Maltese schools join networked learning communities

Six Maltese state schools have joined six English schools to set up an international Networked Learning Community (NLC). This is a completely new project for local education establishments, the outcome of which should be an improvement in the quality of pupil learning.

NLCs have been present in the English educational set-up for the last two years. There are now over 80 networks involving about 1,000 schools.

Each network is made up of a cluster of schools (at least six, but some have many more) that work in partnership in order to enhance the learning of all their members. Collaboration has replaced competition as the motivating force for hundreds of schools within the networks in programmes that should transform the learning experiences for children, teachers and school management teams.

The Maltese schools are the Hamrun and the Zejtun junior lyceums, and the Ghaxaq, Naxxar, Qrendi and Siggiewi primary schools. These six schools have teamed up with two secondary and four primary schools from the UK to form the EXCEL network.

EXCEL stands for Excellence Collaboration Enabling Leadership, and the Excel schools have established links with the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) in Nottingham, the International Learning and Research Centre (ILRC) in South Gloucestershire, and the University of the West of England.

The collaboration between the English and the Maltese schools started last June when five English heads of schools, together with the director of the International Learning and Research Centre and one of the lecturers from the College for School Leadership, were invited to Malta by the Education Division. During the time they spent here they visited the six schools which had been invited to join the network, and held discussions with their Maltese colleagues to draft a plan of action for the network.

The NCSL is committed to developing collaborative, capacity-building and sustainable learning programmes. The NLC is one illustration of this commitment.

NLCs developed out of the collaboration between various UK educational entities. Their motto is: "Working smarter together rather than harder alone". Keeping this in mind, they promote enquiry and research about learning and teaching and share the knowledge gained with other schools and networks.

As a result networks are promoting new ideas, spreading good practice, transferring knowledge, supporting learning and teaching, and at the same time enhancing the skills of educators. Most importantly, they are helping to change the traditional isolationism that has characterised the work of schools in the past. In the words of a young student, "Schools should work together because it's hard working on your own, but if you work in a team then you get a lot more done and more ideas are put in."

Each network has two co-leaders, who are members of the network, and one "critical friend", who is an outsider. While the co-leaders' task is to facilitate the implementation of the various strands of the general project, the critical friendís responsibility is to observe closely the work of the network and to provide objective criticism. Since he is not a "working" member of the group, he is in an excellent position to do this and his feedback is always valued.

Although improving pupil learning is at the heart of every NLC's initiative, networks encourage and support continuous co-operative learning within all levels of the educational system. Five "levels of learning" have been identified and all action programmes are built around them. These are: pupil learning, staff learning, leadership learning, school-wide learning, and school-to-school learning. A sixth level, network-to-network learning, will grow as networks develop and knowledge is spread between networks across the whole education system.

In these six levels of learning lies the added value of school networks. Collaboration is not limited to a single project developed by a limited number of school members. Know-ing that they will create and share more knowledge by working together rather than in isolation, networked schools share a common purpose: encouraging and supporting continuous co-operative learning at all levels of the education system.

Thus NLCs are using the diversity which exists within and across schools as the positive driving force for knowledge sharing and innovation. Teachers and other education professionals are experimenting with new approaches to learning, doing research on specific issues, and working in partnership to develop and share good practice.

Within a strong network it is easier to create and share knowledge about what works in the classroom, to learn from each other's experiences, and to find solutions to common problems. In NLCs, pupils, teachers, leaders, and schools are well and truly learning from each other, with each other, and on behalf of each other. "Learning on behalf of each other" embodies the moral purpose of every NLC, a desire to improve the learning experience, and a commitment towards the success, of teachers and pupils in all schools.

The Maltese and English schools within EXCEL have developed a plan of action for the next two years that will involve students, teachers and administrators working closely together on joint projects within all the levels of learning. By tackling the same issues, these schools will be supporting each otherís development through the sharing of good practice and new ideas.

The heads of school involved in the EXCEL network describe this initiative as a truly exciting project. The experience gained by this pioneering group could help to promote the idea of school networks in local education.

Godwin Zammit is headmaster of the Hamrun Boys' Junior Lyceum