EU Operating Grant

Work plan 2024

The Euro­pean Coun­cil for Stein­er Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion (ECSWE) is enter­ing its sec­ond year under the frame­work agree­ment, sup­port­ed by EU funds. In 2023, ECSWE assessed mem­ber needs, reveal­ing con­sid­er­able appre­ci­a­tion for its advo­ca­cy work and ways to improve the bet­ter align­ment of our capac­i­ty build­ing efforts with mem­ber pref­er­ences. Addi­tion­al­ly, this grant will serve as a cru­cial resource in devel­op­ing a new sus­tain­able strat­e­gy for our future work.

In our 2024 work plan, we are build­ing on these efforts by deep­en­ing our work in the field of cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment, tak­ing up sus­tain­abil­i­ty and green edu­ca­tion as a work­ing theme in a ded­i­cat­ed work pack­age, and pro­vid­ing tai­lored capac­i­ty build­ing and struc­tur­al sup­port for our mem­bers in pub­lic affairs, PR, fundrais­ing, and organ­i­sa­tion­al development.

More­over, with the expect­ed changes in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and Euro­pean Com­mis­sion fol­low­ing the EU elec­tions in June, ECSWE needs to read­just its advo­ca­cy for the next 5 years. By pro­duc­ing more resources for nation­al-lev­el dis­sem­i­na­tion, ECSWE aims to bet­ter dis­sem­i­nate EU poli­cies and its work at the EU lev­el to nation­al-lev­el audiences.

While they are of course con­nect­ed with our activ­i­ties fund­ed under the oper­at­ing grant, activ­i­ties fund­ed from oth­er EU calls such as the HERMMES project or the UPSWE project, are not addressed on this page. Activ­i­ties in ser­vice of our mem­bers from non-EU coun­tries are also not list­ed here and will be cov­ered sep­a­rate­ly in reports cov­er­ing activ­i­ties paid from our mem­ber­ship fees.

Our work packages

Management & advocacy

Sustainability

Framework curriculum

Networking & capacity building

PR and dissemination

How to read the status indicators?

Not started

Ongoing

Done

Work package 1

Management and advocacy

Grant management and finances

This task involves fol­low­ing project process­es, check­ing time­line and deliv­er­ables, con­tin­u­ous­ly report­ing on the Grant Man­age­ment Sys­tem, and main­tain­ing con­tact with the EACEA.

Monitoring EU Policy Development

Mon­i­tor­ing EU poli­cies like the 2024 Com­mis­sion Work Plan, the Euro­pean Edu­ca­tion Area, and the Dig­i­tal Edu­ca­tion Action Plan, as well as the work of edu­ca­tion com­mit­tees at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the Coun­cil of the EU.

Working Group on Pathways to School Success

Con­tin­u­ing mem­ber­ship in the work­ing group, active­ly con­tribut­ing to its activ­i­ties, stay­ing updat­ed on its progress, sup­port­ing our rep­re­sen­ta­tive with­in the group, and inform­ing our mem­ber­ship about the results and out­comes of the work­ing group’s efforts.

Travel reimbursement

Imple­ment­ing the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Fund Pol­i­cy devel­oped in 2023 to reim­burse mem­bers in need for their trav­el expens­es relat­ed to par­tic­i­pat­ing in ECSWE activ­i­ties, such as coun­cil meet­ings. The goal is to allow all mem­bers to par­tic­i­pate in ECSWE’s work irre­spec­tive of finan­cial means.

Stakeholder registration at the UN

Explor­ing the option of reg­is­ter­ing as a stake­hold­er at the Unit­ed Nations in Gene­va and ded­i­cat­ing effort to mon­i­tor­ing the work of UN bod­ies focus­ing on edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy. This would also be of great ben­e­fit for our non-EU membership.

Infopack for new representatives

Cre­at­ing an infor­ma­tion pack and onboard­ing process for mem­bers and new rep­re­sen­ta­tives, detail­ing ECSWE’s role, mem­ber engage­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and the respon­si­bil­i­ties of nation­al representatives.

Work package 2

Sustainability

Reducing and compensating for carbon emissions

This task involves reduc­ing and com­pen­sat­ing CO2 emis­sions asso­ci­at­ed with coun­cil meet­ings. It entails adher­ing to trav­el pol­i­cy guide­lines to min­i­mize the car­bon foot­print, and when air trav­el is nec­es­sary, com­pen­sat­ing for CO2 emis­sions through a cer­ti­fied com­pen­sa­tion program.

Policy monitoring regarding the green transition

Mon­i­tor­ing EU pol­i­cy on green edu­ca­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty involves track­ing ini­tia­tives and dis­cus­sions from the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion and the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment (EP), and rep­re­sent­ing the posi­tion of Wal­dorf schools.

Create a sustainability framework curriculum

Cre­at­ing a cus­tomiz­able sus­tain­abil­i­ty cur­ricu­lum frame­work in PDF for­mat in Eng­lish. Nation­al mem­ber fed­er­a­tions will receive an editable tem­plate for adapt­ing the cur­ricu­lum to their spe­cif­ic needs and regulations.

Establishing a sustainability network

This task involves estab­lish­ing a sus­tain­abil­i­ty net­work com­pris­ing peo­ple, schools and orga­ni­za­tions ded­i­cat­ed to sus­tain­abil­i­ty and green tran­si­tion, oper­at­ing at both inter­na­tion­al and nation­al levels.

Concept note for a project on sustainability

Draft­ing a con­cept note for a sus­tain­abil­i­ty project to secure EU or foun­da­tion fund­ing. This includes devel­op­ing a pre­lim­i­nary project plan to iden­ti­fy poten­tial part­ners, with all doc­u­ments pro­vid­ed in English.

Work package 3

Framework Curriculum

Forming the curriculum working group

With­in this work­ing group, ECSWE aims to col­lab­o­rate with a select group of experts to devel­op a com­pre­hen­sive frame­work cur­ricu­lum tai­lored for Wal­dorf schools across Europe and globally.

Establishing a network of curriculum experts

By July, the work­ing group aims to estab­lish a net­work of experts to sup­port its cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment efforts, pro­vid­ing exper­tise and review­ing their work with the aim of hav­ing a reviewed draft by the end of 2024.

Designing the framework curriculum

Design­ing a frame­work cur­ricu­lum for Stein­er Wal­dorf schools from ear­ly child­hood to sec­ondary edu­ca­tion, pro­vid­ed in PDF for­mat in Eng­lish with an editable tem­plate for nation­al mem­ber fed­er­a­tions. The cur­ricu­lum aims to demon­strate Wal­dorf edu­ca­tion prin­ci­ples and incor­po­rate links to EU key competences.

Developing a landing page for the curriculum

Cre­at­ing a land­ing page on the Craft plat­form for the cur­ricu­lum, serv­ing as a hub for con­tin­u­ous doc­u­men­ta­tion and adjust­ments to the frame­work cur­ricu­lum. It will pro­vide mem­bers with access to the lat­est updates and be avail­able ini­tial­ly in Eng­lish, with trans­la­tion options for broad­er accessibility.

Work package 4

Networking and capacity building

European election package

We’ll devel­op a con­cise pack­age on the 2024 Euro­pean elec­tions with two pages of gen­er­al infor­ma­tion and one page to be tai­lored to the nation­al elec­toral sys­tem and eli­gi­ble par­ty lists. Addi­tion­al­ly, we’ll include sug­ges­tions for edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties in schools. Ini­tial­ly pro­vid­ed in Eng­lish, Dutch, and Ger­man, a tem­plate will be offered for trans­la­tion into oth­er languages.

Establishing new working groups

In 2024, ECSWE will estab­lish 4–5 new work­ing groups for mem­bers that will address some of the issues iden­ti­fied in our mem­ber calls. Ideas were already col­lect­ed at our Coun­cil meet­ing in Octo­ber 2023 and the process will be launched in our online meet­ing in Feb­ru­ary 2024. Work­ing groups will sub­mit an activ­i­ty report by Decem­ber 2024.

Conduct webinars on advocacy and PR

ECSWE is launch­ing a webi­nar series cov­er­ing advo­ca­cy, PR, and poten­tial­ly asso­ci­a­tion man­age­ment, with three mod­ules sched­uled for the first half of 2024. Nation­al mem­bers will present case stud­ies dur­ing the pro­gram. The pilot will be eval­u­at­ed to assess fur­ther train­ing needs and deter­mine the for­mat for a pos­si­ble fol­low-up program.

Explore structural support and peer mentoring for small associations

The ini­tia­tive seeks to explore and obtain fund­ing from foun­da­tions to offer struc­tur­al sup­port for small Wal­dorf school asso­ci­a­tions, aid­ing them in estab­lish­ing pro­fes­sion­al­ly run asso­ci­a­tion sec­re­tari­ats across all mem­ber coun­tries of ECSWE. Addi­tion­al­ly, the ini­tia­tive pro­pos­es imple­ment­ing a peer men­tor­ing scheme to assist part-time staff work­ing at these secretariats.

Consultations on ERASMUS+

Last years fundrais­ing con­sul­ta­tions will extend fur­ther into 2024, focus­ing on peer-learn­ing and shar­ing suc­cess­ful fundrais­ing prac­tices among mem­bers and their schools. The goal is to pro­vide rel­e­vant fundrais­ing knowl­edge, enabling cus­tomiza­tion of strate­gies based on shared expe­ri­ences and insights.

Strengthening the cooperation between teachers and parents

In 2024, efforts to enhance coop­er­a­tion between teach­ers and par­ents con­tin­ue with addi­tion­al par­ent rep­re­sen­ta­tion in coun­cil meet­ings and ECSWE par­tic­i­pa­tion in the ENSWaP con­fer­ence. Explor­ing joint projects on themes such as sus­tain­abil­i­ty aims to deep­en col­lab­o­ra­tion for the bet­ter­ment of chil­dren’s education.

Develop a digital members atlas

Using our 2023 mem­ber call data, we are cre­at­ing a dig­i­tal mem­ber atlas of Stein­er Wal­dorf school asso­ci­a­tions on the Craft plat­form. These pro­files will detail mem­ber­ship, tasks, chal­lenges, coun­try-spe­cif­ic resources and needs. The atlas aims to sup­port our inter­nal work, enabling well-informed peer sup­port and the pro­vi­sion of more tai­lored ser­vices for our members.

Conference on the role of national associations in teacher training

ECSWE plans a con­fer­ence or col­lo­qui­um on the role of nation­al asso­ci­a­tions in facil­i­tat­ing qual­i­ty teacher train­ing in Europe, ten­ta­tive­ly set for Octo­ber 2024 or 2025. The event aims to involve stake­hold­ers from across Europe. While the con­cept note will only be inter­nal­ly dis­sem­i­nat­ed, the results of the event might be suit­able for pub­lic dis­sem­i­na­tion as well.

Work package 5

PR and dissemination

Promote implementation of 2024 work plan

To pro­mote the 2024 work plan, we’ll offer peri­od­ic progress updates via news items for select­ed tasks and deliv­er­ables, shared on our web­site with mem­bers and our wider net­work. Social media cam­paigns will ref­er­ence these updates. Our aim is to report on work pack­ages 1–4 with at least one news item each, along­side a gen­er­al sta­tus update on the work plan in Sep­tem­ber 2024.

Create a landing page for our 2024 work plan

For the bet­ter dis­sem­i­na­tion of this 2024 work plan, a ded­i­cat­ed land­ing page will be estab­lished on the ECSWE web­site to doc­u­ment our progress on key tasks and deliv­er­ables. Con­tin­u­ous­ly updat­ed, this page will serve as a resource for our mem­bers and part­ners, facil­i­tat­ing report­ing to mem­ber schools, donors and the wider public.

Creating a communication task force

We will cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ca­tion task force to draft ECSWE state­ments on key issues like cit­i­zen­ship, human and fun­da­men­tal rights, democ­ra­cy, and equal­i­ty. This group will devel­op its own work plan. Any state­ments will be shared through our com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels, such as the web­site, social media, meet­ings, and newsletters.

Summary of our information campaigns 

To facil­i­tate report­ing to our Euro­pean and nation­al-lev­el audi­ences as well as the EACEA, we will devel­op a con­cise 2‑page sum­ma­ry out­lin­ing our infor­ma­tion cam­paigns used to dis­sem­i­nate this work plan.

Archive of previous work plans

Read Work Plan 2023

Any questions?

Frans Ebskamp, Treasurer

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