newsletter 1/9/2019 20/02/2020 - bright horizons...2020/02/19 · making licitar hearts and other...

Erasmus+ KA229 – Little Sociopreneurs!

NEWSLETTER 1/9/2019 – 20/02/2020

Bright Horizons

International British School of Zagreb

Zagreb, Croatia

Project meeting in Ljubljana (7-11 October 2019)

Three teachers from Bright Horizons had the opportunity to part take in the

4th transnational ERASMUS+ Little Sociopreneurs meeting in Ljubljana,

Slovenia. This was a Joint-Staff Training where all had the opportunity to

further explore and develop understanding of the elements of the Social

Entrepreneurship Lesson Guide, which has been in the making throughout

the project. In the last year we have worked hard in collaboration with

schools from Cyprus, Spain, Bulgaria and Slovenia to create a 10 lesson plan

guide that is now complete and, after the meeting in Ljubljana, has been

implemented in 5 schools throughout Europe as a pilot project. Teachers also

had the opportunity to learn about good practice in the Vrtec Galjevica

complexes and explore cultural heritage and social entrepreneurship in

Slovenia. Teachers toured the Ethnographic museum of Ljubljana, explored

the city centre and went on a trip to Bled, where they could admire the

amazing nature Slovenia has to offer. The team went on a guided tour of glass

factory Hrastnik, with an over 150 year history, where they experienced

entrepreneurship in action first hand.

Once back at Bright Horizons, the teachers shared all their new experiences and knowledge with the rest

of the team.


As a part of our Erasmus+ project meeting in Ljubljana, our teachers prepared an interactive CLIL

presentation for the children of Vrtec Galjevica, where they took the children on a journey through Croatia

accompanied by song and dance. Jelena, our created character, sang a traditional Croatian song as the

students had to guess which food, animals and monuments she would see around Croatia.


Implementation of Little Sociopreneur Lesson guide at Bright Horizons

Once back from Ljubljana, the team was eager to get started with the implementation of the lesson guide. The teachers planned to implement the 10 lesson plans included in the Social Entrepreneurship Guide in years 4, 5 and 6. However, the whole school was included in the journey. All pupils were included in several school assemblies where we had guest speakers with their own enterprises, including social and green initiatives. Our school parents were very active in participating and it was truly a team effort.

Guests to Bright Horizons – entrepreneurs, social impactors, local cultural heritage artists

Parents from our school community were kind enough to share their experience and knowledge with all of the students. Ms Rončević presented her enterprise the Library of Croatia, a way of renting books for free, to years 4, 5 and 6. Mr Špehar and Mr Starešina, both entrepreneurs with their own tourist agencies, shared their experiences about what it takes to become an entrepreneur and shared how their passion for their job helped them succeed. Mr Bonessa presented to the whole school a green initiative he came across while living in Costa Rica and inspired all students to further explore Ecobricks, a sustainable housing solution.


Brodoto, a social impact agency, operating in Croatia and Serbia, came to speak to the students about the elements of an enterprise and presented several social enterprises they have helped to create. Students were truly impacted by the social element of the ERASMUS+ project. During the brainstorming they had a plethora of ideas of how they could help their community and environment. Students also got to learn more about crowd funding and how Brodoto has managed to bring to life some many social initiatives.

The humanitary organization “Ljudi za ljude” (People for people), led by Maja Sever, presented to the school how they help less fortunate and isolated families and people. The year 7 class was so inspired that they organized a meeting with the organization and brainstormed on ways to help the less fortunate. As a result, they organized an event in the school where each class collected various food and necessary supplies. On Saturday 16th December, just before Christmas, several students from various classes, visited the families in the village Glina to personally deliver all of the collected goods.


Students had the opportunity to learn more about Croatian cultural heritage with a hands-on workshop. We were very lucky to be able to host a guest, Ms Gorišek-Prstec, who has her own family trade and craft business with multiple generations of experience in making Licitar hearts and other gingerbread crafts. Students learnt about the meaning of the hearts, the tradition behind it and the manufacturing process. Once full of knowledge they got to work to make their own Licitar hearts and other gingerbread shapes, celebrating traditional Croatian designs!

Trips – exploring the community, learning about entrepreneurship from a company

Upper year students went on a guided tour of the Coca-cola factory and company. They had the opportunity to learn about elements of business firsthand from the employees. They learnt about the different roles in a company, about marketing and the social and environmental impact and

responsibility of a company.


Initiatives by the school

Along with the afore mentioned Ljudi za ljude food collection drive, students took action this school year. The whole school part took in a school bake sale – Cooks for Books, where students could show off their newly acquired business knowledge. All students helped set up for the open event, brought in their own baked goods and priced them on their own. The students oversaw all of the interaction with the customers, along with the finances. At the end, the bake sale was a huge success and helped fundraise a lot of funds to help buy new books. It was truly such a wonderful event for us and the students were absolutely brilliant. The students are already making plans for our next Cooks for books event.


All teachers have implemented the UN Global sustainable development goals into their teaching, which has made the students very aware of their impact on the environment and community. These lessons were taught in several languages: English, Spanish, German and Croatian, truly putting CLIL into action. Students have become agents of change and have started petitions on their own initiative. This mind set has truly tied into how they have approached their businesses.

Also inspired by the Little Sociopreneur program, the upper year students have started to learn about

financial math as an integrated unit in their regular math curriculum.


Implementation of the lesson plan in the classroom

The lessons commenced with the students completing

pre-test questionnaires about their previous

knowledge about the topic. Some students were

apprehensive about the program but quickly got

enthusiastic when they saw how many potential

business ideas they had. Students were greatly inspired

to help the community and environment. They have

used their project books to make doodles about their

ideas and new terms they have learnt. Year 4

particularly enjoys learning about new concepts

through raps and song.


Students worked on creating brands and designing an eye catching logos.

Throughout the last month, students have been working hard in putting all of their newly acquired skills

and knowledge into practice. They have worked to create their own businesses and have laid out all of the

elements onto posters. These posters are their companies’ vision boards and will be presented at the Little

Sociopreneurs fair in April. The posters cover the business plans and all important information for them to

start up their businesses. Throughout this process students have truly worked on their 21st century and

personal skills; developing their resilience, along with their communication, collaboration, problem solving

skills. The students are on the next phase of their business startups - creating their products and further

developing their marketing strategies.

newsletter 1/9/2019 20/02/2020 - bright horizons...2020/02/19 · making licitar hearts and other...

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