The I Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) School Leadership – Connecting Classrooms Regional Meeting will take place in Sao Paulo from 16 to 18 November 2009. Headteachers and representatives from the education ministries and secretariats in Brazil, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago will meet for the first time to exchange ideas and best practices on leadership and development, as well as to discuss the development of joint curricular projects with schools in the UK.
The School Leadership – Connecting Classrooms project brings together educationalists from Latin America and the UK with the aim to find ways to improve the quality of school education, with emphasis on strengthening of school leadership and development of joint curricular projects through partnership between schools.
A partnership between the British Council, CONSED and Secretariats of Education of Goiás, Pernambuco, Santa Catarina, São Paulo and Tocantins.
School Leadership - Connecting Classrooms, is a pilot project that brings together educationalists from Latin America and the UK aiming to find ways to improve the quality of school education, with emphasis on strengthening of school leadership and development of joint curricular projects through partnership between schools.
The programme started in 2006 and enabled important changes in the way leadership and the role of the headteacher are seen at school. The initiative came from the will of governments in Latin America and Caribbean to develop educational partnerships with the UK. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are the countries participating in the project. There are currently 93 schools taking part in the programme in Latin America, of which 25 in Brazil.
One of the main aspects of the project in regards to leadership is the promotion of school self-evaluation with focus on class observation by the headteachers and coordinators. Visits to the partner schools, seminars, videoconferences and workshops are some of the ways to promote exchange of experience in the field of shared leadership and the use of evaluation tools.
The schools taking part in the project also receive support in the development of joint curricular projects with schools in the UK. This partnership allows an exchange of pedagogical practices between teacher in Brazil and in the UK and enables students of all ages to become citizens with global awareness, through the contact with varied cultures and different ways to see the world we live in.
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