ESC: Voluntary work in Tirza kindergarten

Tirza primary school is located in Gulbene municipality, in a rural area in the east of Latvia, 180 km from the capital city Riga. School is surrounded by greenery, a nearby forest and a pond. In the school, there are 22 teachers and 151 pupils, age 2 to 15. Among pupils are those who come from both well situated and from poor and dysfunctional families. Tirza parish doesn't have a distinct center, students live far away from each other, which makes it harder for them to socialize outside of school. Tirza primary school is guided by the principles of humane pedagogy and realizes inclusive education, as multiple of the students have learning disabilities. Out motto is “Every pupil is important”. Lessons and after-school activities are differentiated, based on students interests, talents and skills. Alongside regular indoor activities, there are formal and non-formal outdoor activities. Implementing even more outdoor activities is a direction the school would like to develop. Tirza primary school has experience in multiple projects, including EVS (European Voluntary Service). In total four European volunteers have worked in the school. Students are open to communicate with them in English, cooperate with them and learn new skills from them. Tirza primary school has participated in multiple eTwinning and Erasmus+ school partnership projects as partners. Students have cooperated in many topics, such as environment, sustainability, migration, local history and learning through cinema. By international collaboration we also want to provide different ways of inclusion, social transformation and equal opportunities , foster intercultural exchange and make them aware of cultural diversity. Tirza primary school preschool is located in a separate building. Preschool students are 1.5 to 6 years old. Groups of children divided by age stages: In the school year 2021/2022, in the youngest group, there are 16 1.5 to 3 year old children, in the 3-4 year old children group, there are 14 students, in the 5-6 year old child group there are 17 students. There are 8 teachers and 4 teaching assistants in the pre-school. The Pre-school curriculum approved by the Ministry of Education and Science is being implemented with the aim of preparing children for studies in the 1st grade. Learning is integrated into all activities organized by teachers and teacher assistants: regular listening to fairy tales, stories, conversations with children about what they have experienced, seen and heard; children participate in musical and movement games indoors and outdoors; groups have a variety of board didactic and construction games; children are offered creative workshops every day in the fields of technology and fine arts, in addition, the basics of folk dance are learned. Hiking trips are organized to explore the surrounding area. The strengths of pre-school are the creativity of staff in the areas of promoting fine arts and writing, motivating children to learn about diverse fiction and special imaginative skills to promote children's learning pleasure with small resources. This school year, preschool implements an inclusive pedagogy program for children with behavioral problems called STOP 4-7, which is intended for 4-7 year old children. Already now, teachers plan as many classes as possible outside, in nature. The development priority for the coming years is to create an outdoor Green Class in order to implement the Outdoor Pedagogy approach and to organize the learning process in the outdoor environment as much as possible. Supplementing the learning environment with opportunities to stay outdoors will contribute to a number of important goals related to the acquisition of diverse skills in nature and inclusion: - Working in the fresh air is a prerequisite for children's physical health in the current epidemiological situation. - Working in nature (green skills) opens up opportunities to better understand the world around us, as pre-school children learn in practice and movement is a natural self-expression of children. - Increased daily physical activity will help reduce increased muscle tone in children with unmotivated aggression and behavioral problems (inclusion).