Informacje i wydarzenia z Grzybowa

The project of the Ecological Folk High School (EFHS) as an innovative method of young adult education is implemented by the Ecological and Cultural Association "ZIARNO". The idea of the Folk High School has been tried in Grzybów since 2001, when the first Folk High School courses were offered mainly for local women. Now the target group is young people interested in organic farming, food processing, rural handicraft, culture and ecology.

The goal of the project is the creation of an Ecological Folk High School in Grzybów, which is situated in the Mazovia voivodeship in Poland, as a model initiative of life-education. It includes:

1. The development and testing of a curriculum through two pilot courses of two years duration for two groups of young students (together circa 40 people).
2. The improvement of existing infrastructure: construction of a new workshop house and a dormitory.

The project started in February 2014 and will last until January 2018.

The first course started in September 2015 and lasted until August 2017. A detailed work-plan can be found HERE.

Our students take part in 104 days of more theoretical part: lectures, workshops, presentations and around 14 months of practice in 17 diverse farms from all over Poland. Specific descriptions of the farms can be found HERE.

The total budget of the Velux grant for the project is 985 000€ and covers costs of the construction of the new building, the renovation of the old buildings, both 2-year courses and promotional events.

The Ecological Folk High School in Grzybów is also supported by the EU programme Erasmus+ through which we are implenting the Building Key Competences and Folkhighschool Pedagogy in XXI Europe project. Read more HERE.

Cooperation of EFHS and "ZIARNO" with number of institutions and experts has brought tens of publications in a few languages. Those in English can be found HERE.

Organic Production FolkHighSchool (OPFHS) as an innovative method of young adults education.

The  goal of the project is a realisation of Organic Production FolkHighSchool in Grzybów, Mazovia voivodship in Poland, as a model initiative of education for life.  It will include:

1. development of the curriculum and testing it through  2 pilot courses (each one 2 years long)  for two groups of youngsters (together circa 40 people), age 18-25 years old.   
2. the improvement of existing infrastructure, building a new workshop house  and dormitory  

The idea of  FolkHighSchool has been tried in Grzybow  since 2001, when the first folkhighschool courses were realised mainly for local women. Now the target group would be young people interested in organic farming, food processing, rural handicraft, culture  and ecology.

The project started in February 2014 and it will last 4 years, till January 2018.

Total budget of the Velux grant for project is 985 000€. It covers costs of: construction of the new building, renovation of the old buildings, two  2-years courses and other promotional events.

Ecological Folk Highschool in Grzybów was supported by EU programme Erasmus+, Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, Strategic Partnerships, mainly in the field: adult education.

The title of the project was: Building Key Competences and Folkhighschool Pedagogy in XXI Europe (with acronym: KeyFolkXXI). This project started on the 1st September 2014 and ended 31st August 2017.

The main objective of the project was to explore the methodology of folk high schools in adult education in modern Europe in order to respond to new challenges, particularly  of high unemployment. Innovative is linking the "old" European tradition in  adult education  from marginalised areas with the "new" idea of key competences developed by EU,  in other words: to creatively use Grundtvig's philosophy and methodology of education to improve effectiveness of adult education in our countries and thus foster entrepreneurship and employability of young adults.

The partnership consisted of various adult education providers: the Ecological and Cultural Association ZIARNO and Kaszubski Uniwersytet Ludowy from Poland, University of Applied Science Eberswalde from Germany, Agricultural University-Plovdiv from Bulgaria, Brenderup Højskole  from Denmark, Verein für biolologisch dynamische Landwirtschaft (Association of biodynamic farmers) from Switzerland. Polish regional authority Powiat Płocki joined the  partnership to promote gained experience and the project results in vocational schools in the area. The geographical, economic and historical range of partnership is very wide which provides a good sharing of diverse experience in the field in a multicultural context.

The topic for exploring and adapting folkhighschool methodology was organic production course for 20 young adults which was realised in Poland with a grant from Danish Velux Foundation. The Erasmus + partnership has worked together to develop curriculum and handbook for this folk high school course, which already has been implemented in EUL in Grzybów.

Two other outputs developed during the project are: Guidelines on building key competences through Grundtvigian pedagogy: tools, examples, good practices  and a publication which summarise the project: "Folk High Schools of XXI Century. Tradition - Contemporaneity - Challenges for the Future" where the reader may find articles about folk high schools in modern Europe. These two outputs gather the most important experience, good practical examples, conclusions and recommendations for the future.  All outputs are distributed for free and disseminated on e-platform of the project.

Main activities of the project were 4 short-term joint staff training events in all participating EU countries and one intensive Study Programme for teaching staff in Switzerland - in order to learn about a school which was initiated  and run by organic farmers there 30 years ago, officially validated and supported by the government nowadays. We decided to invite a partner from outside EU because of the unique know-how in creating and successfully running for many years a vocational school (with the approach similar to the methodology of folk high schools) by association of employers (in this case biodynamic farmers).

The achieved impact of the project is recognition of the value of folkhigschool methodology in adult education, particularly in countries like Poland and Bulgaria, linking key competences building with this methodology, introduction of dual system in vocational training, more links between  education with employment, development of sustainable, organic enterprises in rural areas of Europe.

tekst po angielsku

Ekologiczny Uniwersytet Ludowy w Grzybowie
Grzybów 1/2
09-533 Słubice

kom.603 061 561

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Wieś Grzybów jest położona ok. 80 km na zachód od Warszawy, w połowie drogi między Sochaczewem, a Płockiem.

Najlepszy dojazd dla przybywających z Warszawy jest od strony Iłowa, drogą na Płock, skręt w lewo przed Słubicami

(już po znaku „koniec wsi Grzybów”). 1,2 km od tego zakrętu, po lewej stronie znajduje się nasz ośrodek.