we managed to achieve the following objectives: 1. To strengthen partnerships and networks between European countries in the field of environmental education. 2. To develop an international environmental education programme based on best practice and European standards. 3. To promote positive environmental behaviours, citizenship, critical thinking and innovation in children and youths. 4. To strengthen teacher and leader professional development in the field of environmental education. 5. To promote diversity and intercultural exchange through language learning for children 6. To promote new interests in science learning through opportunities for practical outdoor activities 7. Promote international awareness of the educational and health benefits of learning in the natural environment using both local and international research findings. 8. To connect outdoor learning and social inclusion The project also addressed national priorities for the year 2017 in the fields: 1. Foreign Language teaching and/or learning 2. Life Skills for Children 3. Applied Learning 4. Science and Technology 5. Alternative Learning programme and initiatives Project activities impacted 950 people, including 500 children and 450 teaching professionals. After the project has ended it has the potential to impact tens of thousands of children- In Malta for example- we work with around 18,000 children per year who participate in the schools programme which was developed through this project. The network developed is expanding and continuing to influence environmental and educational organisations around the world, impacting children in turn. The partnership consisted of: Birdlife Malta (Lead partner); Maltese Ministry for Education and Employment; Birdlife Europe; OTOP (Polish Society for the Protection of Birds); SPEA (Portugese Society for the Study of Birds; and Learning Through Landscapes (UK). By working together we shared best practice and learnt from each other to create an environmental education network that will have longer term relevance and reach through Birdlife International. Year 1 consisted of three transnational meetings. The core themes that were covered included: Introduction, team building, planning and risk management (T1- Malta), communications, branding and engagement planning (T2- Belgium), Intellectual Outputs and defining One World Learning Europe (T3- Poland). This year was mainly focused on development of intellectual outputs 01-05. There was also a learning, teaching, training activity (C1), in which the partnership came together for teacher training in the U.K.Year 2 focused on the development of digital outputs (06) and the final One World Learning programme (07), all the dissemination events took place this year and there was a final learning, teaching, training event hosted by BirdLife Europe and Central Asia. There were two transnational meetings, one was in the UK and the other took place in Portugal.

Education is an important tool for change and shaping the future of our planet. The methods to facilitate learning therefore should be treated with utmost care to nurture the next generation of decision makers. Our natural world is currently under threat with growing environmental issues such as climate change, habitat loss and pollution. Early childhood education plays a vital role in the development of values and skills. This means this age group is ideal to instil care for nature and environmentally-responsible values. Young children also require a different approach to learning which is exploratory, sensory and interactive and an outdoor space with nature around provides a great setting for this. To achieve this approach, we also need to inspire and build the confidence of teachers to do outdoor and nature-based learning activities. We have to keep in mind that not all schools have access to nature or outdoor areas and we need to give them ideas on how to make best use of what they have and how to improve their school grounds. Teachers also need more support, resources and confidence to learn about nature and use nature and the outdoor spaces available whilst making sure they also follow the curriculum requirements. Therefore, with Teach, Inspire and Protect (TIP) we focused on new methods of integrating cross-curricular outdoor and nature-based learning to benefit to the whole school community and broader the sustainability agenda. Therefore, TIP built a platform for teachers and also parents to inspire and learn about nature using digital resources, and also find activities, ideas and best tools for outdoor and nature-based experiential learning. Our combination of partners from schools, NGO's, academic and government bodies enabled us a thorough examination of best practice teaching methods and ensured our approach is sustainable and realistic for the current educational systems in different countries. During TIP we engaged the following audiences:-Educators in early years and primary sector-School management-Experts or practitioners in environmental education-Parents-Organisations’ networks-Policy makers -Academia -General public-And most importantly children!The results achieved in the project: -Interactive modules to learn about nature in a fun way and help teachers to tackle nature with their students-An accredited course with the Institute for Education in Outdoor Learning through Nature-A certified course in High quality spaces for outdoor learning and play in the Early Years-Activities and resources for parents and Early years educators -A series of videos about nature -A detailed methodological approach on contemporary teaching approaches implemented now in schools-Research and survey on outdoor teaching-Guidelines for teacher training outdoors-Mapping the school grounds-Evidence for education and environmental policies. The overall impact on participants and organisations involved: -Increased knowledge of new and innovative methods and practices in teaching outdoors-Experience and connect with local environment and the wildlife that lives there. -Learn about and be able to deliver sensory and values-based connection with nature activities-Positive attitudes and personal commitment to environmental protection -Strengthening professional development, profile and opportunities for participating teachers-Increased motivation and rewarding educational experiences with their students-Fostering critical thinking and problem-solving approaches which will allow teachers to overcome challenges in a productive and positive way-Development of high-quality skills and competences in outdoor and nature-based learning in early years-Instil love and care for nature in the young generation-Involve parents in the process of change and experiential learning in nature with their children-Enhancement of knowledge, competences and skills regarding implementation of European projects -Increase of the exchange of good practices and cooperation with other educational organisations. Using our networks in the partnership and existing platforms, we can amplify the impact of our project on the long term on a European and global scale. The resources were shared through the partners existing networks such as:-International School Grounds Alliance, a global network of educational organisations dedicated to enhancing outdoor learning in school grounds-BirdLife International network which consists of 120 partners globally.TIP is aiming to instil in children a lifelong care for nature which will ultimately impact the decisions those children make in protecting the environment and their contributions as future adults and active citizens. Change starts with one small step, when this change is amplified on a global scale we can make a difference in future of the planet.