‘Signs of Spring’ international learning exchange connects Biosphere schools with Sweden

Young learners in the Galloway & Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere have been celebrating spring with peers in Sweden through an innovative learning exchange taking place through March and April.

Pupils at Ballantrae and Colmonell primary schools have connected with children at schools in Kristianstads Vattenrike UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, using the social platform Discord to share photographs of their favourite outdoor spaces and the seasonal changes taking place.

Faith Hillier, the GSA Biosphere’s Community & Education Lead Officer, has visited the South Ayrshire schools to introduce the project and talk to the classes about what it means for an area to be called a UNESCO Biosphere. Children are making pictures of nature where they live, highlighting local habitats such as woodlands and ponds and the signs of spring that they have seen, such as snowdrops, daffodils, and frogspawn. Ballantrae pupils are also undertaking some citizen science, visiting their local forest school site and recording spring wildlife.

This digital project allows teachers and learners from both countries to chat online in real time and updates to be exchanged every day. The Swedish UNESCO Biosphere has much in common with Galloway and Southern Ayrshire: generations of communities growing up alongside wetlands and waterways with farming a key element of local heritage and land use patterns. Known as ‘the water kingdom’, Kristianstads Vattenrike is a richly varied environment with swamp forests, reed seas and the Helge River flowing through.

The UNESCO Biosphere is also home to deciduous forest and Sweden's largest area of inland coastal meadows. Grass from these meadows has been harvested since ancient times as winter fodder for livestock, whose manure would nourish the fields when spring arrived. The coastal meadows are also important for nesting wetland birds, while the waterways are home to many species of fish.

Ballantrae and Colmonell are both designated Biosphere Communities and Biosphere Officers work closely with local organisations and groups in projects covering community development, learning, resilience, and nature recovery. Faith Hillier heads an education programme offering activities to schools and youth groups across the UNESCO region, all of which encompass outdoor learning, sustainability, and global citizenship. Past international exchanges have connected schools in Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire with schools in Norway, Austria and the USA.

Faith says, “Galloway and Southern Ayrshire is part of a worldwide network of more than 780 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, all of which have a shared goal of widening access to environmental education. We’re very grateful to the teachers in Ballantrae and Colmonell for helping facilitate this very special connection with Kristianstads Vattenrike, and to the children who were so enthused for sharing this beautiful season with their new friends in Sweden.”