EU Operating Grant

Work plan 2025

The Euro­pean Coun­cil for Stein­er Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion (ECSWE) rep­re­sents 27 nation­al asso­ci­a­tions, over 800 schools, and 195,000 pupils across 28 coun­tries. This third work plan under our three-year frame­work part­ner­ship builds on pre­vi­ous achieve­ments, includ­ing stronger mem­ber organ­i­sa­tions, pro­fes­sion­al team devel­op­ment, and clos­er ties between nation­al fed­er­a­tions and schools.

In 2025, ECSWE will com­plete key out­comes, launch new ini­tia­tives, and shape future strate­gies. Pri­or­i­ties include advo­ca­cy for edu­ca­tion­al free­dom and devel­op­ment-ori­ent­ed prac­tices, with a focus on green and dig­i­tal tran­si­tions. We are devel­op­ing prac­ti­cal resources and an inter­na­tion­al cur­ricu­lum frame­work to sup­port nation­al imple­men­ta­tion and communication.

New projects explore sto­ry­telling as a tool for soci­etal change and envi­sion future-proof edu­ca­tion. These efforts reflect our vision of holis­tic, child-cen­tred learn­ing aligned with EU pri­or­i­ties such as the Dig­i­tal Edu­ca­tion Action Plan and the Euro­pean Edu­ca­tion Area, as well as UNESCO’s Reimag­in­ing Our Futures Together.

ECSWE remains com­mit­ted to edu­ca­tion that fos­ters life­long growth and sup­ports a sus­tain­able, inclu­sive, and demo­c­ra­t­ic Europe root­ed in human rights.

Our work areas

Management & advocacy

Sustainability

HERMMES follow-up

Common core curriculum framework

Networking & capacity building

Dissemination & events

How to read the status indicators?

Not started

Ongoing

Done

Area 1

Management and advocacy

General workplan coordination

Coor­di­na­tion of the work plan and finances, includ­ing task allo­ca­tion, progress mon­i­tor­ing, dead­line man­age­ment, and doc­u­men­ta­tion of results.

Coordinating member calls with member associations

Struc­tured coun­try-spe­cif­ic calls with mem­ber rep­re­sen­ta­tives to align activ­i­ties with their pri­or­i­ties and fos­ter engage­ment in the 2025 work plan.

Info session and survey for permanent guests

An info ses­sion fol­lowed by a short online ques­tion­naire to explore how per­ma­nent guests wish to con­tribute to spe­cif­ic work plan activities.

Organisational development process

In 2025, ECSWE will hold team and board retreats, review job descrip­tions and roles for staff and board mem­bers, and assess mem­ber categories.

Policy monitoring at EU, CoE, and UN level

Mon­i­tor­ing key pol­i­cy ini­tia­tives at the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion (DG EAC), Euro­pean Par­lia­ment (CULT, EMPL, and new inter­group), Coun­cil of Europe (Year of Dig­i­tal Cit­i­zen­ship Edu­ca­tion), and the UN (reports on school education).

Continue membership in WG Pathways to School Success

Rep­re­sen­ta­tion by our ped­a­gog­i­cal advi­sor with a par­tic­u­lar focus on well-being and men­tal health in the con­text of the work­ing group’s activities.

Member involvement in advocacy

For­ma­tion of an advo­ca­cy focus and strat­e­gy group to devel­op a five-year advo­ca­cy strat­e­gy, com­ple­ment­ed by round­ta­bles where mem­bers can share and dis­cuss nation­al advo­ca­cy challenges.

Writing a new Erasmus+ proposal

Iden­ti­fy­ing part­ners, design­ing, and sub­mit­ting a Coop­er­a­tion Part­ner­ship pro­pos­al under the work­ing title Future-proof and ‑ori­ent­ed human edu­ca­tion: grow­ing resilient chil­dren and young people.

Area 2

Sustainability

Reviewing the Green School project

At the begin­ning of 2025, we will review and finalise the Green School project plan devel­oped in 2024. The refined plan will feed into a larg­er EU project appli­ca­tion and oth­er fund­ing applications.

Implementing climate assessments for our green school project

Iden­ti­fy­ing par­tic­i­pat­ing schools, sup­port­ing them in cal­cu­lat­ing their green­house gas (GHG) emis­sions, and con­duct­ing inter­views on green edu­ca­tion practices.

Green school network meetings

Host­ing online ses­sions to review progress, sup­port cli­mate assess­ments, and plan the upcom­ing Cli­mate Sto­ry­telling Conference.

Area 3

HERMMES follow-up

Post-project dissemination of HERMMES

Ensur­ing the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of HERMMES results through con­tin­ued dis­sem­i­na­tion and by offer­ing the dig­i­tal media cur­ricu­lum as input for the Dig­Comp 3.0 revi­sion in 2025.

Realising HERMMES learning journeys for parents and teachers

Pro­vid­ing train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties through self-paced learn­ing jour­neys for teach­ers, school lead­ers, and par­ents, as well as an ambas­sador train­ing for mul­ti­pli­ers at school, region­al, or nation­al level.

Designing and piloting the “HERMMES school” quality label

Devel­op­ing the “HERMMES school” label, inte­grat­ing it into the HERMMES web­site, and work­ing with select­ed pilot school com­mu­ni­ties to test and refine the concept.

Area 4

Common core curriculum framework

Council review of the macro-level curriculum

Pre­sent­ing the draft macro-lev­el cur­ricu­lum frame­work to mem­bers and gath­er­ing feed­back to assess its usabil­i­ty and adapt­abil­i­ty across dif­fer­ent nation­al contexts.

Designing the meso-level curriculum

Devel­op­ing strands for our meso-lev­el cur­ricu­lum to out­line pupils’ learn­ing jour­neys across spe­cif­ic sub­jects, learn­ing fields, or competences.

Piloting the curriculum

Car­ry­ing out a pilot with a mem­ber fed­er­a­tion explor­ing its rel­e­vance and adapt­abil­i­ty with­in the nation­al-lev­el context.

Translating the curriculum

Trans­lat­ing key cur­ricu­lum texts into at least two or three mem­ber lan­guages (Dutch, Ger­man, Hungarian).

Area 5

Networking and capacity building

Presentation of the UPSWE project results

Pre­sent­ing a dynam­ic final report on the UPSWE project dur­ing our coun­cil meet­ing to cel­e­brate this key achievement.

Offer more public affairs trainings

Organ­is­ing one to two addi­tion­al mod­ules of ECSWE’s pub­lic affairs train­ing to fur­ther build mem­bers’ advo­ca­cy and pol­i­cy engage­ment skills.

Quality care working group

Devel­op­ing a men­tor­ing process for small asso­ci­a­tions, and, option­al, draft a prin­ci­ples paper on qual­i­ty care in Wal­dorf schools and a roadmap for fur­ther qual­i­ty care work.

Working group structural support for small associations

Sup­port­ing the small­er asso­ci­a­tions in ECSWE’s net­work through reg­u­lar facil­i­tat­ed online meet­ings, action plans, peer-learn­ing, and fundrais­ing efforts.

Parent-teacher collaboration

Organ­is­ing a good prac­tice-shar­ing ini­tia­tive for par­ent rep­re­sen­ta­tives, with a focus on for­mal­is­ing par­ent networks.

Toolbox on association management

Devel­op­ing a dig­i­tal tool­box on asso­ci­a­tion man­age­ment, draw­ing on peer coun­selling and work­ing group insights.

Area 6

Dissemination and events

Erasmus+ seminars

Pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion, train­ing ses­sions, and prac­ti­cal guid­ance on Eras­mus+ oppor­tu­ni­ties in the field of education.

Create a landing page for our 2025 work plan

Set­ting up a ded­i­cat­ed, reg­u­lar­ly updat­ed web­page to doc­u­ment progress, sup­port dis­sem­i­na­tion, and inform mem­bers, schools, donors, and the wider public.

Dissemination of the 2025 work plan

Shar­ing the land­ing page and key work plan con­tent through coun­cil pre­sen­ta­tions, web­site news items, and social media to reach our net­work and the wider public.

Organising council meetings

Bring­ing mem­bers togeth­er through three coun­cil meet­ings in 2025—two in per­son (in Leu­ven, Bel­gium and Ādaži, Latvia) and one held online.

Workshop on implementing the HERMMES guidelines

Online work­shop host­ed by ECSWE to sup­port the imple­men­ta­tion of the HERMMES guide­lines, with a focus on the dig­i­tal transition.

Training session on effective workplan dissemination 

Bet­ter defin­ing the role of nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives as a link between ECSWE and its mem­ber fed­er­a­tions and schools, using peer-learn­ing and action­able planning.

Coordinating an online conference on climate storytelling

An inter­na­tion­al online con­fer­ence explor­ing sto­ry­telling as a tool for cli­mate edu­ca­tion and trans­for­ma­tive change in schools.

Quality of Childhood talk on sustainability and regenerative education

A pol­i­cy event on the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of edu­ca­tion, co-host­ed by ECSWE, Learn­ing for Well-being, and the Alliance for Child­hood, as part of the Qual­i­ty of Child­hood series in the Euro­pean Parliament.

Event series on European-level challenges

A series of peer exchange ses­sions and work­shops address­ing cross-cut­ting chal­lenges in edu­ca­tion, fos­ter­ing dia­logue and shared solu­tions among mem­bers and our wider network

Archive of previous work plans

Read Work Plan 2023

Any questions?

Frans Ebskamp, Treasurer

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