What was successfully accomplished?
We entered the previous period with four main tasks:
– online meeting of partners involved in the preparation of the Leadership Academy online platform, with the aim of connecting the content and functionalities of the platform with the functionalities of other outputs,
– Launching of the Leadership Academy handbook and its presentation to the general public – Conference School 2023/2024 – Bratislava, October 19, 2023,
– 3rd meeting of project partners – December 20, 2023 in Bratislava – presentation of the final version of the second intellectual project output – Leadership Academy online platform,
– The first external evaluation of the project.
We managed to fulfil all planned tasks.
Online meeting of partners
At the online meeting, the partners discussed the compatibility of all three project outputs and their usability across all countries involved in the project. The aim is to connect the content and functionalities of the platform with the functionalities of other outputs.
Launching of the Leadership Academy handbook
On October 19, 2023, at the Park Inn by Radisson Danube Bratislava, we launched the Leadership academy manual. As part of the School 2023/2024 conference (with the subtitle How to withstand changes in the digital age), which Raabe Slovakia organises every year for school principals, the new Leadership Academy manual was also presented. The launching was attended by almost all partners of the project – AdminSoft, BG (Nadezhda Tzvetkova), the Union of Employers in Public Education in BG (Petya Yosifova), the Association of Primary Schools of the Slovak Republic (Mgr. Eva Horníková, PaedDr. Drahomíra Tereňová), CHAT (Ing. Dagmar Kéryová), Director’s Academy (Mgr. Miluše Trojanová, PhDr. Václav Trojan, Ph.D.) and RAABE (Mgr. Mira Bianchi Schrimpelová, Ing. Katarína Sečkárová)
The creators presented the manual, its purpose and goals. During the conference and social evening, they discussed the content and tools of the project with the participating directors. The conference included a workshop on the topic Why should school principals devote time to leadership development? The content of the workshop, which was lectured by project partners Dagmar Keryová, Václav Trojan and Miluše Trojanová, included also the mastermind technique in a shortened version and the participating directors could try this technique out. The partners thus gained an image of the possibility of using this technique in the third output of the project.
Third meeting of project partners
On October 20, 2023, the third project meeting of partners took place in the premises of Dr. Josef Raabe Slovakia in Bratislava. The program of this meeting was the evaluation and summarization of completed tasks in the project, as well as the planning of the tasks distribution and the time schedule for the next period. The partners discussed the third output of the project and agreed on further steps in the creation and testing of the third project output – the methodology of professional circles.
The first external evaluation of the project
The report on the first external evaluation was presented by its author PaedDr. Darina Výbohová, PhD., who was appointed by all partners as an external evaluator of the project.
This external evaluation report was also presented at the third meeting of project partners on December 20, 2023 in Bratislava. The evaluation was carried out in two perspectives. 1. Evaluation in the context of the project and two. Evaluation of the Leadership academy manual itself.
Criteria and areas of evaluation in the context of the project that were evaluated:
– Relevance
– Quality of project implementation
– Quality of the project team and cooperation
– Impact and dissemination of results
Criteria and areas of evaluation of the Leadership academy Handbook itself, which were evaluated:
– Purpose (What was the purpose of the publication? What are the authors trying to achieve? What are their arguments?)
– Target group (For whom was this publication written? Who is the author trying to convince?)
– Strategy/Approach (How does the manual try to achieve its goal? What strategies and evidence did you see in the book?)
At the end of the presentation, recommendations for further progress and additions to the project were identified, with which all partners at the meeting were informed.
What we are preparing:
- Next project multiplication event: RAABE Conference – June 2024,
- start of testing of the 3rd output of the Leadership Academy project – methodology of professional circles, June 2024,
- 2nd external evaluation: June – September 2024,
- 4th project meeting – Bratislava, December 2024.
A final word
We are very pleased that growing interest in the project is spreading not only among school principals, but also among their representatives. During personal meetings and project presentations, many of them actively participate in the process of creating and commenting on individual project outputs. We believe and are convinced of the meaningfulness of the project, which can help school principals and move them to a higher level in management competencies. We are also convinced about this, because of the constant positive feedback we receive.