Erasmus Plus project Waterschools aims and goals

Strengthening open digital education on water consumption in schools through the creation of teaching tools and innovative practices.

Why Water in Schools? Facts & Figures

Water and health

  • More than 20 percent of children in the EU are either overweight or obese. These rates have increased significantly over the past decades.
  • The consumption of sugar sweetened drinks is often associated with obesity in children. Almost 40 percent of the sugar consumed by young children, comes drinking sugar sweetened drinks.
  • Promotion and provision of drinking water in schools has shown to prevent overweight.
  • In Europe, 20 to 90 percent of 6-year-old children have dental fillings, as a result of dental decay.
  • The consumption of sugary drinks can lead to dental decay and the resulting fillings. This can be avoided by encouraging the consumption of drinks without sugar.

Drinking water in schools is key to preventing obesity and fillings.

 

Water and school performance

  • Nearly half of school children do not meet their minimum hydration requirements.
  • Even mild dehydration can cause cognitive impairment, tiredness and headaches; all of which impact negatively upon academic attainment.
  • Proper hydration is an important prerequisite for concentration and performance in school.

Drinking water promotes efficiency.

 

Water and the environment

  • The Promoting the protection of and sustainable utilisation of the water resources is an important goal for this project.
  • Every minute, a million plastic bottles are bought around the world and this number will jump another 20 percent by 2021.
  • Plastic bottles are one of the most commonly discarded plastic items found on European beaches.
  • Schools that are free of single use plastic bottles, play an important role in helping to implement the EU Plastics Strategy.

Effective education raises awareness of the importance of water and environmental protection.

Drinking tap water reduces bottled waste

 

Become a Waterschool

  • The importance of drinking water in schools is well known by teachers. Waterschools will encourage and allow water drinking during lessons.
  • Schools will also implement drinking rituals, whilst also promoting water drinking in the wider school environment.

Daily training is important in change drinking behaviour.

 

Project partners

The project involves partners in Austria (lead partner), Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. All partners are institutions with experiences and competencies in different areas of nutrition, sustainability and school education. Further information about the partners can be found on the project website: www.waterschool.eu

Target groups

  • teachers
  • Head teachers in early years setttings and schools
  • Local authorities
  • parents
  • water suppliers / water companies

Results and outputs

The project will create an online learning course that advises users on the appropriate use of tap water in schools and kindergartens. As a result of the Erasmus plus Waterschool project, the basic steps of implementing tap water drinking in schools and early yearssettings will be developed on an EU-level.

The project will create the following:

  1. A set of guidelines and didactic concepts on the Waterschool project.
  2. A Waterschool online portal with various educational resources, good practise examples, and a news-section with updated current research and regulations in all partner languages.
  3. An English pilot Waterschool e-learning course.
  4. National versions of the Waterschool e-learning course, adapted for all partner countries and languages. These materials will be evaluated during a testing phase.
  5. Dissemination workshops with stakeholders in all partner countries
  6. International Networking

www.waterschool.eu

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