"<< Background >>Our project aims at installing the values of a greener world from the start: to children as young as 6 years in Primary schools, their teachers, and their families. The Greener Green project will provide these target groups with an Evaluation and Assessment tool on how “green” their school is, action plans, training, lesson plans for teachers and even a fun platform where very young children can record their green actions, get rewarding praise and motivation to continue!-Blue room innovation, develops technological solutions that help people and businesses to adapt their behaviours’ and business models to the circular economy. Our aim in leading this project is to work further in a “Greener Green Tool” for students and familiarize them with new digital skills for communication and implementing changes. We will use this project as a stepping stone to develop additional tools, content, knowhow and to strengthen international relationships in order to spread the results among citizens, companies and public stakeholders.Blue room envisages a fundamental need to adopt new financial mechanisms and technology transfers to help the majority of the population adapt to climate change and support human well-being through applicable projects that begin from small changes at an early age. -IDEC operates a Training Centre and has been training over 300 primary teachers and organisational trainers per year, for the past 10 years. It also has an extensive network of primary schools that it cooperates with for KA1 mobilities. Through this project, IDEC wishes to enrich its curriculum and courses with training pertaining specifically to the application of Green Deal and ecological principles in the school environment and to strengthen its ties with existing and new partnerships in primary schools of its region and throughout Greece. -FAPEL, being Luxembourg’s national federation for parents’ associations with 3.000 members, has a great need to find new, contemporary open resources and to disperse the green results and principles of the project to the country’s primary schools, pupils and their families. -ULiège, and its Laboratory of Climatology specifically, needs to improve their dissemination of their expertise and knowledge about climate change to the general public, starting from the early age of 6 year old students and their families. -The Primary School of Vareia in Mytilene, being in a remote area with limited access to training opportunities and learning activities, needs to stay onboard the EU vessel of change and benefit in upskilling its teachers and ameliorating its everyday green practices. -The Bell-Iloc school in Cataluña in a suburban area with many immigrant pupils, is witnessing newly booming tourism aggravating the natural environment and the agricultural sector that was originally the areas’ main activity. The school needs to educate its teachers and children on how to mitigate this chalenge by changing practices. -The Scuola Europea di Varese is already participating in the ""Green School"" project in cooperation with the local authorities but needs more digital resources to implement its digital and green transaction.We understand that schools must be wired for technology and at the same time, become more sustainable and greener than ever before. Teachers will be provided with an all-inclusive platform which will host the Assessment Tool, the Training programme, the lesson plans and the “Greener Green Tool” for students to upload their green accomplishments and receive positive reinforcement. In that way, teachers and pupils will be familiarized with new digital skills for communication among them, and will embrace the values of the Green Deal and a greener Europe. Parents will also be sensitized by the behavioral changes of their children which, in turn, will be transferred to the home and the community environment.<< Objectives >>The Green Deal is the Commission’s new Growth Strategy that proposes three concrete actions: Europe to become the first climate neutral continent in the world by 2050, boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy and restore biodiversity and cut pollution. Policies, funds, and resources have been designed and predicted towards that direction but unless European citizens, from an early school age, embrace and identify with the cause, the plan cannot succeed.But what is a “green school”? Many definitions have been given but usually they have the following elements in common: protecting the Environment, improving the health and quality of the learning environment, integrating learning opportunities with the built infrastructure, being inclusive and sustainable. Even though there are quite a lot of initiatives regarding green schools or “eco” schools around the globe, the consortium was intrigued by not finding a specific project in the EU that comprises of a digital evaluation tool, a corresponding teachers’ training and a digital platform that ensures the ongoing cooperation and communication of all parties at a school (teachers, staff, pupils and parents), where they can all contribute and assess their green goals and everyday actions. Our project aims at installing the values of a greener world from the start: to children as young as 6 years in Primary schools, their teachers, and their families. The Greener Green project will provide all these target groups with an Evaluation and Assessment tool on how “green” their school is, action plans, training, lesson plans for teachers and even a fun platform where very young children can record their green actions, get rewarding praise and motivation to continue!The main goal of this project is to supply teachers and pupils of primary schools and their families with a quality digital assessment process of how “green” is their school and how they can practically implement concrete changes to improve it in that respect, support teachers with the necessary training to establish and maintain green practices at their school and provide all with a digital platform for cooperation and motivation to embrace changes at an everyday level. Main Target Groups Teachers of primary schoolsPupils of primary schools (6-12years old)Pupils’ families and local community The concrete objectives of the Greener Green project are:-To make primary schools in Europe greener by embracing, and contributing to the aims of the Green Deal.-To train teachers on the principles of sustainability, environmentally friendly, innovative practices to prepare learners and school staff to become true agents of change.-To enhance teachers and pupils’ digital skills by training them on how to use and employ an online platform to implement real-life projects, plans and objectives towards a greener school.-To teach pupils how to identify and adapt the values of a greener, sustainable Europe and how they can track their actions and progress through an innovative digital tool.-To make pupils’ families and Communities’ more aware of the necessity of a greener and sustainable Europe that starts for the school that their own child attends, to transform the intangible values to tangible and rewarding actions. -To assist, on a local and European level, the European Commission’s need to actively involve its citizens in its priorities.<< Implementation >>The project has a duration of 24 months and will unfold in 3 stages:Stage 1 is the preparation and research stage (M1-M6). During this stage, and after the kickoff meeting in Girona, the responsible partners will develop the project management plan, the quality assurance plan, the evaluation methodology and tools and the dissemination plan. Partners will also create the graphical identity of the project, the logo and leaflet as well as the project webpage and the social media accounts. Care will be taken for the harmonious color scheme among all visual aids and materials. A specific color scheme will be established to be used in all online and printed materials, a letterset decided upon, and Word template and Powerpoint template will be created to be used in all communication needs. This will create a better branding for the project so that is recognizable and identifiable wherever it appears. The dissemination strategy and necessary activities of dissemination will be set. Also, the initial version of the exploitation strategy will be delivered. At this stage, the implementation will also start. ULiège will deliver the Design of Methodology for identifying competences and digital skills for the ""green"" teacher and best practices for a green school. According to this Methodology, all partners will conduct in depth research, which will consist of desk research, online surveys and Needs Analysis and Focus Groups. Partners will deliver their National reports, which will be combined to one final Synthesis report done by ULiège .Stage 2 is the implementation stage (M7-M23). During this stage partners will deliver semester and interim progress reports comprising of the Implementation, Quality Assurance, Dissemination and Exploitation and Financial reports, will conduct evaluation of the project progress, disseminate the project in workshops, meetings and training, employ actively the project’s social media, send newsletters regularly and update the exploitation strategy. During this period, the project results will be implemented. Partners will perform the Technical development of the English version of the e-learning course, translate it to national languages,implement the pilot testing during a Joint staff training event for teachers/trainers in Liège and finally apply improvements and finalise it. Simultaneously, the Greener Green Assessment Tool will be created under the specifications of Blue room, the creation of questions included and necessary content, the peer review and the pilota testing during the training event in Liège. All project results will be ready by M23 of the project. Stage 3 will finalise the project. Partners will compose the final project report, the final evaluation and quality assurance report of the project, and will conclude on the impact analysis. Dissemination activities which will ensure sustainability will be intensified at this stage which all includes the multiplier events. Regarding project results, partners will perform the final improvements and finalize the e-learning course and the Assessment Tool. Management activities will continue throughout the project duration.<< Results >>The results of this project are expected on a multi-dimensional level. In general we would like to make an active intervention in European schools' green dimension and have a measurable impact in the schools, the teachers, the pupils and the parents relating to the partner organizations but also to make sustainability provisions that will guarantee long term results. Specifically the results of the project will be:PR1 The Greener Green training program (e-learning) for teachers to learn how to use the Assessment Tool, how to implement changes and how to make their school greener regarding its physical environment, its everyday practices, its teaching curricula and the communication and implementation of these practices to pupils. This program will instruct teachers on how to carry out the Sustainability and Green practices audit, how to monitor and evaluate actions at the school, how to engage and involve pupils and members of the school staff, how to produce an “Eco code” for the school and how to administer the digital rewards of the Assessment Tool to classes, in an inclusive and motivational manner. -PR2 The Greener Green Assessment Tool for: Α digital evaluation tool which will include questionnaires for teachers and school staff regarding their practices, will evaluate them and provide feedback on scoring, suggestions for improvement and action plans according to the score. The tool will be evaluating the status quo of the school regarding good practices and practices that need improvement, will give suggestions and transfer know-how regarding specific areas such as a Sustainability Audit, an Action Plan and the formation of a “Green committee” for students and another one for pupils. It will also incorporate the “Green Positive Reinforcement” system where classes will be able to record their practices and get motivating rewards such as the class’ “Green flag”. The tool will be a 360 free tool for all schools to start and implement their green – digital transformation. C1 Training of Trainers on how to use the training programme and the Assessment Tool with the participation of 2 teachers/trainers per partner organisation (14 participants in total). 3 Webinars focusing on the project results, their application and project awareness.- Organisation of seven (7) local teachers’ workshops with ten (10) participants per partner (70 teachers in total) Organisation of 6 multiplier events: E1 The Greener Green Event - Girona - 30 participantsE2 The Greener Green Event - Piraeus - 30 participants E3 The Greener Green Event - Luxembourg - 30 participants E4 The Greener Green Event - Vareia (Lesvos) 30 participants E5 The Greener Green School Event - Girona - 30 participants E6 The Greener Green Event - Varese - 30 participants Project Dissemination and Exploitation activities: -Dedicated accounts for the Greener Green in Facebook and Instagram.- Presentations to associated partners and stakeholders.- Articles in digital and printed Media that are relevant to the project’s results and their aspects. -An article in School Education Gateway."

Creative thinking is the ability to look at things differently, and find new ways of solving problems. The European Council in its Reference Framework for Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (2018) regards creative thinking as an important communicative and cognitive skill, which is embedded throughout all key competences and helps individuals generate new ideas and new theories, which lead to progress and success.Nowadays, creative thinking has been proven to be a valuable asset, especially for parents, who need to stay at home with their kids as a consequence of the Covid-19 virus. From January 2020 to April, more than 3,5 billion people were confined at home, not only in Europe but in the whole world. The vast majority of them are children and their parents, since in many countries schools were closed. In hard times like this, it’s evident that parents need to be creative and look at the whole situation with a different perspective. They need to be flexible and at the same time give courage to their children, by finding different ways of entertaining them. That is why creative thinking of parents should be enhanced in order for them to be able to develop new and novel solutions to contemporary situations.Moreover, creative thinking has been acknowledged as an important skill, which can be trained (Ritter & Mostert, 2016). As a result, numerous initiatives have been implemented to enhance post secondary or higher level education curriculum to develop creative thinking skills, but the vast majority of them concentrate on the world of work.The general objective of the project as defined in its title is to develop the creative thinking skills and competence of parents of children at school age.Specific objectives:-To develop a training programme on creative thinking for parents-To develop an online motivation learning environment that will bring creative thinking education in their houses-To develop a parents’ guide on creative thinking-To organise workshops for parents-To disseminate the project results and to create an online community of practice of parents to promote creative thinking.Target groups:Direct target groups of the project are parents of children at school age as well as trainers at parents’ schools or parents’ support organisations.Indirect target groups are the schools and all actors currently active in the promotion of creative thinking ( training centres, NGOs, universities, educational departments of municipalities, policy makers, education & adult learning stakeholders).Final beneficiaries are the children themselves.The project is structured in 3 outputs:O1. Training programme: Creative Thinking for parentsThe first output of the project is a training programme for creative thinking, specifically targeted to parents of school age children. The training programme will be divided into workshops, with a short duration each (2h) that will cover different thematics.O2. Learning Motivation Environment CreativeParentsThe learning environment will be accessible online and contents will follow the microlearning methodology, where notifications/ emails will be sent to parents’, notifying them about short duration (minutes) interventions/ resources they can do/watch on the topic of creative thinking along with practical exercises that they can do along with the children.O3. Parents' Guide on Creative Thinking The Guide will include information on the same topics addressed in the training programme and will be provided as a trainees handbook for the workshops. It will consist of:- basic theory/information on each topic- practical tips, questions- ideas for activities- link to the online supplementing materials and community of practice- information about the learning environment and how to use itThe online community of practice will be important for the target group as it will offer them space to discuss questions and uncertainties as well as material where they can find information and answers to their questions.The project previews also the organisation of a short learning event and 7 multiplier events one in each partner’ s country.Applicant is the Students’ Parents Federation, FAPEL (LU) and partners the European Parents’ Association, EPA (BE), the National University of Galway (IE), the non-profit organisation Mapa (PL), the adult learning organisation IDEC (EL), the Knowledge, Innovation and Strategic Management Club (BG) and the technical partner HESO (Cyprus).

"At the conference ""Global Impact on Education"", the Pope Francesco said that, with COVID, we are in front of an ""educational catastrophe"" affecting 10 millions children who are at risk to be lost. The news is going around the world and it scares. Apart from the different Governments political assets, different economies, strict restrictions and the extremely chaotic situation referring to worldwide scientific communities' opinion on the pandemic, our consortium wants to focus on Education and children wellbeing, which should be ""The priorities"" for all. According to educators, willing or not, distance learning is a reality and teachers have to be ready and equipped to face it. Starting from a deep confrontation among partners, we propose concrete solutions based on a positive perspective, sustained by a strong team of professionals and a wide range of existing methods, tools and practices existing on the web to be analysed and re-organised.""Distance learning, home schooling, digital teaching"". COVID19 pandemic brought all these terms to be ""hot topics"" without knowing exactly what they consist of. In the actual framework, changing so rapidly, we are all living the same scaring nightmare which, from a side, is placing us all at the same level, on the other hand, has exposed fragility and raised a big debate around the question: health or economical crisis? Education Out of the Box is a new consortium with a long term project plan which answers to the extraordinary call of the Erasmus+ Program, as first step with the perspective to continue for years developing a synergetic action at international level for the creation of a closer and more positive cooperation between teachers and parents, researching the good balance between digital teaching/digital education and the other side of the wall (Non Formal Education and Outdoor Education) and fostering more European education based on the actual guidelines of the EU: Council Recommendation of Key Competences for the Lifelong Learning (2018), Emerging technologies and the teaching profession. Ethical and pedagogical considerations based on near-future scenarios(2020).Priorities: Innovative practices in the digital eraStrengthening the profiles of the teaching profession Reinforcing the development of key competencesTARGET GROUP: teachers at the pre-school and primary school level.Main goal: solve the actual need to re-organize the chaos around distance learning/digital education/digital teaching and support teachers improving the quality of educational systems in Europe.Specific Goals:Equipe education and teachers training systems to face the challenges presented by the recent sudden shift to online and distance learning;Support teachers to develop digital competences in line with the actual trends Guide and mentor teachers in developing their professional teaching methodSafeguarding the inclusive nature of learning opportunitiesResearch on actual educational methods, tools and practices of digital learning giving to them a precise and professional organization and classificationGive an answer to the need for modernisation and digital transformation of education and training systems across EuropeReinforce the ability of education and training institutions to provide high quality, inclusive digital educationBuild capacity to implement online, blended and distance teaching and learningDevelop high quality digital content such as, online resources and tools and train teachers to contribute in developing new ones and their own materials (tailor made solutions adapted to local challenges and realities)Promote networking of institutions across the EU, sharing of resources and expertiseFoster the collaboration among experts from the public and the private sector, between formal and non formal and widen the variety of opportunities for teachers and students.Promote a new Education Pact between parents and teachersActivity structure-Deep, permanent scientific research work -Long term teachers training pathways (10 on site at local level in each Country and high professional innovative online proposals)two main Outputs1.Education Out of the Box - Wiki Training Kit of Manuals2.Out of the Box Platform for teachers and educators (a researching and learning platform, a unique European library for distance learning organized like a research engine of methods, tools and practices, with a central section for online teachers training, other sections on European Citizenship Education, Non Formal Education and Outdoor Education which are emerging thematic areas recognised by formal educators as useful to strengthen students transversal life skills-2 blended mobilities: in Belgium: Out of the Box Teachers Training - a common model for distance learning to train new European Digital Teachers, in Italy: Education Out of the Box Teachers training - strengthening digital education in Europe (focus on rural schools)14 Multiplier Events4 Coordination meetings"