What has been done
We entered the previous period with three main tasks:
– Online meeting of partners involved in the preparation of the third intellectual output – Methodology of LEADERSHIP ACADEMY professional circles in order to set the dates, tasks and content of the preparation of the methodology and its testing.
– Start of testing of the third intellectual output – Methodology of LEADERSHIP ACADEMY professional circles – with the first F2F meeting.
– Dissemination conference (E2) – Completion of the LEADERSHIP ACADEMY project – City Hotel Bratislava**** on June 13th – 14th, 2024.
We managed to fulfil all planned tasks.
Online meeting of partners
Online meeting of partners involved in the preparation of the third intellectual output, Methodology of Professional Circles LEADERSHIP ACADEMY, in order to set the dates, tasks and content of the methodology and its testing. The content of the meeting was a discussion about the management of professional circles´draft scenario and its comments by the actors of the testing.
Dissemination Conference (E2)
The conference was held on June 13th – 14th, 2024 in the City Hotel Bratislava****. The aim of the final dissemination conference was:
– Presentation of the project results: During the conference, we presented the achieved goals, outputs and results of the project to a wider audience, thereby increasing awareness of the project itself. As part of the social evening of the conference on June 13th, 2024, in the premises of the WERK restaurant in Bratislava, all partners of the project gave a speech and informed about the implemented and ongoing activities on individual outputs of the project.
– Sharing of best practices: During the conference, participants from all countries had the opportunity to share experience and best practices in informal meetings, but also in planned workshops.
– Sustainability and next steps: The project partners discussed directly with the conference participants the possibilities of sustaining the project outputs, so that they could strengthen the cooperation between different institutions and schools that may be interested in using the project results or in other partnerships in the future.
– Obtaining feedback: Project partners and output creators received feedback from conference participants, which will lead to improvement and refinement of the current project.
Testing of the third intellectual output of the Leadership Academy professional circle methodology
The LEADERSHIP ACADEMY project was created as a response to the increasing number of changes that principals and their colleagues in management positions in schools have to lead and implement. Currently, directors are overburdened with administrative burdens and lack the time and resources to lead strategic reforms of their institutions.
As part of the project, a manual was created for school principals and other school leaders “LEADERSHIP ACADEMY” with the aim of supporting new school leaders and complementing senior leaders in their development in the field of people management and the changes we are experiencing in society today. However, reading the manual is not enough. Our goal is that there will be a joint discussion, reflection on its content, and finally, based on the exercises in the manual, specific discussions and sharing of good experience in four key topics. Therefore, the next step is to test the “Directors’ Circles”.
The circle is made up of 6 members, its work is led by a facilitator. The pilot circle of directors will take place in 2024 in the form of six facilitated meetings. Their content will cover two chapters from the handbook, reflect this knowledge in practice with the help of a facilitator, and thus learn together and develop specific solutions in the given topics for each participant. The end of testing is planned in November 2024, when all three pilot circles from individual countries will complete 6 meetings.
– The first meeting of the Pilot Circle of Slovak directors from a series of six meetings took place “face to face” on 13th June 2024 as part of the Dissemination Conference (E2) in Bratislava. Slovak principals will test MODULE 1: School principal in the role of leader and MODULE 4: Managing change. The facilitator is Ing. Dagmar Keryová.
– The first meeting of the Pilot Circle of Czech Directors from a series of six meetings took place “face to face” in April 2024, and as part of the Dissemination Conference (E2) in Bratislava, they held the third meeting in a row. Czech principals will test MODULE 2: Leading a school with clarity and motivation and MODULE 4: Managing change. The facilitator is PhDr. Václav Trojan, PhD.
– The first meeting of the pilot circle of Bulgarian directors in a series of six meetings took place “face to face” in June 2024. Bulgarian directors will test MODULE 3: Division of work and co-creation of solutions and MODULE 4: Managing change. The facilitator is Katerina Vasileva, PhD.
What are we preparing?
- External evaluation: June – September 2024
- Completion of testing of the 3rd output of the LEADERSHIP ACADEMY project – Methodology of professional circles, November 2024
- Project meeting – Bratislava, December 2024
- Next project multiplier event: online conference – June 2025
A final word
We are very pleased that there is growing interest in the project, which is spreading not only among school principals, but also among their representatives. The organization of the dissemination conference in Bratislava convinced us that the content of the project is of interest to the directors and 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. The positive feedback we received at the conference from participants and from active directors involved in the project says that the content and form we have chosen is effective.