School Education Gateway - a new tool to learn about European education policies

European-level initiatives for schools can too easily remain unknown, inaccessible or uninteresting for teachers and other education professionals. A new website, the School Education Gateway, shall provide clear information on education initiatives across Europe. The website is aimed primarily at teachers and school staff, as well as education sector experts and organisations.

The School Education Gateway is not 'just another website'. With information in 24 European languages, the website will link education practitioners with European policies. This will be achieved through providing access to relevant information and practical tools for schools applying for Erasmus+ funding.

Current School Education Gateway features include:

• ·         Information service including news, publications, expert articles, and tutorials.
• ·         Sharing of innovative practices through articles on successful European projects.
• ·         Three tools to support applications for the Erasmus+ Programme:
• ·         Course Catalogue for teachers’ professional development(see Erasmus+ Key Action 1),
• ·         Mobility Opportunities including teaching assignments and job shadowing offers (see Erasmus+ Key Action 1), and
• ·         Strategic Partnership requests to connect partners for Strategic Partnerships (see Erasmus+ Key Action 2).

Joining the School Education Gateway is easy and free. Users can share, comment on, and favourite content. For teachers involved in eTwinning the School Education Gateway will be accessible with their existing eTwinning login.

The School Education Gateway is funded by Erasmus+, the European programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport. It is operated for the Directorate General for Education and Culture (Unit B.2 – Schools and Educators; Multilingualism) by European Schoolnet, a pan-European partnership of 31 education ministries.

Erasmus+ aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning across all European school levels. By supporting the professional development of teachers and by fostering links with both the outside world and other fields of education and training, the School Education Gateway will help raise awareness of European initiatives within the education community. For example, topics such as early school leaving or insufficient basic skills (reading, mathematics and science), are concerns shared across European school systems. Teachers are a key factor in achieving excellence and equity in education. Therefore, developing teachers’ skills and the sharing of good practices are at the heart of Erasmus+ and the School Education Gateway. The website will be closely linked with eTwinning, the European initiative to support online school cooperation.