International Conference | Moving and Learning Outside

The “Moving and Learning Outside” International Conference on Education scheduled for 27 and 28 of March, in Torres Vedras, Portugal, was cancelled as a preventing measure due to the worldwide coronavirus outbreak.

This conference was the final event of a KA2 Erasmus+ programme project - Moving and Learning Outside. Since it is only possible to extend the project until August 2020, this short term makes it impossible to reschedule the event. Despite this situation, the results of the project and its conclusions will available in due time on this website.

The conference would have about 500 participants from nine countries, including teachers and caretakers. The origin and profession of the participants, the trips inherent to the event and the expected number of participants are factors that increase the risk of contagion of the disease COVID-19, which led to the cancellation of the event.

The event will be rescheduled for the second half of 2020, on a date yet to be defined, and the meal payments will be refunded.

As a result of an “Erasmus +” project, this is the international closing event of Moving and Learning Outside that aims to go further than the debate on the project’s implementation and structure, approaching scientific studies that support its results, presenting in public the three intellectual outcomes produced.

The main focus of this conference is centred in the promotion of a cultural change on the learning paradigm and development of children in preschool age, towards an education system closer to children, play and nature.

Over two days, participators will have the chance to be part of a conference with world-renowned speakers with a major experience in the field, and get in touch with different projects around the topic.

This conference will be bilingual, with simultaneous translation Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese.

For Portuguese teachers each day of this conference will be accredited as a Short-term Action (Ação de Curta Duração).

The “Moving and Learning Outside” International Conference on Education will be held in the Pastoral Centre of Torres Vedras . The Centre opened in 2014 and apart from housing the Parish Social Centre it also has an auditorium, a main hall and conference rooms.

The Pastoral Centre is just 9 minutes’ walk from Torres Vedras’ centre. It is sided by Várzea Green Park, a great place for the whole family, where you can play, go for a walk, do sports or visit the Environmental Education Centre.

This conference marks the end of the MLO project, that was born from an application to the programme of the European Union “Erasmus +”, to promote new educational strategies where the movement and the enjoyment of outdoor places are the key for the global development of children during preschool age.

Over the two and a half years of the project, we have been looking over to contribute that our children have more opportunities of being happy. After training events, assessments about the use of the outdoor as a play space and meetings to discuss the results, it is time to share and spread, with as many people as we can, a methodology that can revolutionize and change the formal preschool education system:

A teacher’s training resources pack
A manual of didactic resources of activities to be carried out with children
A guide of orientations and recommendations for outdoor activities in preschool education.

The Moving and Learning Outside project is leaded by Torres Vedras Municipality and has as partners the Group of Schools Madeira Torres – Kindergarten and Basic School Conquinha, and the Faculty of Human Kinetics (Portugal), the Kindergarten Matije Gupca (Croatia), the Kindergarten Naba (Estonia), the NGO Playing (Greece) and the Queen Maud University College (Norway).