Column Ton Duif
Let's make Europe stronger
Dear Colleagues,
As many of you may know, the European Commission in Brussels have no say in the educational systems in the European countries. All educational decisions are made by member states themselves. I think that was a good decision because education has great cultural dimension and tradition and this is therefore preserved. What we all want is excellent reading, maths and science ability and citizenship. I really think that Europe is of crucial importance for the new generation; thus assuring that people will learn to live and work together in the European dimension.
There are too many examples out of the past that show us what will happen if we increase the gap between generations and culture in the EC. That's why education is so important and the European Commission is well aware of it. ESHA is one of the partners in this proces. We are involved in many European programs, focussed on dissemination of good practices and achievements in all EC countries. To make sure that our efforts work, we need you all to participate.
In the near future the ESHA web site will publish all kind of activities in which you can actively participate. The ESHA Magazine is now sent to over 20.000 readers in Europe, mainly school heads. You can down load and send the ESHA Magazine to your colleagues and comment on the community sites. My message to you is "Let's make Europe stronger through Education".
Latest news
Energy Education. Education Challenge yourself, become a champion in energy education! Primary and secondary schools across Europe are invited to participate in this exciting competition! Click here to read more about it
Keydata on education 2012. In Belgium the Executive agency in charge of culture and education is running a report linking the 37 countries in Europe and their educational developments and challenges. Read more about it here
ESHA 2012 Conference. The ESHA bi-annual conference will be held from 29-31 October 2012 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Click here to go to the conference site.
the European Intervisitation Program. From April 20th to 25th this event will take place in the city of Leiden, The Netherlands. Click here to read more
Grading teachers. On the ESHA portal, we have posted an interesting article on Grading teachers . Please read it and give your feedback on the article on our community site.
ESHA is in close cooperation with the worldeducationforum.com and fully supports its activities-
Geert Govaert: Adminstrative Workload
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Chris Harrison: Autonomy of schools
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Andre de Best: Leadership
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Clive Byrne: Quality of education
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Greg Dempster: Reduced Budgets
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Fred Verboon: ICT @ School
CBE in The Netherlands announced its "Making Shift Happen Congress" in Amsterdam. On October 11th and 12th, CBE will bring together the most inspiring speakers like Michael Fullan (develop a culture of change), Andy Hargreaves (High Performance Networks) and John West Burnham (Increase your value). There are still places available on October 12th. For more information, please visit www.makingshifthappen.net
25 Major stakeholders in education and training adopt a common position paper on their vision for the future of education, training and youth programmes. Read the paper at: news.aspx
Sunscribe to our free e-Magazine here
ESHA launches it's community portal to facilitate the exchange and creation of ideas between school leaders. Watch Ton Duif's welcome video .
This is ESHA!
ESHA, the European School Heads Association, is a professional organisation for European School Heads. Members of ESHA are national organisations for school heads and deputy school heads within primary and secondary education. Nearly all European countries (both EU and non-EU) are represented within ESHA by one or more organisations.
ESHA is an international community in which experiences, visions and views between the members are exchanged and in which new ideas are born.
Aims for ESHA are:
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discussing and developing views within the ESHA-membership on innovative education and on school leadership
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promoting these views on the European level
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influencing the policy of the European institutions (Commission, Parliament)
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promoting international exchange and cooperation
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supporting the member organisations to play their role on the national level
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emphasizing the particular role of the school head and promoting conditions that improve the quality of school leadership
Means to attain these goals
ESHA will involve all possible means to attain the goals that are mentioned above. Each year the intended actions will be stated in a working plan. In general however the means are:
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Vision papers
ESHA publishes vision papers on important issues in international education -
Conferences
ESHA organizes various meetings and one big conference every two years -
International Projects
ESHA participates in European projects on issues like school leadership, staff training, multimedia and ICT and so on -
External Contacts
ESHA is in permanent contact with other relevant actors like European Commission, European Parliament, and other international organisations -
Communication
ESHA promotes communication and exchange between its members -
Organisational Structure
ESHA ‘s General Assembly consists of active school heads from all over Europe. The Board is small and decisive and is supported by a small and professional executive office.