"Our “How Children Learn” Early Years and Primary stage partnership developed from an initial identified need to adopt new learning strategies and innovative ways to prepare pupils for life, study and work, relevant to the rapid changes of the 21st century. We wanted to respond to the immediate challenge of improving and bringing more relevance to the early years and primary learning experience, finding new and better ways of motivating and upskilling our pupils.The objectives are to: 1 improve the way we meet the core needs of pupils – to be solution-focused, independent learners, resilient, better prepared for change in life, study and work, today and in the future;2 enable teachers to be better equipped with improved skills, competences, teaching materials and pedagogical approaches;3 actively encourage the pupils and the teachers to develop a European perspective;4 work towards the recognition and wider adoption of project results and outcomes using local, regional and national networks, and international associations;5 identify by the end of the project which other organisations are interested in our work, and how further funding can be harnessed.Kirkhill Nursery and Primary School, Aberdeen led this partnership of six schools, using experience of leading 2 previous Comenius partnerships.Manstad Primary Skole, Norway worked with us in our previous Comenius project and had developed a successful intervention and support programme for behavioural problems.Kausalan koulu, a primary and secondary school in Kausala, Finland brought a reputation of high achievement on the PISA scale. Nysäters Förskola, Sweden school bases its teaching on the inspiration approach of Reggio Emilia.Prof. Wassenbergskoalle, a Dutch school where pupils set their own goals, has introduced problem solving through the use of 3D technology.Santa Bàrbara school in Spain established class teaching in three different languages from the age of 3; developed an approach to integration which resulted in more effective learning in classes with a wide social and ethnic mix.Each school made their own contribution to all the project activities and took a leading role in specific parts of the work programme.Our partnership was enhanced by the active participation of Professor Brian Boyd of the University of Strathclyde, who gave regular inputs to direct our research, interpret the outcomes moving our thinking forward throughout the project. He drew on his long research career and as one of the founders of the Scottish “Curriculum for Excellence” he gave us a range of inputs during the project on theories of learning, “Powerful Pedagogies”. He also helped us further develop our quality indicators and use them to monitor outcomes and results.The main activities focused on:• learning from exchanging best practice of our partners through study visits which were followed by critical analysis and discussions;• in our own schools, trying out new approaches, methods and materials which the study visits provided; analysing the outcomes of the trials; giving feedback to all partners on the results; reporting on our findings;• participating in two teaching/learning/training weeks, where focused activities enabled teachers to work with a group of pupils and alongside experts, to study specific aspects of the project and make plans for incorporating new ideas into our teaching and learning. The activities for the pupils were designed to provide a research focus for the teachers.The first training week was held in Spain, where the Spanish school demonstrated their approaches and methodology in teaching languages. Activities for the pupils were designed to capture the learning children experience when engaging in play.The second training week followed the same pattern in a problem solving context and was held in Sweden, devised and led by Navet Science & Technology Centre.During the project we investigated 3 groups of skills - Basic, Transversal, Global, and certain cross focus themes e.g. use of business contexts; how to recognise and assess learning which arises out of play and informal learning.Our main significant output is the ""Charter for Children's learning"". Tangible results also include resources for use in schools; evidence of our strategic planning, professional development and further studies. Our Twinspace displays the project outcomes including concise descriptions of the most significant new contexts and formats for learning, improving skills development and performance of our pupils, including Collaborative Learning, the Storyline approach to teaching, learning through play and boosting creativity.The impacts have been far-reaching and significant. All the partners have acknowledged the understanding and experience we gained by investigating best educational practice in action. We already have evidence of this from the uptake of some of our work by teacher training in Norway, and the use of methods by other schools."