Transcript The project partnership

Project management
Managing a school project
Objectives:
Project management, theory and practice
Planning and organisation
Communication
Time management
Finance and reporting
The creative use of evaluation
Dissemination
Student voice
School partnerships
Definition:
‘A project is a temporary endeavour
undertaken to create a unique product,
service or result.
It is performed by people, constrained by
limited resources, planned, executed and
controlled’
PMBOK Guide
An international education project .....
Usually involves pupils and teachers in
contact with schools outside of their own country
• Visits, exchanges and placements (face-to-face)
• Joint curriculum projects
• School development projects
• eTwinning and/or other virtual contacts
• International professional development
Activity: Agenda for a project planning
meeting in your school
Group 1: The annual bi-lateral exchange of older students (two
weeks) aimed at improving their language skills
Group 2: A new joint curriculum project on sustainable
development involving 6 schools in 4 countries
Group 3: A school development project looking at sharing good
practice in the teaching of ICT
Group 4: An eTwinning project (10 schools) on famous artists
Group 5: A job shadowing programme for language teachers
Planning: Items to discuss
Planning: items to discuss
General aims
Strengths of the
schools involved
Who will be involved:
staff and/or pupils
Methods and
frequency of
communication
Language
Cultural issues
Areas of the curriculum
to be involved
Timing –project
activities, visits, school
holidays, exams
Who does what – roles
Contingency and risks
An intercultural scenario
The project uses English as a working language but
one of the schools always sends the Headteacher to
project meetings whose language skills are ‘survival’ at
best. As a result this school is constantly
misunderstanding the project’s tasks.
“My partner always agrees with everything I say, but
actually doesn’t always manage to follow through.”
What has happened here?
•How do you think the co-ordinator and partner
feel about the situation?
•Why do they feel that way?
•What assumptions have they both made?
•What actions could they take?
The project plan
• Evidence that the plan has been prepared jointly
with the partner school(s)
• Clear aims, objectives and milestones
• Clear links to the curriculum in all countries
• For JCPs - a sense of progression – not just a
series of ‘getting to know you’ activities
• Balanced budget
Project management guidance
Survival Kit website:
www.european-project-management.eu
With downloads:
 Publication in
EN, DE, FR, IT and RO
 Project management tools:
 Templates
 Examples
 Resources
e.g. partner agreements,
planning forms, staff cost
sheets, evaluation tools…
Gantt chart – a simple planning tool
Sept Oct
Dec

Introductory activities
Task
1
Jan Feb
Visit in November and climate
change project starts
1.1
1.2
Nov
Climate change events and student
conference

Task
2
2.1

Monitoring and evaluation
2.2
 = milestones (may also be pressure points for the project)
Additional planning tools
Produce a simple Gantt chart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW_wGSFavTc
Use open source software:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3153813/OpenOfficeProjectManagement-with-GanttCharts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis
Planning for communication
What means of communication are available for
international project work ?
How useful are each of these?
(Score 1 - 5)
What is the potential in each for intercultural
misunderstandings?
What agreements and rules should we make ?
Financial management:
some ground rules
Align the budget to the project’s aims
Always link the budget to the work plan
What is eligible expenditure?
Value for money
Create systems for managing finance
Visit etiquette
Keep all receipts and other evidence
Evaluation
1 Why is evaluation important?
2 Stages in evaluation
3 Collecting the evidence and implementing changes. What
techniques will you use?
‘How will you evaluate, during and after the
Partnership, whether the aims of the partnership
have been met and the expected impact has
been achieved?’
Why is evaluation important?
• To improve the quality of the project
• To provide a context for open discussion on project
performance
• To reveal strengths as well as weaknesses and
identify obstacles to progress
Stages in evaluation
• Planning for evaluation:
• Agree the priorities for evaluation.
It is impossible to evaluate everything!
• Check that everyone shares a common vocabulary
• Agree how responsibility for evaluation will be
shared across the partnership
• Discuss timing, create an evaluation workplan
Collecting and interpreting evidence:
‘How do we know?’
• What are we going to evaluate?
• The processes of the project
(classroom activities, meetings, communications)
• The outputs of the project
(materials, website, DVDs)
• The outcomes of the project
- more difficult!
• Do we know the original situation?
(Benchmarking of skills, knowledge, attitudes)
• What will be our indicators of change?
Collecting and interpreting evidence:
‘How do we know?’
Which evaluation tools should we use?
Use evaluation tools which are carefully structured and make
the indicators clear:
1 Questionnaire
2 Learning
Log
3 Webtool
4 User
Group
5
6 Interviews
Stats
Analysis
Self evaluation is often highly effective
Evaluation diary
Activity (including dates)
Target Groups
Brief rationale and description of activity
Impact
Future modifications
NAME
SCHOOL/ORGANISATION
Evaluation diary
Activity (including dates)
Theme or title
Target Groups
Who with?
Brief rationale and description of activity
Why did I do it?
What did I do?
Impact
How did it go?
Future modifications
If I was to do this activity again what would I change
and why.
NAME
SCHOOL/ORGANISATION
Project self evaluation:
Used at a team meeting
•
•
•
•
•
•
The timetable has been respected
Planned activities have taken place
Communications were efficient
Partners have contributed as stated in the workplan
We have met the goals we agreed at the last meeting
The partners have learned from each other
Have we a good partnership?
Evaluation of a project meeting
INDICATORS:
• Sufficient information was sent before the meeting and communication
was efficient
• Partners were given time for introductions (or re-introductions) and had
time to update each other on their backgrounds and what they can bring
to the project
• The agenda has been respected and any changes negotiated
• Partners have all contributed to the meeting
• The goals of the meeting were met
• The working environment was adequate for the proposed tasks
• Planned activities have taken place
• The partners have a clear idea of their next steps
• The accommodation, food and social element were adequate
Implementing change:
‘What are we going to do next?’
• Analyse results - if possible at a team meeting
• Draw attention to the positives as well as the
challenges
• Adapt: workplan, activities, communications,
management styles, budgets
• Inform everyone involved - try not to impose!
• Record all the reasons for the changes
Summary
• Begin early in the project
• Involve others (possibly an external evaluator, but also
target group representatives)
• Use appropriate types of evaluation
• Use evaluation mechanisms that predict the
development of the project
• Record all data and data analysis and use it in project
implementation
Sustaining the project
All funding has an end point - 1,2,3 years
Think strategically about what you want to do when
the period of funding ends
What can you do to keep things moving after that?
Do partnerships have to be forever ?
Planning for sustainability should be a partnership
activity
Life after funding
Use funded time to get systems sorted out
(communication channels, IT, timetables for projects,
the best curriculum areas, staff enthusiasm)
Great projects with overseas partners don’t have to
cost money – e.g. e-projects
A partnership agreement?
A partnership agreement
• Planning for an agreement is a joint process
• The document will probably evolve during the funded
period of the project
• Signing the agreement should be an important project
milestone and an occasion for celebration!
• Set regular review dates as the project
moves on
Activity
Does the end of funding mean the end of a partnership ?
What is your most successful low-cost/free international
project ?
What is the best fundraising event at your school?
Dissemination – initial thoughts
How do I get the
partners
motivated for
dissemination?
Why should we
disseminate
anyway?
Isn’t it enough that
the students
benefit from our
work?
How to find suitable
dissemination
channels for this
project?
Website and
newsletter- will
it be enough?
Who would help
us to spread
information about
our project on the
European level?
Dissemination
A special day (or other event in school) with an
international theme:
- Europe Day
- International Day of Languages
- Spring Day
etc
Student voice: key questions
What does “student voice” mean to you?
What is your experience of “student voice”?
The voice of just some, or all students?
And what do we do with what they tell us?
Involving the whole community
Examples of community involvement from Comenius applications:
-
Other educational institutions (including universities)
Churches, mosques, synagogues and their community groups
Local businesses
‘Heritage’ sites
Tourist information providers
Local performers
Wildlife trusts
Media
Local Administration, Community Police
A definition of a great school partnership
A great school partnership should be:
A definition of a great school partnership
A great school partnership should be:
- Sustainable
- Not (entirely) funding led
- Soundly managed
- Motivating to staff and pupils alike
- Supported by senior management
- Involving for the wider school community
- Integrated into the curriculum
- Strategically planned
- Addressing global issues
- Contributing to key competence development of teachers and pupils
• All of these factors contribute to the development of critical cultural
awareness and intercultural learning and understanding.
An intercultural scenario
One of the partner schools has a few Roma
pupils who do not appear to get the opportunity to
take part in the project.
One of the other schools has many more Roma
pupils and integrates them into most school
activities including this project.
A teacher from the first school makes frequent
negative comments about the Roma and this is
causing ill feeling in the partnership.
What has happened here?
• How do you think the other partners feel
about the situation?
• Why do they feel that way?
• Are they making any assumptions?
• What should they do next?