2025-1-NO01-KA210-SCH-000358980
We are delighted to announce the launch of The Growth Garden: Cultivating Potential in Every Learner, a small-scale partnership proudly supported by Erasmus Plus. The project has only just begun, but it’s already setting exciting plans in motion. During the first meeting in Norway, the project team explored the Lesson Study methodology, which will guide the activities throughout the project.
At its heart, the Growth Garden is about inclusion and diversity. Across Europe, schools face the challenge of making sure every student feels supported, no matter their background or abilities. This project focuses especially on students who struggle with reading and writing. By developing a self-awareness and guidance tool, the initiative aims to help these learners discover their strengths, explore their interests, and find strategies to overcome difficulties. In this way, the project hopes to reduce school failure and early dropouts, while also promoting social integration and European values. Teachers and trainers are key players too: they will share best practices, improve their teaching methods, and strengthen their foreign language skills—benefits that ripple out to both educators and students.
The project’s implementation is designed to be collaborative and innovative. The Lesson Study cycle will start with lessons in Norway, which will be evaluated and improved before being adapted for Bulgaria. Those lessons will then be refined again to form the final version in Italy. This step-by-step process ensures that each stage builds on the last, creating a strong foundation for a visual guidance tool that requires very little literacy. Such a tool is especially valuable for students with learning challenges, as it offers accessible support without relying heavily on text. In the final stage, students from Italy, Norway, and Bulgaria will test the tool in Norway. To make sure it reaches as many people as possible, it will be published both online and in print, free of charge.
The expected results are wide-ranging. On the practical side, the project will deliver a guidance tool inspired by Holland’s vocational types, a full Lesson Study cycle with six lesson plans and detailed reports, and four focus groups with teachers from different countries. There will also be a project booklet, a radio interview, and multiplier events to spread the word. But the intangible outcomes are just as important: students will gain confidence and self-awareness, teachers will refine their methods and collaborate across borders, and schools will strengthen their commitment to inclusive education.
In the end, the Growth Garden is more than just a project—it’s a vision of what education can be when it is inclusive, collaborative, and forward-looking. By combining innovative tools, international cooperation, and a strong commitment to diversity, it shows how Europe can create schools where every learner has the chance to grow, succeed, and feel valued.
Stay tuned for further developments—this is only the beginning of the journey!