Strategic Planning & Special Projects

Strategic Planning and Special Projects

In terms of strategy, the Headmaster’s office coordinated an off-site with the team of Heads in February, with an aim to share the change agendas of each sector. Strategic plans were strengthened, focusing on the definition of objectives and initiatives in line with each sector’s budget. At the same time, the "360i Evaluation Feedback" experience, started in 2019 with each of the Heads, continued so as to define how each team had got closer to its objectives.

Four far-reaching projects were carried out under the academic direction of Axel Rivas from the Centro de Investigación Aplicada en Educación San Andrés (CIAESA) (St. Andrew’s Centre for Applied Research in Education). The first, Las Preguntas educativas: Qué sabemos de educación? (Educational questions: What do we know about education?), directed by Melina Furman, was launched in April 2020, along with the opening of the website and social networks. Fourteen documents on teaching and learning were published, addressing topics such as project work, teaching for diversity and conflict resolution at school. In addition, given the context of the pandemic, three specific documents were prepared on "Cómo hablar con los chicos sobre la pandemia?" (How do we talk to children about the pandemic), "Cómo

seguir enseñando cuando las clases presenciales

se suspenden por una emergencia?" (How to continue teaching when face-to-face classes are suspended due to an emergency), and "La

vuelta a clases en 2021: preguntas, lecciones aprendidas y desafíos para el nuevo año escolar"

(Back to school in 2021: questions, lessons learned and challenges for the new school year). In addition, the project offered two free of charge workshops, one open to the entire community and another specifically for SASS teachers aimed at going deeper into the documents and jointly designing classroom guidelines. Both will be available on the website.

The second project "Las llaves de la educación" (Keys to education) was launched at an international event in November 2020, where specialists and representatives of educational policy from the six participating countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, were present. The first book of the project was published, a comparative study of twelve cases of systemic improvement at subnational level in Latin America, twelve work reports and research annexes.

The third project, "Gobernabilidad pedagógica en Argentina" (Pedagogical governability in Argentina), was directed by Melina Furman, Jason Beech and Axel Rivas as well as three PhD scholarship students from the Escuela de Educación at UdeSA. The work carried out in 2019 in six Argentine provinces continued and progress was made in the writing of internal case analysis reports (policy level), national and jurisdictional curricular analysis, didactic

folders and class notebooks, which will be part of a book to be published in 2021.

Finally, a new project "Creencias y prácticas

docentes en escuelas secundarias de Argentina: un análisis desde las perspectivas de docentes

destacados" (Teaching beliefs and practices in secondary schools in Argentina: an analysis from the perspectives of outstanding teachers) was started, led by Ezequiel Gómez Caride. Work was done on the design of the research, on the systematisation and analysis of the background, and on the organisation of the field work to be carried out during 2021.

During 2020, a re-branding process was made from Lifelong Learning Center (LLC) to Lifelong Learning San Andrés (LLSA) creating an identity aligned to our educational community. The LLSA, fostered within St. Andrew’s Scots School as a home for continuous learning within the framework of a competency-based school, offers a space for all members of the community with an aim to promoting the development of XXI Century skills. Motivated and transformed by the COVID19 pandemic and, depending on the needs detected to accompany the changes promoted by the knowledge society, various speakers - some of them former students - were summoned during the year to make presentations on themes aligned to the six areas of the LLSA programme: Education & General Knowledge, Community & Parenting, Personal Growth, Workplace & Entrepreneurship, Arts & Music, Sports & Health.

Jazmín Sundblad

Strategic Planning and Special Projects Lead