Impact might be based in Wales but the work we do to help schools has caught the interest of educators across the world.
That’s why, earlier this month, Fin headed to Galicia in Spain to speak at an international conference about school transformation.
The event, in the city of Santiago de Compostela, was organised by the Regional Centre for Training and Innovation (CAFI), the official teacher training body of the devolved government of Galicia.
Impact has been contracted by the Galician government to support them on a major international education project, and Fin was invited to the conference to speak about school improvement and innovation in Wales.
The one-day event saw school leaders, teachers and school improvement partners discuss how they are using innovation to make changes to the quality of teaching and learning in their institutions.
In Fin’s presentation, she described how Impact supports schools in Wales to improve and shared our six-step improvement process.
“I spoke about how change happens in schools, and explained that teachers need to practise new way of doing things and be supported in that practice if that change is to be successful,” she said.
“If teachers don’t understand the rationale for change – why they are doing it – then they can’t make informed judgments.
“How do you encourage people who don’t see any point in changing to change? We need to show them why they should change, then they can understand why they need to make changes.”
While at the event, Fin had the chance to speak to educationalists to compare the education systems of Galicia and Wales.
She said: “They are dealing with similar issues to us in Wales, such as poverty and deprivation. However, their PISA results are better, so whatever they are doing in school they are doing well. At the moment they are very much focused on improving quality of teaching and learning, and we can certainly learn from that here.”
Through Impact’s work with CAFI, we have been invited to contribute to an ERASMUS+ project in collaboration with several international partners:
- Universitat de Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain)
- Hibernia College (Dublin, Ireland)
- Europass Teacher Academy (Florence, Italy)
- Teacher training centres in Portugal
- The Ministry of Education in Turkey
The project is designed to help understand and improve continuing professional development for teachers across all these countries. If the bid is successful, the three-year project will start in September.
Fin said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for Impact to be involved in a major international project. The work could have a significant and lasting impact on teaching and learning.”