School as an institution cooperating with the local environment

This paper forms a short study on the broad subject of the cooperation between educational institutions and the local environment and the involvement of the local environment in the school, cultural and scientific life. The article highlights only one aspect of the wide spectrum of issues related to this subject. It presents the school and its cooperation with the local environment. The paper is divided into two parts. The first, theoretical, part expounds and explains the key terms, such as volunteering, charity, leisure time or local environment. The second part contains the analysis of own research which involved teachers from two primary schools in the Małopolskie Province and secondary school students also from the Małopolskie Province. The teachers commented on the links between the local life and the school, whereas the students presented their point of view on the same matter after several years of education.