Teaching and learning at the Natur- und Geopark Mëllerdall

Teachers Joëlle Renoir and Sandra Leoni are seconded on a part-time basis for the Naturpark School at the Natur- und Geopark Mëllerdall.

The missions for this secondment include the following for 2020-2021:

1. Collaborating with all interested actors in the educational and environmental fields
2. Advising teachers who want to give lessons outdoors for their classes
3. The NaturErliefnisSchoul project with Beaufort district council and the Beeforter Buergfénkelcher primary school.

NaturErliefnisSchoul is a project for pupils in Year 3, developed and led by Sandra Leoni and Joëlle Renoir.

The two teachers wanted the Natur- & Geopark as a partner organisation, to offer Beaufort school children the opportunity of growing up with the values of the Nature Park. In this, their work is geared to the BNE’s Agenda 2030 (BNE = Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung, an umbrella platform for sustainable development education).

Thanks to the NaturErliefnisSchoul project, every week on a Tuesday half the children in the three classes in Cycle 2.1 can relocate their classroom outdoors in nature, while the other half of the children can use this time to work in a smaller group with their own teachers in the classroom, with lessons designed to be more personal and more differentiated. On Thursdays, the groups are swapped over.

The arrangement calls for close collaboration between the seconded teachers and the three class teachers – Cindy Marcinkowski, Patrice Petry and Laurie Scholtes.

The strengths of the project are:

1. Counteracting the drifting apart of special needs pupils, and promoting the cognitive, physical and social skills of the children through a holistic approach experienced in nature outdoors
2. Guaranteeing cross-subject, practically-based learning outdoors in nature over the cycle of the year, in parallel with the topics and content of the weekly planning in the classroom, thereby encouraging connected thinking
3. Offering every child equal opportunities, and thereby enabling targeted differentiation
4. Raising awareness in the children from a young age for a respectful, responsible and considerate attitude towards our nature and environment, to help them to become citizens who act in a sustainable way, with this in turn having a positive impact on their social and emotional development

In addition to the skills-based lesson content for the individual subjects on the curriculum, the NaturErliefnisSchoul places great value on social skills, respectful communication, emotions, gross and fine motor skills and sensory perception – all of which contributes to enabling children to grow into more balanced, more self-aware and more resilient adults.

You can find further information on this in the appendix:

Konzept vun der NaturErliefnisSchoul

Pilotprojet ‚NaturErliefnisSchoul‘ am Cycle 2 vun September 2018 bis Juli 2020

NaturErliefnisSchoul Schouljoer 2020/2021