Pappus: the lockdown transnational meeting

A much anticipated part of any Erasmus+ project is the Transnational Meetings, which bring together all of the participating partners and provide opportunities to get to know one another, explore the context of the work in the partner country, and of course see examples of best practice.

In November 2019, the Pappus partners visited Sankt Polten in Austria, for the kickoff Transnational Meeting.

PLL and our England partners from the University of Gloucestershire were very excited to welcome our partners for the England Transnational Meeting that was to have been held in March. We had great plans for showcasing some excellent practice locally, including visits to schools, but thanks to the Europe-wide lockdown, it was not too be. Our plans included having fun exploring nature drama and play, experiencing the Year 6 (age 10-11) curriculum in action outdoors and some expertly guided botanising getting up close and personal with plants.

We would like to thank Burlish Park Primary School for the generous preparations they made to host our group, also the Painswick Rococo Gardens, Shirelands Collegiate Academy, and Lickey Country Park too.

We held our meeting virtually, as everyone is now getting used to, and good progress was made, with a focus on developing a high quality, accessible and adaptable Toolkit of online resources to help schools and out of school providers introduce plants to learning and play. PLL is leading this work, and making the most of the support from our Erasmus+ partners in Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

A second England Transnational Meeting is due in June; right now we are hopeful but expect that we might find ourselves Zooming again! We look forward to hosing our European partners in the future when restrictions allow. In the mean time the project is forging ahead, and if you are interested in getting invol