School & teachers development

In an ever-evolving educational context, exploring and implementing new teaching and learning models in the classroom and equipping teachers with reliable professional development opportunities is crucial.

That's why, European Schoolnet supports schools and teachers' development by encouraging school cooperation in Europe, testing and promoting innovative teaching approaches and methods, encouraging teachers' lifelong learning and continuous professional development, and offering them innovative pedagogical resources, new training and networking opportunities, through the following initiatives:

Future Classroom Lab (FCL)

The Future Classroom Lab (FCL) initiative has been a flagship initiative in Europe since 2012, encouraging countless public authorities, schools, headmasters and teachers to embark in a journey of transformation and constant innovation. The FCL is currently supported by over 30 industry partners and a community of 26 FCL Lead ambassadors from 16 different countries. Lead ambassadors are often paired in their countries by their local counterparts and contribute to rooting the opportunities offered by the FCL in their respective communities. The FCL also boasts a network of more than 250 innovative learning labs from across the world that have all been inspired by the FCL concept. The initiative supports the network of innovative learning labs & spaces by sharing a monthly information letter about upcoming events, courses and webinars. An online workshop is also organised twice a year to offer the member labs an opportunity to come together and share about their best practices and ideas for future projects and cooperation opportunities.

European Schoolnet Academy

The European Schoolnet Academy was launched in 2014 in response to the need to scale up professional development opportunities for teachers, so as to help them with the growing number of challenges they face in the classroom. The European Schoolnet Academy therefore primarily offers massive open online courses (MOOCs), which are entirely free of charge and open for anyone to join, with no limit to the number of participants.

This focus on openness, and the pedagogical approach that goes alongside it, is based on three premises:

· The need to cost-effectively scale professional development offers to larger numbers of teachers, so as to give more teachers the opportunity to access and benefit from these.
· The conviction that teachers need to be self-reflective practitioners, willing to interact with peers and with a high level of self-efficacy.
· The fact that successful professional development encourages the development of learning communities where teachers share their expertise, according to research results.

Over the previous decade, the Academy had launched 115 courses, engaged 190,000 teachers, produced over 40,000 lesson plans, achieved a 52 per cent engagement rate, marking its significant contribution to education.

School partnerships

As a leading organisation in providing services to schools in Europe, European Schoolnet is active in supporting school partnerships and networks. It has operated the European Commission initiatives, eTwinning, the community for schools in Europe, since its creation in 2005 and the connected platform, School Education Gateway, between 2014 and 2022. Since January 2021, European Schoolnet has been operating under a contract with the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) to provide the coordination and content of the European School Education Platform, a successor of the eTwinning and School Education Gateway platforms. Contrary to the previous contracts, the technical development is not managed by European Schoolnet. The new platform, available since June 2022, provides end-users with a single entry-point to services that were previously offered through the "legacy" platforms: eTwinning, School Education Gateway, and Teacher Academy. This approach helps to avoid duplication of content and features. The platform has been developed gradually and currently, it offers a wide range of options for professional development, Erasmus+ tools for networking and partner finding, and information on European policy and practice to schools, including early childhood education and care and initial vocational education and training. The platform if also the new home of eTwinning, keeping and strengthening its community and networking elements, while building on content and services provided by the new platform.

European School Education Platform (ESEP)