School innovation in Europe: promoting students’ social competences and teachers’ collaboration through informal learning practices at the 4th Primary School of Thiva

The school has been developing innovative practices of informal learning for six years (since 2011). The main aims of these innovative approaches were to improve the educational level of pupils and school performance, to promote their social competences and sensitivity to the surrounding community and to enhance cooperation between teachers. As the first step of the informal learning approach, the school aimed to create informal learning environments by renovating the school yard and make it suitable for the learning purposes. As a second step, the school designed various learning approaches connected to the yard and broader school community (e.g., focusing on environmental education, natural sciences, reading). In this process the school cooperated with external stakeholders (scientists, artists, craftworkers, museums, etc.).