We had four key areas in our project that we wanted to improve or develop from the beginning, namely applying new methods and approaches in teaching of different subjects, applying new methods of assessment, development of ICT competences and the development of students' 21st century skills. Also, we wanted to further widen our network of European partner schools , establish new partnerships across Europe and thus continue school internationalisation. The new curricular reform demanded different ways of learning and that is why our teachers needed to attend courses that would enable them to implement new methods and approaches in their classrooms. Assessment was one of the key changes in the reform so we wanted teachers to learn about formative assessment, digital forms of assessment and different assessment apps. Through ICT courses we wanted to empower teachers for the effective and reasonable integration of technology into the new curricula because the usage of ICT does not transform teacher practices in and of itself. Lastly, we wanted teachers to attend courses where they would learn how to develop students' 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, creativity and character skills.
In 2018 our school was chosen to be part of two major projects on national level. One of these projects was External evaluation of schools led by NCVVO and the second project was Experimental programme School for Life led by MoE. These two projects served as the basis of our ED Plan. The team for quality did SWOT analysis of school's needs, strengths and weaknesses, National centre did surveys among teachers and students and all the results were analyzed with the help of NCVVO. Among many areas for improvement the Quality Team decided to choose as its priority the topic of professional development of teachers. This happened at the beginning of 2018 and as a next step in March 2018 the school applied to be part of the Experimental programme of the new curricular reform and we were chosen. When the experiment started teachers realised that there was lots of room for improvement of their professional competences, skills and knowledge.The experiment emphasised the usage of ICT, applying new methods and approaches in teaching, applying new ways of assessment, development of 21st century skills and cooperation with other European schools. That is why we chose these areas to be the key areas of our new KA1 project.