Community Schools

Extended schools in Flanders (Belgium), situation January 2010

For three years, various pilot projects in Flanders (Belgium) have explored the possibilities and boundaries of the Community School concept. They discovered the need for cooperation, coordination and leadership, evaluation and reflection, funding, quality of activities, vision development, etc..

The Centre for Diversity and Learning was assigned to follow up the pilot projects and to develop materials and training based on their experiences. A framework, useful for vision development as well as goal setting and reflection, was developed around two axes: (1) goal, content and organisation of Community Schools and (2) diversity, connections and participation as prerequisites.

At the end of the three year period, we questioned all pilot projects (coordination and partners) about the impact they perceived from participating in  Community Schools. They felt a clear impact on the levels and quality of cooperation as well as on the range and quality of activities. Almost everyone feels that Community Schools can be a useful tool in realising more and better chances for children, although there are still a lot of issues to tackle.

Based on all these experiences we formulated policy recommendations including for example the necessary involvement of local authorities and the need to invest in cross sector cooperation on all policy levels. After the elections, held in June 2009, our new government now committed to support the development of Community Schools. To give shape to this new policy, is a challenge for the months to come.  We are in joyful expectation…

For more information please contact:

Annelies Joos, Annelies.joos@ugent.be
Research Assistant,
Centre for Diversity and Learning, Ghent University,
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 49, 9000 Gent, Belgium,
 www.steunpuntdiversiteitenleren.be  (partly in English)