Meet the schools series

Meet the schools: Fatih Sultan Mehmet Primary School

Ocean & Waters Ambassador #1 of the year 2025 (Open Call #2)

Our Ocean & Waters Ambassador is the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Primary School, located in the city of Mersin in Türkiye. The creativity and sheer amount of activities put together for this project has made it a favourite in the hearts of many and the official Winner of the contest!


From February to July 2025, our winning school carried out its blue project “Blue Heritage, Blue Future” with the goals to promote ocean literacy, environmental awareness, and sustainable living by blending artistic and scientific activities.


All teachers at the schools were involved in the activities and parents were also actively involved in the process: they took part in both classroom-based activities and field trips, gaining knowledge and making observations alongside the students.

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children involved
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migrant children involved
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teachers involved
Activities:

The “Blue Heritage, Blue Future” project has fostered strong environmental awareness among students, teachers, parents, and local stakeholders by promoting water and ocean literacy. The active participation of migrant students in the activities has demonstrated the inclusive structure of the project and its contribution to social integration.
Some of the main activities were:

  • Public art exhibition: A public art exhibition held at Tarsu Shopping Mall, where the work of the students was presented to the community, raising awareness on water literacy and environmental consciousness among a wider audience

  • European Blue School Corner: Within the school, a European Blue School Corner was created where students shared their activities and experiences with their peers and parents

  • Raising awareness activities: A lot of activities aimed to raise awareness or improve the understanding of key concepts, through stories, art activities, creative writing, as well as more engineering-oriented activities to gain some technical knowledge (such as the carbon cycle or water purification process). The children were encouraged to develop simultaneously their creativity, skills and knowledge.

  • And many more (seminars, study visits, trainings, art classes, etc.)!

The project reached people well beyond the walls of the school and was even featured in several national and local media outlets. At the end, an impressive 92% of participants stated that they now behaved more consciously and carefully in their daily lives.

Twinning activities

The school was very active in building collaboration with other schools from the SHORE Open Call across Europe. For instance, joint webinars were organised for students in different countries.

Network of European Blue Schools

Thanks to its long-term commitment to ocean literacy, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Primary School was already an accredited member of the Network of European Blue School. With the SHORE project, these activities reached even further to the whole community.

Want to know more about this project?

 

Follow their adventures on the project’s social media:
and discover their interview: