On March 30 th the second Policy Lab in Mechelen took place. More than 20 teachers, school principals, students, parents and local administrators worked further on creating a warm and inclusive school environment. Building on the four pillars identified during the first Policy Lab (authenticity, feeling welcome, diverse teaching force, home-school partnership), the group brainstormed about various possible micro-experiments they could undertake. They first defined the main “ingredients” of the micro-experiments and then they put their creative brains to work. The main challenge was to work out experiments that are innovative (“something that we haven’t tried before”) and feasible at the same time but the group was up to the task.
The five experiments that ultimately got chosen are:
- Make a ‘menu’ of several activities that teachers could do in order to create a closer connection with pupils and test those activities out
- Make diversity visible in the classroom for a whole year
- Organize the a ‘talent day’ where pupils get to teach their talents to teachers
- Make a FB group for parents to promote informal contacts among teachers and parents
- Create short videos to promote diversity in the teaching force
The experiments will be implemented in the period September – November 2023. We’re looking forward to see the results!