Brussels, 3 December 2021

Martyn Rawson represents ECSWE on EU expert group on schools

The Working Group on Pathways to School Success aims at promoting well-being in schools, better achievements in basic skills and the successful conclusion of education and training pathways by all learners.

The first meeting was dedicated to identifying the main working themes

Fol­low­ing our suc­cess­ful appli­ca­tion for mem­ber­ship, on the 3rd and 13th Decem­ber 2021, our Ped­a­gog­i­cal Advi­sor Mar­tyn Raw­son, attend­ed the first two meet­ings of the new Work­ing Group on School­s’s sub­group on Path­ways to School Suc­cess. Par­tic­i­pants includ­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives from nation­al author­i­ties, as well as EU insti­tu­tions and agen­cies, inter­na­tion­al and stake­hold­er organ­i­sa­tions. The first meet­ing con­sist­ed of dis­cus­sions, pre­sen­ta­tions and the plan­ning of the work pro­gramme for 2022. Over the course of the year 2022, the group will explore oppor­tu­ni­ties for blend­ed learn­ing, com­pe­tence-based approach­es and new approach­es to assess­ment. Work­ing fields that are of high inter­est and rel­e­vance to Wal­dorf schools in Europe.

An expert group created in the framework of the European Education Area

The work­ing group is one of 7 expert groups cre­at­ed with­in the frame­work of the Euro­pean Edu­ca­tion Area and builds on the achieve­ments of the pre­vi­ous ET 2020 Work­ing Group Schools. It focus­es on pro­vid­ing mutu­al learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, shar­ing infor­ma­tion on pol­i­cy reforms and inspir­ing pos­i­tive change across the EU. The sub-group on Path­ways to School Suc­cess aims to pro­mote well-being at school, bet­ter per­for­mance in basic skills and suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of edu­ca­tion and train­ing path­ways for all learn­ers. A par­tic­u­lar focus will be placed on dis­ad­van­taged groups who are more at risk of under­achieve­ment and ear­ly school leaving.

ECSWE is ready to make an active contribution to the work

With­in the Path­ways process, the Wal­dorf approach can pro­vide impor­tant exam­ples of good prac­tice. In par­tic­u­lar, with regard to for­ma­tive and ipsative learn­ing sup­port and assess­ment, the salu­to­ge­net­ic approach, the use of work place­ments and projects as forms of learn­ing in the world, the inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach to teach­ing and the focus on bio­graph­i­cal learn­ing, Stein­er Wal­dorf edu­ca­tion offers a coher­ent approach to address­ing the chal­lenges iden­ti­fied by the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion. ECSWE is pleased to bring this rich expe­ri­ence from Wal­dorf schools across Europe to the work­ing group.

Further reading