Working on the courtyards of Zamakola, Tiboli, Intxixu, Deustuko Ikastola, and CEIP Deusto, with an investment of 47,000 euros in each center.
The Education Department of the Bilbao City Council has published the guide «Reimagining Courtyards: Conceptualization of inclusive, green, and open courtyards for early childhood and primary education centers in Bilbao» with the aim of continuing to advance its commitment to make courtyards more educational places.
According to the Education Councilor of Bilbao, Eider Bilbao, this guide «captures the work done in the framework of compliance with the mandate of the plenary session last May, which urged to intervene, through existing participation bodies, in courtyards and school environments, to make these spaces of inclusion and well-being facilitators of positive coexistence.»
It is a tool for educational centers to design their courtyard in a participatory manner among all users: students, teachers, non-teaching staff, families, community.
For this purpose, the guide has already been sent to all Infant, Primary, and ESO educational centers in the Villa in Basque and Spanish, and from the Municipal School Council, as a participation body of the entire school community of Bilbao, a Commission has been set up to promote this transformation of courtyards, environments, and school paths.
Specifically, the document aims to conceptualize and define the «what, how, where, and when necessary to act in the transformation of the current school courtyards of Bilbao into inclusive, green, open, playful, and educational, as social and environmental infrastructure of the city,» explained Bilbao.
«The environment where children and adolescents live their experiences, explore, and inquire about the world around them is a third teacher that contributes to their socialization like their peers, teachers, families, and adults with whom they live. Expanding these recreation places is a felt need to make Bilbao an educating city,» emphasized the councilor.
IN DEVELOPMENT IN SEVERAL EDUCATIONAL CENTERS
The Education Department is already working with the guide «Reimagining Courtyards: Conceptualization of inclusive, green, and open courtyards for early childhood and primary education centers in Bilbao» in five courtyards of the city: Deustuko Ikastola, CEIP Deusto, Zamakola, Tiboli, and Intxixu with the aim of refining the tool. At the same time, in two of them (Deustuko Ikastola and CEIP Deusto), the guide is being experimented with in two pilot projects. An investment of 47,000 euros is being made in each.
All actions are agreed upon by the educational community, and the objective is to reinforce the investment in school courtyards in response to the demand of the educational community, explained Eider Bilbao.
Bilbao has 33 public early childhood and primary centers, with over 100,000 m2 of green, sports, and recreational areas. The courtyards are generally asphalted almost entirely, with few exceptions. Most of the courtyard space is usually dedicated to sports courts, generally for playing football or basketball.
There are also playgrounds and residual spaces, and, in some cases, school gardens. It is common for there to be an unequal use of courtyard space among students, between those who play on the sports court and those who do not, as well as by gender.
COURTYARD COMMITMENT
This guide adds to other actions of the Bilbao Education Department that seek to advance school courtyards as spaces for open coexistence to the public outside of school hours.
Thus, Eider Bilbao recalled that in the last school year 2024-2025, the first edition of the «Open Courtyards» pilot project was successfully developed, an innovative initiative promoted by the Education Department, in collaboration with Lanbide and Bilbao Ekintza, in the educational centers of Indautxuko Eskola and Basurtuko Eskola, offering inclusive, safe, and dynamic spaces for play and coexistence to families outside of school hours, especially on weekends. Each month, nearly 2,000 children – accompanied by over 300 adults – participated in the initiative.
The project has been selected as one of the 14 Spanish finalists in the European Innovation in Politics Awards, which recognize bold and innovative public initiatives that improve people’s lives and strengthen democracy. In this edition, over 300 projects from 22 countries were submitted.
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