Leadership of School Consortia

March 2018 Newsletter № 1

Welcome to our project

Leadership of School Consortia is a 2-year Erasmus+
project bringing together 5 school consortia from 5
different countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Spain
and the United Kingdom. The overall aim of the pro-
ject is to exchange good practice between the part-
ners and share the lessons learnt by producing 5 case
studies to support the exchange of good practices
with the aim of developing the skills of leaders manag-
ing a group of schools or education establishments
and therefore improve these schools in the areas
where support is needed. The case studies will be Kick-off meeting
freely accessible and other schools are most welcome and first study visit to the UK
to use them for their own benefit.
The partner schools gathered in Darlington, UK 17th to
Expected outcomes 20th October 2017 to launch the project, plan for the
next steps in this two year development and undergo
The LoSC project has the following aims: the first study visit.
Some partners had already worked together and
 have 4 leaders or potential leaders from each
some were new to the partnership, so it was exciting
partner to undertake 5 study visits to analyse ex-
to get to know one another better, adding a personal
amples of successful multi-institutional education
dimension to the institutional partnership.
leadership
All the partners learned more about each other’s ex-
 identify common management issues, specific
pertise and experience in the topic of the project and
areas of leadership challenge and opportunity
tasks were distributed according to partners’ strengths
 identify the key leadership strategies
and potential to learn from one another.
 identify tools to evaluate impact including data
The future local action and application of the project
and feedback
results were discussed.
 draw up a list of actions to be taken in one or two
The first study visit focused on “Using strengths in the
of the key areas
partnership to improve standards of teaching and
 draw up examples of best practice through a
learning”. The project partners from Bulgaria, Greece,
report on the outcomes and sets of case studies
Portugal and Spain learned about the school system
 disseminate the outcomes widely
in the UK and more particularly about solutions Car-
These aims will materialize in the following outputs: mel College put in place in order to harness all the
potential across the trust of 7 schools to improve
 A project website, which will host the case stud-
teaching and learning.
ies
 5 sets of multinational leadership training ses-
sions Second study visit to Portugal
 A set of personal evaluations on the lessons
The partner organisations gathered near Lisbon, in
learnt and the potential for implementation in the
Alhandra, from 7th to 9th March 2018 for another study
home school
visit, this time focusing on “Developing inclusion in a
 A set of case studies covering 5 themes to sup-
socially and ethnically challenging context”. The
port the leadership of consortia
school cluster of Alhandra, Sobralinho and São João
 A set of dissemination materials in 5 countries
dos Montes has an exceptionally good record of inte-

2017-1-UK01-KA202-036686
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
gration of children from various ethnical, social and
economic backgrounds providing the visiting partners
with valuable expertise in inclusion strategies. All the
partners appreciated the differentiated ways different
children are helped to achieve the best versions of
themselves, taking pride in their achievements.
. private school with a focus on secondary and agricul-
Project partners
All schools have experience of working in consortia
and this expertise will be shared during the develop-
ment of the project.
Carmel College is a catholic school situated in Dar-
lington, County Durham in the North East of England
with 1200 pupils aged 11-19. Carmel College is an
accredited Initial Teaching Training Provider for the
Department for Education and has been independent-
ly training teachers since 1999. It is part of a trust of 7
schools managed collectively by Carmel Trust.
The Cluster of Schools of Alhandra, Sobralinho and
São João dos Montes is composed of 8 schools: The
cluster provides regular national curriculum with some
special vocational and artistic classes at high school
level. There is a special partnership with a music
conservatory. The pupils are from very different social
and ethnic backgrounds so that it turns to be a contin-
uous challenge for the managing of this cluster of
schools. Innovation in teachers' educational approach
based on the XXI century skills is the leading idea of
our educational purpose for the next 4 years.
2017-1-UK01-KA219-036635
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The Federación EFAS CV La Malvesia is a semi-
tural learning. The school is part of the Union of Agri-
cultural Family Schools and has around 600 pupils.
The school implements a training and education sys-
tem leading to a high employability rate.
Plovdiv language high school is among the most pres-
tigious educational institutions in Bulgaria. It has been
offering high quality education to its pupils since its
establishment in 1958. The school is a through school
for pupils from age 6 to 19, combining Primary, Lower
and Upper Secondary. Many of the subjects are
taught in a bilingual manner.
The Model Experimental School of the University of
Thessaloniki is a special public school which has
close ties with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
It provides students of the Faculty of Philosophy and
other teacher training faculties with practical training in
teaching methodology and in education in general. It
is an institution where the educational, research and
training projects of the Aristotle University of Thessa-
loniki are carried out. Teachers are appointed directly
by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs,
Culture and Sports, with the aim to ensure high quality
education. The Model Experimental School caters for
all levels of education: nursery, primary, lower sec-
ondary and upper secondary education.
We will be back soon with more
news and a brand new website to
share the project outcomes.