Introduction of forest kindergartnes in Hungary; V4 meeting in Budapest, 19-20. 09. 2019

The two-day meeting of the project ‘Advocacy strategies for Forest Kindergartens in V4 countries’ supported by the Visegrad Found - ID No. 21820028 - was successfully held on the 19th-20th of September, 2019. The project partners and the organizations dealing with outdoor kindergarten education in the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) meet regularly 4 times a year to help the initiation of the legislation as well as developing professional conditions of outdoor education.

After Slovakia and the Czech Republic now it was Hungary that gave place to the 2-day meeting. The training event, with the title ‘Risk-benefit and their management in Forest Kindergartens’, took place in the experimental outdoor kintergarten project of the Free Waldorf Kindergarten in Gödöllő. Two renowned Scottish experts, Lynn McNair O.B.E., teacher of Edinburgh University and leader of Cowgate Under Fives Ceter Forest Kindergarten and Luke Addison, leader of Riverside Cottage Nursery, gave lectures to approximately 30 participants, among them Hungarian kindergarten teachers interested in outdoor education, on the benefits and positive effects of outdoor teaching and shared their experience gained during the many years of outdoor teaching in Scotland. This form isn’t at all new in the world as it can look back on decades over the globe from Denmark, through Germany to the United States. Then Tereza Valkounová, Ph.D., leader of the Association of Czech Forest Kindergartens (ALMŠ) held a practical training, where the participants could learn about the know-how of risk-benefit assessment in Forest Kindergartens.

On the second day - after Bratislava and Prague - a Roundtable discussion for decisionmakers was held in Budapest. The Agricultural Ministry gave place to the  professional event, in which about two dozens of participants took part. Besides the members of the foreign partner organizations in the project and the foreign experts invited, representatives of local ministries having competence in natureby (green) kindergartens and their relevant agencies also participated in the event: departments  responsible for Public Education, as well as Family and Youth-affair at the Ministry of Human Capacities (EMMI); department for Environmental Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture; the Educational Authority; the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture ; and the National Park of  the Highlands of Lake Balaton. From the Hungarian side representatives of the local fellow-organization of the project, Association for Farm-Based Education as well as the initiative „Joining up Forces for Outdoor Education” were attending the event. In the course of the event experts of the project introduced the advantages of outdoor (forest) education in kindergartens and the international experiences. The Czech example was emphasized, as it was the first of the Visegrad countries where the regulatory environment of forest kindergartens has been initiated. This encouraged the development of affined initiatives as the number of member and fellow-organizations of the Czech patner has gone up to 140 in the recent few years. The event, held in two languages, ended up in discussing the arisen questions and exchanging points of view, in the course of which further possibilities for cooperation between the outdoor education initiative and the Authoroties emerged.