During the 27th to the 31st of May, teacher Ana Rubhof and assistant head teacher for kindergarten and primary Katarina Paternost were trained within the Erasmus+ project on environmental education and ecosocial approaches, which have been present in the Finnish school system for many years.

As teachers of the European School Ljubljana are also committed to preserving our planet and educating our students to become responsible citizens, and as our curricula also include the themes of sustainable development and environmentalism, the training in Helsinki was all the more important and interesting. During the training, we learned about activities that teachers can do with their pupils in school and in nature. In doing so, students strengthen their curiosity and their connection to the environment and learn to act responsibly and sustainably in society. We also learned about the importance of the circular economy, talked about environmental issues that are becoming more and more pressing, and visited Helsinki's beautiful Oodi Library, one of the most sustainable buildings in the world. We took part in workshops on responsible consumption and learned about diverse learning approaches, including the use of ICT in education. Among other things, we learned how to integrate fun materials for children, such as Legos, into the learning process itself. We spent an enlightening day on the island of Mustikkamaa, where the focus was on the senses and the use of diverse learning approaches in nature. 



We ended the week with our own idea for a sustainability project that we could implement with the students of the Ljubljana European School. My teacher Anna and I had a wonderful week in Helsinki, full of new acquaintances and unique ideas that we will be happy to share with teachers and students. We believe that only together can we help preserve our planet by being more sustainable, consuming less, and being more ecologically oriented. We only have one planet, and we need to preserve it for future generations.