In a whole-school approach¹, all members of the school community (school leaders, middle management, teaching and non-teaching staff, learners, parents and families) feel responsible for – and play an active role in – improving the learning experiences for all learners. The entire school community engages in a cohesive, collective and collaborative action, based on multidisciplinarity and cooperation.

A cross-sectoral approach and strong cooperation with a wide range of partners (social services, youth services, psychologists, nurses, speech therapists, guidance specialists, local authorities, universities and research, NGOs, businesses, unions, volunteers, etc.) and the community at large is necessary to deal with issues which schools do not (and cannot) have the relevant expertise for.

The concept of a whole-school approach allows for the entire system of actors and their inter-relationships in and around schools to be considered, acknowledging that each stakeholder has a part to play in supporting the learners' educational journey and nurturing their learning experience.

A whole-school approach will help schools tackle a wide range of complex issues, which schools are increasingly confronted with. Challenges associated with the growing diversity, inequalities and social exclusion in society, and with the recent increase in migration flows, place new demands on schools and call for systemic, collaborative responses².

The whole-school approach is beneficial to all learners, not only to those at risk of underachievement or dropout. It can improve the motivation, engagement and social inclusion of all learners. As schools cannot address educational disadvantage, disengagement and early school leaving alone, they have to collaborate and integrate efforts with different stakeholders and services, inside and outside the school. The school is the logical site to initiate such community collaboration.

Structured courses are the most popular form of school staff mobility. Based on the applications, 78% of the participants planned to take part in courses or other types of training events (Source: Erasmus+ Annual Report 2015).

Good practice example: St. Paul's Primary School, Ireland"Our Erasmus+ experience was just an amazing and exciting learning journey where staff members got the opportunity to travel to Europe to undertake professional development opportunities."Kieran Brosnan, Assistant Principal and Project Co-Ordinator, at the St. Paul’s Primary School, Ireland, was convinced about the benefits that attending courses brought to his school. Staff from his school attended courses in Riga and Madrid. You can read the full story and/or listen to the podcast, where he highlights the three success factors for his project: good planning, inclusion of all school staff, and whole-school implementation of what was learnt in the project.

 

Before diving into this module, please keep in mind the overall requirements for Key Action 1:

For further details, please see the Programme Guide and consult your Erasmus+ National Agency.

There are hundreds of training providers organising courses targeted to school staff, so you may be wondering how you can select the most relevant course. Many providers have listed their courses in the Course Catalogue on School Education Gateway, where you can currently find thousands of courses.

While the Course Catalogue is there to help you find interesting and relevant courses, we would like to remind you that:

This chapter explains how to use the Course Catalogue. If you have already used the Catalogue you might be familiar with its main features, but we will present additional ways to get the most out of it.

When you log in, you can also do the following:

Are you organising courses yourself?

If you are offering on-site courses for school staff, you can add your courses to the Course Catalogue. Please read the relevant instructions first (available in 23 languages). A PIC number is required to do this.

Remember that Key Action 1 is not only about courses. In the next module, we will continue focusing on Key Action 1 and the other mobility activities such as job shadowing. However, you can already find concrete advice for your Key Action 1 application in this module.

Some tips have been prepared by the German Erasmus+ National Agency. You can download the full version of the tips in English or in German. They are also summarised in the following animation:

Key Action 1
Here you find articles on interesting Erasmus+ Key Action 1 projects. The articles are available in the original language. For more examples of Key Action 1, please check the website of your National Agency and the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform.

Through that programme, she learnt new art techniques such as papier-mâché, decoupage, ceramics and jewellery-making in a workshop. Once back in Poland, Renata shared that knowledge and organised micro-teaching sessions, workshops and newsletters with her colleagues, who were really interested in these new techniques. Throughout that experience, she realised the important role of art in educating disabled people, as it allows them to express their feelings, show their mind and sometimes their thoughts. The Erasmus+ programme has allowed Renata to open up, accept new opportunities, and become stronger and more confident while using new teaching techniques.

The study looked at the effectiveness of professional development projects from the viewpoint of teachers and principals, as well as pupils and parents. The data was collected through a survey.

The results show that:

The following image illustrates the benefits of the professional development of teachers abroad for the whole school community.

"Mobility Opportunities" is a meeting point for schools and teachers interested in hosting or taking part in mobility activities, such as teaching assignments, job shadowing or placements. Listings can be posted both by organisations offering mobility opportunities and individuals looking for such opportunities.

Since being part of eTwinning is about communicating, collaborating, developing projects and sharing experiences, it can be a stepping stone to Erasmus+-funded projects. Several well-organised Erasmus+ projects have their roots in collaborative eTwinning projects developed by dedicated teachers. On the other hand, successful activities from funded projects can be transformed into eTwinning projects to prolong their lifespan after the project funding has ended.

Continue reading for some tips on how to use eTwinning as part of your Erasmus+ Key Action 1 project!

You can use eTwinning:

OBJECTIVES

The teachers’ mobility was a defining feature of a more global project, itself part of an eTwinning project and which involved all of the educational community. The teachers  benefited from training in how to use eTwinning, which enabled them to develop their digital skills. By the end of the eTwinning project, they had acquired new linguistic, professional, digital and cultural skills.

Read the full case study in the publication How to Develop the European and International Dimension of your School

The EDP is the backbone of your application, but do not be intimidated by it! Its purpose is to ensure that the planned activities are relevant both for the individual participants and for the school, as activities have a higher impact on the quality of learning and teaching when they are well integrated in the school’s strategic development.

The European Development Plan (part D of the application form) has the following concrete questions:

There is no one right way of filling in the European Development Plan, but here are some tips:

You may find that some course organisers and job-shadowing providers offer pre-filled application forms; we recommend you do not use these sorts of pre-filled applications, as this can have an impact on the quality of your European Development Plan. After all, these pre-filled applications do not correspond to the reality of your school / consortium needs.

Strategic Partnerships supporting exchange of good practices:
Strategic Partnerships supporting Exchange of Good Practices allow schools to expand their international networks through cooperation with diverse partners such as youth organisations, universities and businesses – as well as other schools.

[New in 2018] School Exchange Partnerships: 
Only schools may participate in this type of Strategic Partnership. The projects can use mobility opportunities for pupils and staff to help the participating schools develop as organisations and increase their ability to work on international projects.

School Exchange Partnerships replace the “school-to-school” Strategic Partnership projects with some changes in the rules. The application will be shorter and simpler. School Exchange Partnerships allow four different activity types (see Programme Guide page 116):

 

In this chapter you will find information on - and inspiration for - the kind of project a Strategic Partnership can be.

Excerpts from the assessment grid: “The application explains if and how the eTwinning platform will be used to facilitate the implementation of the project”.

Project: Employability- “A challenge for youth- Dreams and Reality”, website

Involve all the pupils in the preparatory activities for the mobility by getting them to:

In this chapter, we will explain how to use the tool.

Please note that if you are aiming for the “School Exchange Partnerships” project, you can post your announcement in the eTwinning forum designed for this purpose (eTwinning account needed).

Please note that these materials have been prepared by the UK National Agency for a UK audience and are not designed for the 2018 Call applications. This disclaimer applies to the use of these materials.