Erasmus+ group mobility in Spain, La Solana from 19. to 24. May 2023.

The focus of this mobility was the environment and assessing the impact of the school's carbon footprint. Together with the students and teachers of the partner school IES Clara Campoamor, an exciting environmental project was organized, which included activities both at the school in La Solana and in Madrid, Ruidera National Park, Toledo and La Solana.

The project started in Madrid, where various climate-friendly buildings and solutions were visited. A tour was organized in Madrid, where the students learned about various green solutions to make the city greener, such as the world-famous vertical green wall at the Caixa Forum museum and other architectural clever solutions, where high temperatures place very high demands on buildings.

In the following days, they visited the city of Toledo with a long history, which is located on top of a hill in the middle of the Castilla-La Mancha plain in central Spain, and La Solana, where the local students gave the Estonian group a thorough overview of the sights. Since the students were accommodated in the families of local students, it was a great opportunity to get to know the local culture, people, European values and enrich their world view.

One of the biggest attractions during the project took place on Tuesday in the Ruidera National Park, where a workshop and tour of the Ruidera National Park and Museum took place. During this, various tasks and activities took place in the park area, where students could discover landforms and local flora and fauna, that are protected in the national park. They got to know the lagoons, hiked in the mountains and had a pleasant time together.

The main activity of the project took place over several days at the IES Clara Campoamor school, where they worked together on the carbon footprint project. They started by reviewing the carbon footprint of their schools based on previously collected data and presented the efforts made to collect the data. Before the project, students collected data from both schools (how students/teachers come to school, what is the energy, water, heating consumption of the school building, how much is the amount of waste, etc.). A comparison of the data revealed that the most carbon footprints are generated by school trips: student exchanges, class trips, etc. The indicators of Tallinna Saksa Gümnaasium (TSG) were higher than those of IES Clara Campoamor, as our school is almost 3 times larger. However, C02 production per student was again lower in TSG than in the Spanish school. In the following days, presentations were made in mixed groups and a photo project was created to map problems and make future plans. For example, students found that one of the biggest problems for both schools is litter around the school. Of course, the generous hospitality of the locals with Spanish food was not lacking either.

The Spanish project fulfilled its purpose and was very inspiring for the students of both schools, who were able to discover each other's culture, practice the English language and environmental knowledge to be applied in the future.

We thank the teachers and project managers of IES Clara Campoamor, Lucia Delgado Garcia and Mercedes Velazquez Mateo, and the principal, Consuelo Simon Lopez-Villalta.