Flemish government identifies 30 ‘inspiration schools’ to serve as models for other primary schools

Each inspiration school will receive nearly 70,000 euros, which will enable the school management to hire additional staff. According to Flemish Education Minister Zuhal Demir (Flemish nationalist N-VA), the aim is for the schools to share their expertise with other schools.

‘In this way, we are strengthening the quality of Flemish education step by step,’ says Demir. Seventy-six primary schools had applied to become inspiration schools. From these thirty have now been selected, spread across the whole of Flanders and representing the various school networks.

There are schools, for example, which focus on high-quality Dutch lessons, clear knowledge development, effective classroom instruction and high expectations for every pupil. Teachers learn how to help pupils improve their reading, maths and knowledge acquisition.

Inspiration schools are tasked with sharing their expertise with around 10 other schools within the ‘learning networks’, under the guidance of the educational support services.

Each selected school can allocate resources to free up additional staff for this purpose. In this way, teachers and school management will have sufficient time further to develop their practices and support other schools.

The reasoning behind the initiative is that the planned knowledge-sharing should allow the expertise of the schools involved to spread like wildfire. “Good practices must not remain confined within the walls of one school. In this way, we are building a network of expertise that radiates out across the whole of Flanders,” minister Demir said.