GardenstoGrow - Urban gardening for Innovative and Inclusive Early Childhood Education

Increasing quality and equity of ECEC services is a priority for all EU countries and can make a strong contribution, through enabling and empowering all children to realise their potential. Urban Horticulture has proved to be a powerful tool for education, socialization and inclusion and for improving the sense of belonging to the community.

GARDENStoGROW aims to provide ECEC teachers with an innovative teaching methodology, tools and materials for fostering inclusive attitudes and key competences acquisition from a very early stage of child development (0-6) through horticulture.

This is made possible thanks to a balanced, transnational and complementary cooperation between: pre-primary and primary schools, children’s/science museums/STEM centres, HEIs and local educational authorities.

On a longer term, the project will impact on the quality of the ECEC sector by:

• offering teachers and pupils aged 0-6 the opportunity to enrich their curriculum and competences based on a non formal and hands-on approach and an innovative tool for social inclusion or marginalised pupils;
• improving the capacities of schools of operating in partnerships with key local actors, including children’s and science museums, STEM centres, foundations and research centres/universities;
• evaluating in a long term perspective the efficacy and role of extra-curricular hands-on workshops based urban and social horticulture;
• reinforcing cooperation between practice, research and policy.

Thanks to GARDENStoGROW pupils and families, including those at risk of marginalisation, will benefit for better ECEC services, innovative pedagogical activities with motivated teachers. They will find in the pilot gardens a place for socialisation and inclusion and more opportunities for learning and experiencing direct contact with nature.