A Bath junior school is spearheading an exciting exchange project with a difference – partnering with schools in Europe and beyond to share green ideas with each other to help inspire schoolchildren and their communities across five countries.
The two year environmental scheme called ‘Green Fingers for a Brighter Tomorrow’ is the brainchild of St Saviour’s Junior Church School in Larkhall, which put together the plan and won funding from the British Council and the EU to make it become a reality.
“The idea behind the project is to inspire primary age children with a lifelong commitment to help protect the planet,” explained St Saviour’s Junior Church School Headteacher, Joe Beament.
The project will see St Saviour’s Junior Church School partner with primary schools from Spain, Italy, Poland and Turkey to share ideas and challenges.
The school launched the project last week, hosting representatives from its four partner schools for a full week of activities in which it showcased its own inspirational projects: its Forest School; school and community energy scheme SPARKS; and nationally-renowned play project OPAL which encourages children to play creatively.
Over the next two years, the different schools will play host to their fellow schools and introduce them to their own environmental projects and ideas.
During their week-long visit, the school representatives were also officially welcomed at the Guildhall by the Mayor of Bath Patrick Anketell-Jones, were taken on a Walking Tour of Bath by the Mayor’s Honorary Guides and treated to social evenings including a night playing skittles and a final barn dance with fish and chips.
Ms Ann Birkett, Teacher and Erasmus Project Lead, said, “The key to this project is that it helps to deliver environmental education for life. It is also crucial that children see the local community getting involved so our energy project is something we have worked on with the community scheme Energy Sparks, for example.
“It was an incredible week in which our school children really benefited
from, showing what we do to protect our environment to other schools.
We are extremely proud of the education we offer at St Saviour’s Junior School and it was great to share this with colleagues from across Europe.”
Mustafa Satirli, Erasmus Lead for the Turkey team, found the week beneficial gathering lots of ideas to take back to his school in Turkey. He was particularly impressed with the school’s use of the outdoor environment and the enthusiasm and respect the children showed towards their education and the Erasmus visitors.
The project will continue in Turkey next March when the Turkish school will host workshops, including ones on deforestation and endangered species, before moving to Italy to talk about issues including air pollution and global warming later in the year before two final visits to Spain and Poland in 2020.
Joe Beament has produced a vlog celebrating the first Erasmus
week that can be found on the school website and here