This report has been developed as part of OECD’s work on implementing education policies, conducted by the Policy Advice and Implementation Division of OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills. It is the result of an assessment of the development of schools as learning organisations in Wales, informed by international experience and best practices from OECD countries. The assessment made use of a mixed-methods study design, including a Schools as Learning Organisations Survey and many exchanges and consultations with different experts and stakeholders in Wales.
The OECD team (see Annex A) is indebted to the Welsh Government Education Directorate for supporting this innovative pilot initiative. We thank Kirsty Williams, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, for commissioning this assessment and her support throughout the process resulting in this report, including the launching of Wales’ schools as learning organisations model. Furthermore, we would like to acknowledge the support of the Steve Davies, the Director of Education, who has been a driving force behind this assessment. We are also particularly grateful to Lisa Clarke, Professional Learning Programme Lead, and Joanne Davies, Professional Learning Policy Lead, for co-ordinating the whole assessment process.
We would like to also thank the members of the Schools as Learning Organisations (SLO) Pilot Group (see Annex B) who (among others) contributed to the development and implementation of the SLO survey, and provided in-depth feedback and advice on earlier drafts of this report.
Furthermore, we want to convey our appreciation to all those school leaders, teachers and learning support workers that found the time in their busy schedules to complete the SLO survey. Their views and comments have proven invaluable to this assessment.
Various policy missions were also conducted during 2017 and 2018 during which the OECD team was able to interview and consult a wide range of experts and stakeholders from various levels of the education system. Special thanks go to Graham Donaldson for his guidance and support throughout the whole process of conducting this assessment. We want to convey our sincere appreciation to all these people for providing us with a wealth of insights by sharing their views, experience and knowledge.
In addition, the courtesy and hospitality extended to us throughout our stays in Wales made our task as enjoyable as it was stimulating and challenging.
The OECD team was composed of Marco Kools, who also led the assessment, Beatriz Pont, Pierre Gouëdard and Thiffanie Rodriguez. The external experts on the team were Louise Stoll, University College London Institute of Education and Bert George, Erasmus University Rotterdam. The OECD team acknowledges the support from Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills; Paulo Santiago, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division; and Kristina Sonmark, Javier Suarez-Alvarez, Nóra Revai, Hannah von Ahlefeld, David Liebowitz, and Eva Feron from the OECD Secretariat, who provided in-depth feedback and advice at critical stages of the development of the report. Particular thanks go to Kristina Sonmark and Javier Suarez-Alvarez for their technical advice and support provided at various stages during the development of the SLO survey. Marta Rilling prepared the report for publication and provided administrative support, Sally Hinchcliffe edited the report, and Henri Pearson organised the publication process.