The Terälahti primary school (Tampere, Finland) has 70-80 pupils annually, aged 6-12, divided into multi-grade classes. The same building also includes a nursery, library and the Korento nature school.

Sustainable development has an important role in the Finnish curriculum, but schools have flexibility to define the specific objectives and implement them in their lessons. In Terälahti, the school’s location in a rural environment, its long-term participation in the Eco-Schools Programme and the proximity of the nature school have shaped and fostered the whole-school approach to eco-social education.

The Korento nature school is part of the nature education unit by the city of Tampere. Korento hosts about 5000 participants (pupils, young people and teachers) every year during outdoor education days for schools and training events for educators.

Outdoor education has several benefits: it supports pupils’ and teachers’ mental and physical well-being, enables innovative ways to implement phenomenon-based learning and enhances pupils’ sense of responsibility and connection with nature.

Also, the school actively employs digital technologies when they add value to learning. For example, pupils contribute to the worldwide iNaturalist programme by collecting and inputting data from nature into the database.