Step 1: Identify an issue
The number of children in Catalonia who are in a situation of poverty or exclusion is increasing, reaching 32.5% this year. This significantly limits opportunities for educational and personal development.
Furthermore, children and young people from families with a high socio-economic level have a participation in educational activities of 72%, whereas those with a low level have only 41%, according to the data of the Survey of participation in summer activities 2022 prepared by the Educació 360 Alliance (Educació 360, June 2024).
Confronted with this issue, the Ayutamiento of Martorell decided to tackle educational inequalities and develop an initiative that helps everyone achieve educational success through equal opportunities. Hence, they identified key actors on the topic: schools, families, and the educational community.
Step 2: Join forces with relevant actors
To develop a long-term initiative, especially when you have limited resources (because you are a middle-sized town, for instance), being part of a team is an advantage that can ensure the sustainability of your program.
Since 2019, Martorell is thus part of the Educació 360 Alliance. It has enabled them to initiate their own Martorell Educa 360 action program to generate more and better educational opportunities while not having to start from scratch.
What is Educació 360:
The values of the alliance are educative equality, educational success, tailored-made teachings, and community network. It has been rallied by more than 150 Catalonian town halls, as well as county and provincial councils, networks and services of educational centres, teachers and professionals.
The point of being part of the alliance is to develop local projects for children, teenagers and their families, by understanding their educational needs and helping them succeed in education. It consequently serves to ensure that young people can have access to formal education, sports and culture by providing extracurricular activities to all primary and secondary school students, with the idea that learning takes place everywhere.
The particularity of Martorell is that they are the only municipality in Catalonia that has activated a program of extracurricular activities with an extensive, free and universal catalogue. This is part of the reason why they were awarded the European Commission #BeActiveAward, a 10, 000€ prize for initiatives that encourage activity among children outside the typical sport/physical activity taking place in their normal school day.
Step 3: Develop your tailored-made initiative
Overall, after almost five years of being underway, Martorell Educa 360 is made up of around 140 activity groups and 80 instructors. Even though the program spans over a lot of social issues with its extracurricular and out of school activities, summer camps and clubs, and other activities relating to art, sports, leisure or technology, what interests us today is obviously the promotion of sport and healthy activity in the extracurricular activities it offers.
Esport Educatiu 360 is the specific program dedicated to sports. The activities take place in school, which makes them accessible, but they are carried out outside school hours with the goal of helping in the comprehensive training of children and transmitting them values to move towards a fairer society.
The program includes five physical and sports activity programs adapted to each educational stage as well as to the Martorell Centres’ Educational Project (PEC). According to the Department of Education of Catalunya, a Centre educational project is “a document that includes the center’s identity features, pedagogical principles, organizational principles and the language project. This document specifies the values, objectives and action priorities of the center, the specification of the curricula that are taught and the transversal treatment in the areas, subjects or modules of the education in values and other teachings. It can be consulted on the website of each educational center.”
In accordance with the Martorell Educa 360 values, they are structured around 4 axes :
– the natural and urban environment (that children need to learn to navigate and protect) ;
– physical activity and health (both through exercises on movement control and through the promotion of good personal hygiene) ;
– body perception, image and movement (e.g. exercises to learn awareness of one’s body and to interact with objects in one’s environment) ;
– and the practice of traditional games (you can find examples of such games by clicking here).
The program also involves the buying of new sporting equipment, to provide all participating children with quality tools.
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Example of activities held in Martorell
Each activity is held in schools at different times in the week.
– For younger children (from nursery to primary school), there are activities to develop their psychomotricity and their ‘pre-sport’ game and expression. This is a fun way to keep active that is not exactly sport yet!
– When the children are a bit older, they can take part of the initiation to sport program, aimed at encouraging children to strengthen their autonomy in their daily activities and to become aware of the limits and possibilities of their own body when carrying out physical activities.
– Multisport lessons are also part of the Martorell Educa 360 activities, so that the children can try out different sports and choose their favourite one.
– There are also single sport courses, those taking place in specific schools. That way, pupils can practice futsal, handball, gymnastics, or even urban dance.
– During the summer, the municipality also offers activities for children during the day, which can be helpful for working parents and provides kids with a fun group activity to look forward to.
Examples of what is offered in some of the schools can be found here (in Catalan) :
https://patronat.martorell.cat/ensenyament/extraescolars-aleixandre/
https://patronat.martorell.cat/ensenyament/cicle-superior/
https://patronat.martorell.cat/ensenyament/extraescolars-echegaray/
https://patronat.martorell.cat/ensenyament/extraescolars-jimenez/
Step 4: Enjoy the results of your investment!
According to the mayor of Martorell, Xavier Fonollosa, “of the 1,600 boys and girls [enjoying Martorell Educa 360 activities], 63% had never done an extracurricular activity”. This data highlights the impact this program has had on its community and on reducing inequalities in the access to education and sport.
And this is how Martorell developed active schools!
Conclusion
With its Educació 360 initiative, Catalunya has developed a very prolific way to reconnect students to educational and sporting activities. And thanks to the strong strategy we’ve just described, Martorell schools now have active pupils that can practice sport for free at least once a week during the school year! You can take inspiration from these good practices in your own program with the resource here!