International Co-ordinator Training for Schools

1. International Co-ordinator Training for Schools Strategic school development Calin Rus, Intercultural Institute of Timisoara, Romania

2. Structure of the session • Clarifying key concepts: strategy / plan / project • Benefits and challenges of a participatory strategic planning approach • Integrating international cooperation in the school development strategy

3. Key concepts

4. International activities • Can be performed as ad-hoc / additional / temporary work, for example, in response to a partnership proposal • Or • Can be integrated into your schools‘ development strategy • If integrated, who and how does it?

5. Strategic planning cycle

6. The integration of international activities in the school‘s development strategy • Can be delegated to the international coordinator, or done by the coordinator in coorperation with the headteacher • Or • Can be done based on a participatory process, by a team, involving and/or consulting a variety of relevant stakeholders

7. Participatory strategic planning • What are the benefits of integrating international activities in school‘s development strategy through a participatory approach? • What are the challenges of integrating international activities in school‘s development strategy through a participatory approach?

8. A scenario • The UK headteacher leaves and his replacement is not keen on continuing with the school partnership as he feels that it will distract from improving exam results. This leads to the UK school not responding to the others in the project. • "Our school partnership will be run as an after school club by one of the teachers"

9. An example • In school X a participatory strategic planning process was initiated by the international coordinator with the support of the head-teacher. A call was launched to identify teachers interested. The team of teachers made a review of the situation by using the SWOT analysis model. Parents association, student board and a local partner NGO were also consulted. Three directions were identified for the strategy, based on existing resources, interests and preferences of key stakeholders and with a view to achieving the overall goal defined in the school development strategy: • Organising international activities focused on environmental issues using French as working language and using ICT • Giving priority to partnerships with schools in Turkey (a significant number of students speak Turkish at home) • Giving priority to partnerships with schools in Spain and Greece (many children go to these countries during summer with their families but know little about them) • A plan was agreed on how to develop, implement and evaluate at least one partnership project considering these priorities.

10. Implementing a participatory strategic planning process • Who should be the participants in the process? • What needs to be done to prepare the process? • How the process is expected to be implemented?

11. Strategic use of funding sources • Partnerships driven by funding source (open call) • Partnerships driven by strategic planning and using funding sources