The consortium brings together 6 partners from 5 countries to addresses the problem of how to accelerate improvement in school and pupil performance through up-skilling school leaders to undertake school transformation. The focus is on schools in Socio-economically challenged areas and the project addresses key issues from the EPNoSL report which highlighted the impact that strong school leadership can have on equality of opportunity and the longer term life chances of young people. The latest data shows that that ET 2020 targets will be met without acceleration in current trends. The project addresses the Erasmus+ Priorities of improving the leadership and management of schools and developing new training resources through the methodology of exchanging experiences and good practice, through peer learning activities. The starting point is a study visit for school leadership trainers from four EU countries to analyse best practice from UK schools which have been transformed from ‘low’ to ‘high-performing’ in a short period of time. The partnership will explore the tools and strategies used by such schools to develop a model which can be applied across Europe. The project examines the characteristics of successful school transformation, the practical measures taken, and develops a new set of tools and training resources, trialled at a European level, to up-skill school leadership teams to transform low performing schools into high performing schools. The outputs will be: • A project website hosting downloadable tools and resources and case studies • Training modules and case studies which have been piloted in both Middle and High Schools • A handbook to support the training • A set of case studies from 5 countries illustrating practical tools and strategies used for school transformation • A research publication on the strategies adopted, the impact and policy recommendations • A set of dissemination materials and seminars in 5 countries • A final international conference and series of workshops to promote the training resources Although the lingua franca will be English, resources will also be developed in Hungarian, Bulgarian, Estonian and Portuguese. The initial impact will be a demonstration of improvement in 16 schools in 4 countries involving 100+ school leaders. The project will be supported by a research strand which will explore the methodologies adopted, the impact, further issues arising from the trials and a set of recommendations to be fed back to the European Policy Network on School Leadership. Longer term we will make the resources available to a much wider group of school leaders through sharing with existing networks, promoting them with training providers and demonstrating to decision makers how the tools and methodologies could be adopted as policy or best practice.
This project brought together 6 partners from 5 countries to address the issue of school transformation and use the UK experience as its base-line. It addressed the issues identified by the European Policy Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL), and the impact that successful and pro-active school leadership can have on the performance of schools. It examined the characteristics of successful school transformation, the practical measures taken, and developed a new set of training resources, trialed at a European level, to up-skill school leadership teams to transform low performing schools into high performing schools. It was based the resources on real case studies, using in real situations in 4 countries. The methodology started with an analysis of best practice in schools in challenging circumstances. The consortium worked with schools to develop and test the training packages in the workplace ensuring that there was a constant focus on impact in real situations. The overall objectives of the project were: • to identify the strategies, tools and resources required to turn a low performing school into a high-performing one and to develop a set of training packages which are applicable to all schools across the EU. • to develop training materials to equip school leadership teams to: analyse examples of successful school transformation. identify and use the tools required to measure performance use self-evaluation as a tool for school improvement planning design and implement the school improvement plan identify and use tools to evaluate impact in the short, medium and longer term, including data and feedback from students, teachers and parents pilot, test, evaluate and refine the training modules in 4-6 schools in each of 4 countries The partnership consisted of six partners from five countries. Four were University education departments, one was a professional association and the other was an NGO working nationally on improving standards. P1, the Applicant, Durham University, School of Education was the UK representative on the EPNoSL network. The School of Education was graded ‘Outstanding’ by the Inspectorate Ofsted and works with many schools in the North East of England on professional development programmes. P2, is the major UK professional organisation for Secondary Headteachers and College Principals. ASCL’s role is to support and represent school leaders and they have extensive networks both in the UK and across Europe. P3, University of Debrecen (Hu) was a member of EPNoSL. The Institute of Education is responsible for the following: teachers’ training, professional development and postgraduate courses for teachers. P4, The Faculty of Education, University of Tartu (Ee) is Estonia's leading centre of research and training and a member of EPNoSL. It works to advance learning and to provide a modern higher education based on the integration of teaching and research activities,. P5, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (Pt) supports research on areas which offer great potential, in particular the areas of education and training. The University was a capacity building member of EPNoSL. P6, Teach for Bulgaria (Bg) –has made a significant impact on schools in Bulgaria. It is part of the Teach First network and this project was a new development for the organisation. The workplan consisted of 8 intellectual outputs and 22 activities, the main ones being: • a study of turnaround schools' best practice • creating a draft Scheme of Work for the training Modules • running workshops to analyse school contexts and develop tools for improvement • developing and trialing the draft set of training modules • finalizing the modules • undertaking a research strand • disseminating locally and internationally • developing an exploitation and marketing strategy • providing policy feedback to EPNOSL All of the intended intellectual outputs were achieved and the training modules are now freely available on the project website, http://www.slt4aa.eu The impact in the trials was evaluated as significant by the schools involved, with the strategy linking into their individual contexts. Given that this strategy is aimed at longer term improvements, it is too early to collect data on pupil achievement or improvements in quality, but the objective of empowering schools to use this strategy to improve themselves has been achieved. The project modules will continue to be promoted through the partner networks and will be shared at the educational and academic conferences. Partners are offering their services to undertake training on how best to use the modules. The policy recommendations have been shared with the EPNoSL network and are an exemplification of the practical implementation of their earlier policy recommendations. The outcomes of the project research strand will be shared at future education and academic conferences.