C 1.3.

BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE

Please briefly present your organization.

We are a small school of 200 students, with creative and well organized team of teachers and
students. Our school is one of the smallest elementary schools with classes from an average of 16
students. We are situated in a beautiful scenery surrounded by forest , in a quiet and enjoyable part,
just minutes from the center of the capital of Croatia, Zagreb.

In our school we provide learning of two foreign language, but beside formal classes, school offers
certain features and benefits that go beyond the compulsory school curriculum and common
standards: students can participate in a special sports program that takes place within the school
sports club formed as after-school activity, which is in addition to the normal teaching physical
education.

Our desire is to work with parents contributing to create a positive mood of each of our students in
order to make the school safe and stimulating place for its further growth and development,
strengthening its competence and confidence and trust in life.

Our school staff participated in the training on Erasmus+ and workshops on project cycle
management for the team of teachers and other school staff. Our vision is to make our school
internationalized and to make links with the world outside school and other fields of non-formal
education and training. We would like to work together with partners in Europe and to develop the
professional skills of our staff and school activities. We would like to take part in sharing good
practice and testing of innovative approaches that address shared challenges, such as developing
basic skills, tackling disadvantage and similar issues.

What are the activities and experience of your organization in the areas relevant for this application?

We know that young people aren't ecologically enough aware to integrate the nature-like and eco
way of living in their life. At the same time, majority of young people are spending a lot of time
indoors, in front of the computers and other means of modern technology. The group of young
participants students of our school, came to idea to connect this topics and that was the initial start
of the project idea.

Our school is generally oriented on the topics connected with eco programs and learning through
school environment on the one hand, and use of the modern technology as the method of non-
formal learning and also as a teaching method on the other. We have digital school newspaper,e-
diary and we plan to bring interactive boards into the classroom. Every year in the spring we plant
flowers and arrange flower beds in the schoolyard. In the school yard as well as in our classroom we
cultivate and take care of plants and flowers. Through this project, we would like to improve our
creativity and originality, eco - sensibility and team work. We would like to draw attention to
coming backto nature. Young participants are willing to make the school environment another
place for studying by making the exterior part of school a form of the outdoor classroom and non-
formal learning platform.

Everyone in the project team has much experience in participating in trainings and workshops on
various topics, such as methods of non-formal learning, communication and mentoring skills, media
tools and other projects. One of team members, Nena Radusin won the Plavi telefon award for
humanitarian work, which encouraged empathy and social sensitivity in students.
Please give information on the key staff/persons involved in this application and on the competences
and previous experience that they will bring to the project

Project team in school responsible for moderating young participants activities and for the
preparation and coordination of this project will help in implementation of the activities in practice.
All members are well trained in different topics such as formal and non-formal education, leadership
empowerment, personal development, organizational management.

Key persons: a) Romana imuni Cvrtila, project leader, the headmistress of the school, took part in
Comenius project 2012-2014 (Europmix) and was the coordinator of the Erasmus+ partnership
project 2014-2016 The healthier-the happier in other school and participated in many E-twinning
projects . She has a vast experience in leading projects and organizing activities. She has proposed
many activities and took part of the organization of this youth exchange program. She is a teacher of
the English and Italian language and knows the importance of sharing experiences and culture among
students and teachers.

b) Jasna Marendi Bajs, project coordinator. She is a teacher of music at Jabukovac-Zagreb Primary
School since 2000. She is active in preparation, organizing, conducting and evaluating different types
of outdoor education activities as well as school projects. For this project she will take part in many
activities such as music workshops, teaching Italian/Croatian songs ( folk heritage),activities that are
taking place outdoor school like taking care of plants, being a part of art and biology activities-
picturing nature , helping in sports activities, taking photos and recording school actions.

c) Alen Horvat, team member responsible for IT activities. Since 2014. He has been employed in the
primary school of Jabukovac. In the free time he plays the guitar in a few bands. In the project he will
coordinate IT activities, help the participants to make a short documentary video presenting the
project, he will work on the QR code in order to find the additional information regarding animals
and plants around our school. That is also one of the suggested results by our project group of
students.

d) Mirjana Valjak-Porupski, team member responsible for educational path in school garden and
coordination of nature-like and eco activities. In 2004 she has started the program of informal
education- Education for students during individual work and exploration and monitoring of the
birds. As a result of this, she organized many outdoor activities and extra-curricular activities. She
organized many workshops like The water- the source of life, Family tree of the family Krapinko, The
skin project, learning based on investigating and exploring nature, plants, animals through which our
students acquired new knowledge, skills for life.

e) Karmela Pavali, a school pedagogue with 21 years of work experience in primary school,
specialized in counseling work with pupils and parents, cooperating with teachers and helping them
in their work, dealing with the issues of violence prevention among children and young people,
helping final grade pupils in making decisions about future education. She coordinates the School
Council of Pupils. In project, she will be responsible for self- evaluation of young participants and
evaluation in general.

f) Marko Habijanec and Dragana Sankovi Matak, English teachers at Jabukovac-Zagreb Primary
School. Dragana will be responsible for language preparation of young participants and preparatory
activities. Marko mentored pupils up to regional competitions and participated in educational
programes of different sorts. He will coordinate the Healthy plant-based cooking workshop.
g) Nena Radusin, a schoolteacher, working in elementary school education for the past 32 years,
focused on the development of social skills of the children in her classes. She encourages students to
live in harmony with nature, especially because of the beautiful environment surrounding our school.
She runs the school puppet group and in the project she will be coordinator of first day activities
welcoming and organizing entertainment program.

h)Danijel Veli, a member of the paneuropean movement, which main target is promoting the
European unity and cooperation. The special aim of the movement is the protection of the
environment. He has been a part of the few national and international conferences. Through the year
he has organized many voluntary work activities like in the public kitchen where the students
experienced the human values like life, human dignity and civil rights, health In the project he will
coordinate in preparing the annual calendar and lead the activity of integrating the Braille letter on
info boards which will be put in front of each plant and animal house.

D. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

Why do you want to carry out this project? What are its objectives? How does it link to the objectives
of the Erasmus+ programme and this specific key action? What are the issues and needs are you
seeking to - Opis projekta (D, str.10)

Think and study GREEN is an international youth exchange that will take place in Croatia (first part)
and Italy (second part). It will bring together 44 young people 13 and 14 years old and 6 group
leaders from Croatia and Italy. The exchange is divided in two parts - first part of the exchange will
take part in Zagreb 18th 23rd May 2017 and the second part in Siracusa 16th 22nd June 2017.

Our motivation to carry out this project comes from the fact that our students want to bring the
European dimension to our school and share cultural and educational experiences.

The aim and the goal of our project

The aim is to include young participants from two different countries who would present their ideas
of bringing the modern ways of learning in the form of QR codes into the natural environment and
making 'classroom' and a place for spending quality time together outside the school. The main goal
is to improve digital and IT competences, to improve cooperative learning among young people
based on research and teamwork, to raise awareness of importance of active and eco-oriented way
of life, to improve communication in English.

Learning in general is influenced by getting young people to take responsibility and to be able to
work together for the same purpose and so taking part in this project will develop their spirit for
team work and leadership skills. We are educating our young people to be leaders in society, in their
communities, in whatever capacity. Part of being a good leader is the ability to communicate
effectively and with confidence in public.

Together we will contribute to creating better common goals and positive human values that
coincide as European citizens. The aim of this project is also through communication and
collaboration of young participanst and project leaders from two schools with different cultural,
religious, social and ethnic backgrounds to work on some goals that include the preservation of the
nature, using modern technology in positive ways, studying outside the classroom through the
experience, making the outdoor school environment as a pleasant place to spend after-school time,
to study, to plant, to act as an ecologists, to go back to the nature and so on.
To achieve this both partners will develop variety and fun common activities such as art, music,
sports, traditions, cooking etc. to start showing its own identity (culture, customs, habits, concerns).
We already implemented online contact with partner through e-mails and skype and it will continue
through all the phases of the projects and it will also include exchange of ppt files, video, photo
albums, exhibitions of participants works, video conferencing and in general, using as much as
possible the opportunities which provide modern ICT.

As a final outcome of the project, young participants coordinated by project leaders will create
educative path for watching birds with QR codes, documentary video/DVD on the topic of ecological
activities and the yearly eco calendar 2018/19.

We aim to involve the local community and other schools in the centre of both towns, as well as the
young people from both schools, giving them equal non-formal and informal learning opportunities.
We are also including participants with fewer opportunities such as young people from divorced
families and young people with economical and social difficulties. Their inclusion will help in raising
their self-confidence.

These participating schools believe that in a rapidly changing and challenging school life young
people need to discover positive values that can guide their actions and help them communicate
with others in the future.

The next phase of our project activities will be KA2 project Strategic partnership with the overall
objective to enhance the quality of the learning - teaching procedures and to improve the European
dimension of school education. We have already contacted potential partners from England and
Denmark, who are, next to the Italian partner, interested in the topic and are willing to take part in
the project. The Youth exchange is excellent in the sense of preparation of students and in
encouraging cooperation between schools and contributing to develop professional skills of staff
directly involved in the school educative sector.