First and foremost, a school link is an educational tool that makes teaching assignments more interesting. It may require some time to fully develop it, but in the meantime, it can help shape your school’s yearly programme and calendar. The activities you would normally organise alone, you now organise with your partner school.
ACHIEVE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Achieve the learning outcomes by embedding the activities of your school link in regular classroom practices. This way, the exchange is not just an end in itself, but also a means to help shape both the school link and one's own classroom practices. And when cooperation is not running as smoothly as expected, it won’t feel like ‘lost time’.
Your school link evolves with time, as do the activities that go with it. At the start of your collaboration, it is essential that you get to know your partner school, its culture and customs. Once your school link has set off properly, you can expand your activities. Use your school link to achieve learning outcomes and to pay extra attention to diversity, equity in learning and sustainable development.
EMBEDMENT IN THE SCHOOL CULTURE
Dankzij een goede voorbereiding en basis, zal je scholenband na enige tijd ingebed zijn in de klas- en schoolwerking en een essentieel onderdeel zijn van het lesprogramma en het schoolleven. Pas wanneer de samenwerking is doorgedrongen in je schoolcultuur, is de impact van je activiteiten het grootst. Ook de uitwerking vergemakkelijkt dankzij de raakvlakken met andere thema’s of projecten van de school.
SOME USEFUL TIPS
Clearly connect the school link to the vision of the school. This increases involvement of other teachers.
Write down common goals. This way, the school link becomes more concrete. It helps teachers in both schools to find common ground with their lessons.
- Make the school link a recurring agenda item at staff meetings to keep attention for it high.
- Develop a roadmap for the school link to build on experiences and grow. This is also a solution for changes in personnel.
- Create linkages with other working groups in the school and find connections with important themes such as the environment, ICT and bullying.