A network of schools which the CCE supports in their efforts to incorporate quality assessment systems. Quality assessment requires that the school focuses on: teacher teamwork, goal development and monitoring progress, and an aware organizational, didactic and educational practise. The program is run in cooperation with the Polish-American Freedom Foundation.
The Learning Schools’ Club comprises schools that are trying to make:
- teachers, pupils and parents co-operate
- pupils have faith in themselves, develop fair knowledge and vital skills
- teachers work on it and make them better educators
- parents involved in the life of the school and support its actions
The Learning Schools Program, i.e. common building a better school
The Learning School Program was made in co-operation with the Polish-American Freedom Foundation at the Center for the Citizenship Education. It is intended to help schools design and implement satisfying changes.
The Learning Schools’ Club is a national network of schools that mutually want to define a good school and support one another’s in raising the quality of their work. The schools that belong to the Club act on the basis of:
- co-operation within teacher teams
- setting educational objectives in the way that enables the degree of their realization
- fair monitoring the work effects reflections on the applied didactic, educational and organizational practice
- creation of the school community based on the co-operation of teachers, parents and pupils
- co-operation of the Club members as well as an open discussion on the emerging problems
How do we learn at ‘the Learning School’?
- We examine the quality - the initial stage; we wish to know as much as possible about your school.
- We set standards; we set the most important objectives we wish to achieve, we determine the success indicators in each area.
- We work out a scheme in specific areas; we appoint task teams working on particular standards.
- We work in teams; we help one another, we discuss things.
- We follow changes; we create tools of changes verification
- We invite to discussion about the school; we organize colleague panels for the school representatives.
- We receive "The Learning School" title, which makes us carry on our program work and share our experiences with others.
- The change must be brought about not outside the school but inside - in its everyday activities. It must affect the teachers’ work, their way of thinking and understanding their roles. Declarations of formal fulfillment of the tasks imposed on the school will not work.
With a map in the hand
While determining ranges of their activities, schools entering the "Learning Schools" Program can make use of the map by means of which one may make ‘a journey’ through the most important areas of the school work. The general assumptions must take a concrete form on the level of the school, the class and the teacher and the pupil. They should be converted into specific indications as to small tasks as well as general objectives. However, it is necessary to design a scheme checking the realization progress. Then, ‘holding a map in the hand’ we can look at the school from the inside.
School quality map
SECTIONS and AREAS - Dimensions (examples)
I. EDUCATION RESULTS
Teaching results - Exam results, Semester results, Results for the end of the school year, school competitions, projects, knowledge and skills not examined systemically
Personal and social development - Attitude towards others, attitudes towards oneself, obeying co-existence norms, civic behaviour, planning the future by pupils
Graduates’ histories - Further education, professional career, life achievements
II. TEACHING AND LEARNING
Teaching process and learning - Curricula, teaching methods, ways of assessments, ways of motivation
Assistance in overcoming difficulties - Teaching individualization, evening out chances, developing pupil passions, supporting apt pupils
Use of time - Attendance, Full use of class time, pupil homework
III. SCHOOL AS INSTITUTION
School as the learning place - Teaching organization, teacher qualifications, favourable intellectual development atmosphere, extracurricular activities.
School as the workplace - Teacher training, professional ethos, teacher relations and co-operation, planning and management, organizational structure, material base and school finances
School as the social environment - Teacher - pupil - parent relations, school climate, educational activities and self-government, security, health care.
IV. SCHOOL AND THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
School and home - Parent participation in the school life
School and the local community - Participation in the local community life
School and the work world - Co-operation with employees, use of new technologies
Step by step
Exemplary actions of a school within the Learning School Program
Supposing a school in a Quality Village decided to take part in the LSP. The school situation was assessed and the report was made. The research shows the school is not doing well in the areas connected with teaching results, teaching process and learning as well as the right use of time.
What does the report show?
- A lot of pupils get poor results in the internal assessment
- 25% of pupils say that they do not understand classes because the teachers do not explain well.
- 20% of pupils say that do not take advantage of classes
What standard should be chosen?
The teachers decided to set the following objective:
Each pupil makes use of the class
What will help us whether we reach the objective?
Task teams were appointed. The choice of indicators was pondered. The following suggestions were made:
- all pupils get increasingly better marks within the internal assessment
- all pupils are increasingly better at assessing their own work and its results
- all pupils get involved in team work
- truancy figures are lowered
- increasingly fewer pupils think they do not make the right use of the class
- teachers more often use the active methods
- teachers adjust tasks to the pupils’ abilities
- teachers notice the relationship between work methods and the improvement in learning results of the weakest pupils
The following indicator was determined:
The number of pupils constantly getting poor marks is lowering
What can be done in this regard? Who and how will act?
The following actions were planned:
- head teachers will select pupils who constantly get poor marks
- head teachers together with the rest of the teachers in a given class work out an action strategy
- teachers will consider a possibility of introducing teaching techniques accommodating weaker pupils
- during the meetings of the subject teams teachers will discuss the introduced changes
- selected teachers will share their ways of activating pupils
- school mentor will organize the workshops for pupils on "I like and can learn"
How do we know we have been successful?
The ways and tools of monitoring were designed?
- head teachers analyzed the pupils’ individual marks and the end of semester ones
- they selected 72 pupils constantly getting the poorest marks, which makes up 12% of the entire number of pupils
- another analysis will be carried out after the next semester - the number of pupils constantly getting poor marks will not exceed 10%
- the percentage of pupils who say they do not understand the class will fall under 20
- teachers will express their positive opinions on the applied solutions and will notice the relationship between the taken actions and the change in the teaching results.
The Center for Citizenship Education, considering the local authorities as a natural ally of the Learning School Program, has appointed the Self-government Council. It is made up of the representatives of the local authorities from the towns which participate in the program. During the Council’s sessions the representatives can share their opinions on the quality criteria of the school work. This helps to include the self-governing point of view into the actions taken by the Learning Schools’ Club, whereas the local authorities can better understand such actions and start participating in them.
EXAMPLES:
Primary Public School No 5 (Group of Schools) in Stalowa Wola
Head Mistress Halina Wołos
Address: Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących nr1, Stalowa Wola, ul. Energetyków 18 www.zso1.stalowawola.pl,
e-mail: zso1@stalowawola.pl
The number of the students: 392
The number of the teachers: 36
Public School No5 in Stalowa Wola has existed for 39 years. Our school is well-known and highly valued by local community.
The Primary curriculum covers the core subjects of Polish, mathematics and natural science while the formal study of art, geography, history, music and religious education is begun. There is also a full physical education programme including music and movement, PE and games.
In the Senior classes pupils are prepared for the National Examination.
Classrooms for the younger children have special facilities, and all classrooms are designed to provide a light, warm and comfortable environment. There are well-equipped science laboratories, library and computer area.
Our school is large enough with good facilities to offer a broad range of teaching, yet retains a warm friendly atmosphere for the individual needs of the child. This enables new students to settle in quickly. Apart from that we associate with the local parish church. Our students have excellent results in education, in sports’ as well as subjects’ local competitions.
The parents are very involved in supporting our initiatives.
We have joined on the 1st of September 2001 to Learning Schools’ Club called SUS. We are working to fulfill the standards below :
I - Pupils positively pass competence tests.
II - School encourages students to study and use English.
III - School is safe and free from violence.
IV - We encourage pupils' parents for participation in school life.
Primary School No 3, im. 2 Pułku Nocnych Bombowców "KRAKÓW"
Head Mistress Beata Kacprowicz
Address: ul. Głowackiego 111, 82-200 Malbork, www.bombek-sp3.malbork.pl,
e- mail:bombek_sp3@wp.pl
The number of the students: 264
The number of the teachers: 22
Public School No 3 in Malbork was established in 1945. Our school is well-known and highly valued by local community.
The Primary curriculum covers the core subjects of Polish, mathematics and natural science while the formal study of art, geography, history, music and religious education is begun. There is also a full physical education programme including music and movement, PE and games. Our school has to deal with many problem caused by the lack of necessarily facilities. Regardless those problems we managed to set up many different extra - curriculum classes, i.e. IT, drawings, paintings, choir, etc. We also decided to take part in various educational projects - one of them was international "Bridges across the Boundaries" . We actively participated in the whole long-term project as well as at the conference in Budapest.
The highest value of our school is in the cooperation with the parents of the students. We succeeded in organizing lots of events like balls, picnics, New Years Eve parties, Christmas for old people. School would have not been able to arrange all those activities without the help from the parents and from the local parish.
We have joined in October 2000 to Learning Schools’ Club called SUS. We are working to fulfill the standards below :
STANDARD I - The pupils improve their abilities and interests at extra - curriculum classes.
STANDARD II - The pupils are working on their behaviour and on their relationship with others.
STANDARD III - We offer an "afternoon care" for the students.
Primary Independent School No 11 and Secondary (Gimnazjum) Independent School No 11
Head Master Zbigniew Jelonek
Address: ul. Toruńska 23, 03-226 Warszawa, www.torunska.edu.pl,
e- mail: ssp11@poczta.onet.pl
The number of the students: 150
The number of the teachers: 24
Our school was established right after the political transformation in 1999. We were in the avant-garde of the independent schools in Poland.
We follow the national curriculum in the primary and secondary school. Our main goal is to teach using many different methods, f.e. projects done independently by pupils, active ways of teaching, group working. Thus our teachers have to concentrate on developing their teaching styles. To help them to achieve the professional level and in the same time to provide the highest standard of the education for our students we decided to take part in many educational initiatives. Our school is working on the project on the safe Internet for kinds. We believe that this problem has to be solved as soon as possible and we want to take an active part in that process.
Apart from that our school is carrying out the project "The Week for Heart" to show the necessity of the medical treatment as well as to present the variability of perspectives in which we can discuss the topic, i.e we examined "the heart issue" from biological, psychological, sociological point of view.
We offer many extra - curriculum classes to help our students to develop their skills and to point out the value of their own work. We insist on the quality of their projects as well as on the creativity.
We have joined on September 2001 to Learning Schools’ Club called SUS.
