WHO WE ARE

                                 4 Steps 4 Changing Our Lifestyle

ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO "VILLA VERROCCHIO" Montesilvano-Italy

“Villa Verrocchio Institute” is located in Montesilvano, a 50.000 inhabitants modern town situated on the middle Italian East
coast. The town has ancient origins, but it’s undergoing a lively expansion in recent times. There is a little
industrial area around the city, but the main economic resources are commerce and tourism.
As a result of being a “sea town”, where people and citizens from abroad constantly arrive and leave, or simply go through,
Our school's main goals are:
1. to promote inclusion and the global development of personality
2. to foster planet and climate protection
3. to consolidate and develop digital skills in students and staff
That is the reason why facilitating global personal achievements and success, within an area that is rapidly expanding, is the
“mission” of our school. "Inclusion" is at the core of our mission, because, as a result of such a lively and “liquid” social
context, a lot of students and families live a disadvantage of some sort.
In the recent past, Villa Verrocchio School has worked a lot to plan and reorganize its syllabus. A lot of projects have been integrated within the National Curriculum, especially concerning:

-Nature and Biology
-Climate Change and Pollution
-Waste Collection
-Digital Innovation
-Civics

They have proved to be a motivating opportunity not only for students, but even for teachers. Science, Italian, History, and IT teachers usually take part in them. Even trained parents and relatives have often had a relevant role at different phases of the project: chemists, herb shop owners, and local farmers. Some topics/projects related to sustainability, digital skills, and Civics that have been treated are:

• Earth, ground, soil - what are they? What are their differences?
• Soil is a resource: How to work it and why? (school botanical garden)
▪ No waste...new soil (composting)
▪ A proper waste collection: ECOSchools Label
- Youth's Democratic Participation
- Digital Literacy and soft skills

School's website

32nd Primary School of Piraeus, Greece

🏫 32nd Primary School of Piraeus – School Profile & Project-Based Goals

The 32nd Primary School of Piraeus, located near the historic port of Athens, Greece, is a dynamic and inclusive public school committed to educational excellence, innovation, and European cooperation. With a student population of 240 pupils aged 6–12 and a dedicated teaching staff of 30 educators, the school combines the national curriculum with rich, interdisciplinary, and student-centered learning experiences.

🌍 Vision and Core Values

Our school aims to:

• Foster 21st-century skills: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and digital literacy.

• Embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, offering equal opportunities to all students, including children with special educational needs and migrant backgrounds.

• Empower students to become active citizens with environmental awareness, scientific curiosity, and empathy.

🌐 Participation in European and International Projects

The school is recognized at the national and European level for its active engagement in innovative projects under Erasmus+, eTwinning, Scientix, and EU Code Week. We promote interdisciplinary learning through themes like sustainability, climate change, inclusion, AI, and creativity.

🟩 Erasmus+ Projects

1. Leonardo 4 Children Academy (KA220) – STEAM & Creativity

   • Partners: Belgium, Italy, Czechia, Lithuania

   • Focus: Implementing a new pedagogical model from the University of Turin that connects STEM with Arts (STEAM).

   • Activities: Teacher training, case studies, student competitions, art-science integration, and final exhibitions.

   • Impact: Promotion of creativity, emotional expression, and artistic skills in tandem with scientific literacy.

2. AI & Creativity (KA210) – Artificial Intelligence in Education

   • Partners: Czechia, France, Norway

   • Focus: Enhancing teacher resilience and student creativity through AI tools and collaborative workshops.

   • Activities: AI-based storytelling, teacher training in Oslo, inclusive game development.

   • Impact: Integration of AI in classroom practice and promotion of inclusive education through creative technologies.

3. 4 Footsteps 4 Change Lifestyle (KA210) – Digital & Outdoor Environmental Education

   • Partners: Italy, Finland, Chios (Greece)

   • Focus: Addressing climate change through digital literacy and outdoor education.

   • Activities: Student mobility to Finland, teacher training, digital storytelling, school-wide environmental campaigns.

   • Impact: Increased student responsibility and awareness about sustainable lifestyles.

4. e-Oceans: Connecting Youth, Protecting Seas (SHORE Project) in the frame of HORIZON project

• Focus: Reducing microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean.

• Activities: Research, data collection, local awareness campaigns, Blue School initiatives.

• Impact: Cross-curricular learning involving STEM, civic responsibility, and environmental protection.

5. Lumos Project (ka210) – Gifted and Talented Students

   • Focus: Supporting gifted and high-potential students through innovative, interdisciplinary, and enriched learning experiences.

   • Activities: Special workshops and activities in STEM, art, literature, and social issues, often connected to national and European challenges.

   • Impact: Enrichment of the curriculum for gifted learners, fostering leadership, empathy, and academic excellence.

🧠 Educational Innovation & Inclusion

The school is a pioneer in implementing:

• Robotics and STEM workshops through afternoon clubs and competitions.

• Individualized Education Plans for 27 diagnosed students (autism, ADHD, learning difficulties) and non-native speakers.

• Inclusive classroom strategies supported by trained staff, interactive tools, and AI-based assistive technologies.

• Integration of eTwinning and Scientix practices into everyday learning to encourage transnational collaboration.

🏆 Achievements & Recognition

• European and National eTwinning Quality Labels

• Scientix Ambassador & Code Week Leading Teacher recognitions among staff

• Award-winning participation in European competitions (STEM Discovery Week, Leonardo 4 Children, Europeana)

• Student and teacher projects exhibited in venues like the Galileo Museum in Florence and are recognized for their social and scientific impact.

🎯 Strategic Goals through Project Participation

Through its active participation in national and European projects, the school aims to:

1. Develop inclusive and future-ready pedagogies by combining AI, creativity, and SEL (social-emotional learning).

2. Foster digital, scientific, and environmental literacy with an emphasis on real-world challenges.

3. Encourage artistic and cultural expression as a medium of empowerment, diversity appreciation, and civic engagement.

4. Strengthen partnerships with European organizations, universities, NGOs, and expert trainers to broaden the school’s vision and teacher capacity.

5. Prepare students to become empathetic, responsible European citizens equipped to address global issues such as climate change, refugee crises, and technological disruption.

We also want to refer to the past Erasmus projects that we have been involved in

1 ka101- Steam team enthusiastic about Mathesis

1ka201-The Power of Digischools

5 ka229- I am not a robot
               Explore the worlds of coding
               Steam and flipped classroom
               Funny digiclasses
               Cultural bridges

1 ka3       Steam education and Essos schools

SCHOOL'S WEBSITE

3rd Primary School of Chios-Greece

The 3rd Primary School of Chios has 135 students and is located in the city of Chios, an island that is a crossroads of
cultures on the coast of the Northeast side of Greece. Due to the location of the island, the movements become impossible
and teachers are deprived of training opportunities. So every chance to broaden the horizons of our student community is for
us valuable and a priority in our goals. 

Every year, programs are implemented in our school with the aim of inclusion, environmental raising students' awareness and their contact with nature, familiarity with folkloric tradition and history of the
place, preparing the ground for future dynamic engagement and presence of our students in this.

Our school participates in European programs (ETwinning, Playing with protons, Scientix) and is open to collaborations, as the educational benefits to students and teachers are recognized. 

The Center of Environmental Education of Chios offers educational programs in which its classes participate in our school. Hikes have been organized together with the local association "Friends of the Paths of Chios". Some members of the teachers' association have moved abroad and have been trained in the fields of "inclusion", of "art in nature" as well as educational robotics.

Our school has students from 6 to 12 years old, 30% of whom are economic immigrants as well as refugees in the recent past (today the number of refugees on the island has decreased) from various countries such as Albania, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Syria. Considering the characteristics of our school, it is a necessity for us to take advantage of development opportunities at the level of teacher training, implementing new practices, and finding resources to meet these needs, which are not often offered due to distance and difficulty of access to mainland Greece. In the 3rd Board of Directors, Chios operates a department integration and a reception department, which cover the educational needs of special groups of students. 

We aim to apply the experiential approach to teaching as we have found that it provides equal opportunities for all children and, through this, the language barrier is overcome.

School's website

Huhtisen koulu-Porvoo-Finland

Huhtisen school is a two-tier elementary school in Porvoo. We have 255 students between the ages of 7 and 12, who are
taught by 18 teachers and 5 special needs assistants. The language of instruction is Finnish, although the city of Porvoo is
bilingual (Swedish). Our school has a relatively low (compared to other schools in the municipality) but steadily growing
number of Finnish as a second language students, but plenty of students with varying kinds of learning difficulties and
physical disabilities are integrated into general classrooms. Our main activity is to provide quality education for our students.

The primary function of the school is to provide quality education according to the Finnish curriculum. The key concepts of the Finnish education system, and thus of our school, are learning to learn and lifelong learning. We also emphasize outdoor learning: the school has excellent premises for all kinds of outside sports activities, a forest nearby to visit, and due to being so close to the city center, we are able to take advantage of the city libraries and museums.

 Furthermore, we have recently put more emphasis on sustainability in our school by, for example, recycling more efficiently, preventing food waste, and reducing unnecessary use of energy. We are accustomed to carrying out projects with our entire school, emphasizing the ability to work together.

 We, thus, like to carry that idea onto an international scale and provide our students the possibility of being in contact with other European children, and getting to know different languages and cultures while working together collaboratively.

SCOOL'S SOCIAL MEDIA-INSTAGRAM

PRIVACY POLICY

 

The 32nd Primary School of Piraeus shared documents with their students' parents to sign for the publicity of the photos within the project.

Our headmaster ensures that all the signed documents are at our school if the Italian National Agency asks for them. They also sent to Mrs Romano the declaration of the keeping at our school.

All these files can be found as PDF files at the following link

What are the concrete objectives you would like to achieve and 'outcomes or results you would like to realise'? How are these objectives linked to the priorities you have selected?

Learning how to live sustainably is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Thus, the key concepts of this project are to 
a) enhance awareness, b) create real-world learning scenarios in and outside of the school, c) expose students to working together with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and learning abilities, and d) use modern technology in a meaningful way to achieve the above-mentioned objectives.
The project's main priorities are: 1) to create educational scenarios focused on outside learning (i.e. Environmental Education, Sciences), 2) to adopt good habits and practices applied by the schools from different geomorphological environments, and 3) to transfer the acquired knowledge and experiences to a project website. The website will contain information about each country’s biodiversity, ready worksheets and digital material for teachers to use, and a repository for all the material created in the project. In other words, the aim of the project is to explore differences in biodiversity, environment, and climate (outside learning), and seek meaningful and useful ways of using digital tools in learning all while taking into account different kinds of learners and their respective needs and abilities (integration and inclusion). On a larger scale, we aim to trigger a sustainable lifestyle change.
We will work within a collaborative and experiential framework. Goals for students:
1. Increase familiarity with each country’s biodiversity.
2. Create awareness about climate change.
3. Make small lifestyle changes by combining technology and outside learning and being in contact with nature.
4. Increase digital awareness and use of digital media to produce educational and educational entertainment material.
5. Learn how to cooperate and participate in transnational groups and acquaint students with the multiculturalism of Europe.
6. Facilitate acceptance of diversity to achieve common goals.
Goals for teachers:
1. Improve and integrate good practices regarding biodiversity, the environment, and sustainability.
2. Forward gained knowledge and information to other teachers in the school district.
3. Produce useful material to other European teachers (other than the participating schools' teachers).
4. Learn how to use European online platforms to improve and modernize educational processes and present them on dissemination days.
5. Distribute the produced material on a project website, which will include e.g. information about biodiversity, ready worksheets, and digital material for teachers to use and it will act as a repository for all the material created and collected in the project.
6. Introduce the European platform Gynzy.
Goals for communities:
1. Educate and inform the local communities about sustainability and climate change with the help of “the 3Rs” (reduce, reuse, recycle).
2. Help students’ families to adopt good ecological habits and make small but powerful changes in their lifestyles

ΤΑ ΨΗΛΑ ΒΟΥΝΑ, ΖΑΧΑΡΙΑΣ ΠΑΠΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΥ

THE HIGH MOUNTAINS, ZACHARIAS PAPANTONIOU

SUMMARY
Zacharias Papantoniou tells the story of a group of 26 children who, when they finish the last grade of the Greek school, decide (with the permission of their parents) to go on vacation alone for about two months in the mountains of Evrytania. There, amidst the beauties of nature, learning the stories of the people they meet, they build a community that celebrates team spirit, solidarity, and mutual respect, they learn to overcome life's difficulties through cooperation and respect for each other, always with humor.
There the children take an example from other villages in the area and decide to divide the jobs and organize themselves in their own community, thus making their own "village". With the instructions of Mr. Stefanos, who had taken it upon himself to look after them, and the material help from the other villages, they managed to survive, overcome every difficulty, and also protect the forest. This is how they learn about the beautiful but difficult life of shepherds. They learn the importance of teamwork and cooperation. The children become friends with Afrodo and learn letters from Lambros, her brother, who lives in the neighboring village. After this experience, they are stronger and more mature than before.
REVIEW
It is the first school reading book written in the vernacular. It is one of the few books with such a beautiful narrative and, when you read it, it is like living it. It has a very nice premise and indirectly conveys important messages to children, such as respect for nature, and the importance of cooperation and teamwork. It also talks about the organization of a community and the division of tasks so that there is harmony, coexistence, and proper functioning. So it also prepares children for their integration into society. For these messages it conveys and the way it presents the case and its development, it is believed to be a pleasant book and worth reading for all children.
ΤΑ ΨΗΛΑ ΒΟΥΝΑ, ΖΑΧΑΡΙΑΣ ΠΑΠΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΥ
ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ
Ο Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου αφηγείται την ιστορία μιας ομάδας 26 παιδιών που όταν τελειώνουν την τελευταία τάξη του ελληνικού σχολείου αποφασίζουν (με την άδεια των γονιών τους) να κάνουν μόνα τους διακοπές για περίπου δύο μήνες στα βουνά της Ευρυτανίας. Εκεί, μέσα στις ομορφιές της φύσης, μαθαίνοντας τις ιστορίες των ανθρώπων που συναντούν, φτιάχνουν μια κοινότητα που εξυμνεί το ομαδικό πνεύμα, την αλληλεγγύη και τον αλληλοσεβασμό, μαθαίνουν να ξεπερνούν στις δυσκολίες της ζωής μέσω της συνεργασίας και της εκτίμησης απέναντι στον άλλο, πάντα με χιούμορ.
Εκεί  τα παιδιά παίρνουν παράδειγμα από άλλα χωριά της περιοχής και αποφασίζουν να χωρίσουν τις δουλειές και να οργανωθούν σε μια δικιά τους κοινότητα, φτιάχνοντας έτσι ένα δικό τους «χωριό». Με τις οδηγίες του κυρ Στέφανου, που είχε αναλάβει να τους προσέχει, και την υλική βοήθεια από τα άλλα χωριά, καταφέρνουν να επιβιώσουν, να ξεπεράσουν κάθε δυσκολία, αλλά και να προστατέψουν το δάσος. Έτσι μαθαίνουν την όμορφη αλλά δύσκολη ζωή των βοσκών. Μαθαίνουν την σημασία της ομαδικότητας και της συνεργασίας. Τα παιδιά γίνονται φίλοι με την Αφρόδω και μαθαίνουν γράμματα στον Λάμπρο, τον αδερφό της, που μένουν στο διπλανό χωριό. Μετά από αυτήν την εμπειρία τους, είναι πιο δυνατοί και ώριμοι από πριν . 
ΚΡΙΤΙΚΗ
Είναι το πρώτο σχολικό αναγνωστικό βιβλίο που γράφτηκε στην δημοτική γλώσσα. Είναι ένα από τα λίγα βιβλία με τόσο ωραία αφήγηση και, όταν το διαβάζεις, είναι σαν να το ζεις. Έχει πολύ ωραία υπόθεση και με έμμεσο τρόπο μεταδίδει στα παιδιά σημαντικά μηνύματα, όπως τον σεβασμό στη φύση, τη σημαντικότητα της συνεργασίας και της ομαδικότητας. Μιλάει ακόμα για την οργάνωση μιας κοινότητας και το μοίρασμα των εργασιών,  ώστε να υπάρχει  αρμονία, συνύπαρξη και σωστή λειτουργία. Άρα προετοιμάζει τα παιδιά και για την ένταξή τους στην κοινωνία. Για αυτά τα μηνύματα που περνάει και τον τρόπο με τον οποίο παρουσιάζει την υπόθεση και την εξέλιξή της, πιστεύεται πως είναι ένα ευχάριστο βιβλίο και αξίζει να το διαβάσουν όλα τα παιδιά. 

• In the book, The High Mountains by Zacharias Papantoniou, we will see how a group of 12year-old children survived alone on a mountain. What was it that helped them create a community and how much did the diversity of each child contribute to this?

• Μέσα από το βιβλίο τα ψηλά βουνά του Ζαχαρία Παπαντωνίου θα δούμε πώς μια παρέα 12 χρονων παιδιών επιβίωσαν μόνα τους σε ένα βουνό.Τι ήταν αυτό που τους βοήθησε να δημιουργήσουν μια κοινότητα και πόσο συνέβαλε σε αυτό η διαφορετικότητα του κάθε παιδιού;

ΤΑ ΨΗΛΑ ΒΟΥΝΑ του Ζαχαρία Παπαντωνίου