WE are Blue Schools!

The project was aimed to foster environmental awareness and sustainability skills in young people by activating schools and teachers to sign up to the European Blue School Network which promotes t...

The project was aimed to foster environmental awareness and sustainability skills in young people by activating schools and teachers to sign up to the European Blue School Network which promotes the Ocean Literacy activities. The project achieved this goal by 1) successfully implement as a pilot project an inclusive and comprehensive EU Blue School Network in the confined regional area of Mallorca over the short term of 13 months by creating a true grass-roots approach that includes teachers, schools and local environmental actors, and, 2) document this approach in a BluePrint that enables other EU regions to follow this example and successfully recruit a large Network of European Blue Schools. implementing a true grass-roots approach that includes teachers, schools and local environmental actors in a pilot action to overcome current hindrances and by documenting this approach in a BluePrint Guide to enable other EU regions to follow this example.

The "We are Blue Schools" project is a grass-roots pilot project that has implemented the following activities: - conduct a research to find out from schools and teachers what stops them from becoming Blue Schools - organise a workshop to develop a strategy concept and initiate a Community of Practice - implement the findings and support a minimum of 100 schools in Mallorca to become Blue Schools - share its experience in a BluePrint Guide for transferability to other context. - quality management activities and dissemination activities. Furthermore, due to its success, the project has implement a set of extra activities that have made possible its continuation after the project lifetime, such as: - Participation in European conferences: European Maritime Day, EU Blue Schools, European Schoolnet & WestMed. - Participation in National conferences: Reeducamar. - Organization of two certification ceremonies to bring the balearic schools together. - Actions to make the project sustainable: collaboration with local actors. - Replicability actions where regions like the Canary Islands, Murcia, and Poland are replicating the project. - Participation in multiple mass media platforms such as TV, Radio, Newspapers and EU newsletters

The main results of the "We are Blue Schools" project are: - a strategy concept based on the research phase to determine why schools do not join the Blue School network - 100 schools in Mallorca (Balearics) that have signed up to be Blue Schools and integrate Ocean Literacy activities into their lessons - a Community of Practice, both onsite and online through ESEP and the Maritime Forum. - a BluePrint Guide for other regions and organisations to copy the activities of the project - a project Flyer (in English, Spanish and Catalan), a website and social media accounts. Furthermore, all the extra activities listed in the previous box have produced extra results, such as: - Collaborations with key local actors such as the Port authority, research centres and other maritime institutions that want to collaborate in the blue projects of the schools within the network. - An image of Mallorca, which is now seen as an Ocean Literacy referent in Europe and beyond. - Spin-of projects between the schools, at local and EU level. - A true impact on the schools (100), students, families and beyond, where more than 180.000 people have been reached through the various dissemination channels.