Wright Educational Solutions: green school education

“Kids are spending too much time on their screens. They miss out on interaction with other children, on savouring the outdoors and endless opportunities for discovery that nature provides. We’re giving them that chance to reconnect with each other and with nature, develop their social skills and enjoy learning through their natural environments,“ says Gyongyver Pillich-Wright, founder of Wright Educational Solutions.

Gyongyver is a qualified teacher trainer, specialised in neuro-language coaching. She runs a language school and a logistics for educational services business with partner Marc. The company, based in Macau, Romania, offers educational providers and organisations guidance on management, quality assurance, teacher-training and staff development.

“During the pandemic as kids were forced to stay home and trapped in virtual reality, parents were desperate for alternatives,” she says. “I‘ve always been interested in innovative approaches to teaching, so I began exploring the idea of using the natural world to improve learning, bring more joy and fun to education, and pull children away from their devices.”

In the summer of 2021, together with Marc, she launched a green schooling project, using an EU-guaranteed loan from BTMic and backed by the EIF under the EU’s Investment Plan for Europe. The project offers children aged 6-10 all sorts of (afternoon or weekend) activities involving exploring local villages, forests and farms, adapted to their normal educational programme. “We’re practicing alternative methods to teach subjects such as mathematics, physical education and languages through green schooling. We get the children out in the woods and soon enough, the connection happens, letters and numbers emerge through games, hut constructions, tree counting… Suddenly learning becomes exciting.”

The children also learn arts and crafts, furniture painting, embroidery, woodcarving, beadwork, traditional cooking and cheese making from local artisans and craftswomen. “They get to understand that not everything comes from supermarkets.”

For Gyongyver, the rewarding result is what the kids create: “Building huts or insect hotels requires collaboration, problem-solving skills, creativity, decision-making, self-discipline, emotional understanding, all of which contribute towards their broader educational development.”

The project was interrupted for winter but Gyongyver can’t wait for summer to get going again so that she can continue exploring this new method of teaching. “I want to stimulate children’s imagination and desire to learn in a meaningful way.”

Company: Wright Educational Solutions (Romania)

Sector: education

EIF financing:  Skills & Education Guarantee Pilot,  EFSI

Financial intermediary: BT Mic

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Romania please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/ro