MOTIVATION

The motivation for the project has arisen from the location of each of the schools as they are all near a National Park or a Nature Reserve. These Parks and Reserves are often the life blood of the local communities.  The people rely on them for jobs, recreation, and economics and in some cases for food. 

The different school communities are linked in many ways with The National Parks and Nature Reserves, many of the school parents, wider family circles and management work directly in the Parks / Reserves or with services that rely on the Parks or in tourism that is dependent on the National Parks / Reserves.

The schools wish to learn more about their National Parks and Nature Reserves. They wish to study ways that they can maintain these Parks / Reserves for future generations. They want to instil a sense of pride in their students in the special elements of their parks. They also want to learn about other similar Parks / Reserves in other countries, share their own knowledge with the schools in these countries and to learn from the schools as to how they work with their Park / Reserve authorities for the Education of their students.

The idea of a European project on National Parks and Nature Reserves has been a dream of The Irish School for many years. This proposed project was discussed with some of the schools applying for the project in June 2011 and the Irish school hosted a preparatory meeting in October 2012 to prepare this application in conjunction with the partner schools.