LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

School lead­er­ship is one of the main change­mak­er in edu­ca­tion world. All the sus­tain­able edu­ca­tion orga­ni­za­tions need clear vision, reli­able and com­mon strat­e­gy and imple­men­ta­tion. School leader must be aware of changes in the big pic­ture of edu­ca­tion and at the same time they must cre­ate the best oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents and teachers.

One of the key ele­ments of good out­comes and account­abil­i­ty is col­lab­o­ra­tion between edu­ca­tion stake­hold­ers. Dis­trib­u­tive lead­er­ship and par­tic­i­pa­tion are the mod­els of renew­ing the whole school, not only school leaders.

Finnish Edu­ca­tion insti­tute can offer you prac­ti­cal train­ing in all lead­er­ship and man­age­ment lev­els, from vision to over­all par­tic­i­pa­tion. We also train in ped­a­gog­i­cal leadership

Ari Pokka Principal‘s Academy (APPA)

Ari Poka’s Prin­ci­pal Acad­e­my is a unique in-ser­vice train­ing pro­gram focused on school man­age­ment and lead­er­ship. It is based on vision­ary and expe­ri­en­tial knowl­edge of mod­ern edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion man­age­ment and lead­er­ship. Mod­ern school man­age­ment and lead­er­ship com­bines in-depth knowl­edge of edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy, oper­a­tional exper­tise, and the cre­ation of a healthy school culture.

The train­ing is suit­able both for prin­ci­pals at the begin­ning of their work­ing career and for school lead­ers who have already reached fur­ther in their work­ing career. It empha­sizes the prin­ci­pal’s mul­ti­ple roles as part of a learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty that oper­ates both local­ly, nation­al­ly, and internationally.

The train­ing gives a clear pic­ture of the best prac­tices of Finnish school man­age­ment, but at the same time it gives an over­all pic­ture of pro­fes­sion­al school man­age­ment and its cur­rent and future chal­lenges. Man­ag­ing a school is its own pro­fes­sion, the main goal of which is to serve the needs of every learn­er and offer the best pos­si­ble learn­ing expe­ri­ence to the cre­ators of the future.

“ The prin­ci­pal is the leader of the jazz orches­tra. He gives his orches­tra a theme to fol­low. Skilled and inno­v­a­tive play­ers have the oppor­tu­ni­ty for solos, but the task of the orches­tra leader is to ensure that the main idea of the per­for­mance is not lost dur­ing the impro­vi­sa­tions.” ( Ari Pok­ka: Tops Class – Finnish School Lead­er­ship and Management) 

Counsellor of Education Mr. Ari Pokka

Coun­sel­lor of Edu­ca­tion, Ari Pok­ka is an edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy mak­er, for­mer sec­ondary school prin­ci­pal and author. As a former Pres­i­dent of the Finnish Asso­ci­a­tion of School Prin­ci­pals and inter­na­tion­al Con­fed­er­a­tion of Prin­ci­pals, Ari is one of the best-known edu­ca­tors in Fin­land and abroad.

Hav­ing expe­ri­ence of man­ag­ing and devel­op­ing edu­ca­tion in Fin­land for over 25 years, most recent­ly on the devel­op­ment of Finnish upper Sec­ondary lev­el leg­is­la­tion and qual­i­ty assur­ance pro­gram, he has an inter­na­tion­al con­sul­tan­cy and advi­so­ry pro­file which spans many countries.

This has been part­ly dri­ven by his inter­ests in Finnish school lead­er­ship and man­age­ment, inno­va­tion and qual­i­ty assur­ance. In 2015 an Eng­lish lan­guage ver­sion of his authored book Top Class — Finnish School Lead­er­ship and Man­age­ment was pub­lished. Top Class has been also pub­lished in Ukraine at 2017, Chi­na 2021 and Roma­nia 2022.

Year 2019 Ari worked in Edu Clus­ter Fin­land to build up the first Finnish Inter­na­tion­al High School in Doha, Qatar. Same time he‘s mak­ing con­sul­tan­cy for oth­er Finnish high School projects in Ara­bi­an con­ti­nent. Cur­rent­ly Ari works in Roma­nia, Ukraine, Kaza­khstan and Cyprus.

Dur­ing his career he has been strong­ly involved nation­wide cur­ricu­lum work, leg­is­la­tion and edu­ca­tion fund­ing, prin­ci­pals and teacher qual­i­fi­ca­tion and in-ser­vice train­ing and learn­ing envi­ron­ments devel­op­ing. His inter­na­tion­al and nation­al edu­ca­tion net­work is extreme­ly large. Ari Pok­ka is CEO and co-founder of Finnish Edu­ca­tion Insti­tute Ltd. Com­pa­ny has con­cen­trat­ed edu­ca­tion export in the field of eval­u­a­tion, cur­ricu­lum and prin­ci­pals and teach­ers train­ing. For his ser­vices to Finnish soci­ety, the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Fin­land, Sauli Niin­istö award­ed Ari Pok­ka in 2022 with the title of Coun­sel­lor of Edu­ca­tion.

LEADING A CHANGE IN SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM

MODULE 1 VISION, MISSION AND STRATEGY — TOWARDS EFFECTIVE AND AUTONOMY SCHOOL

Objec­tives:

Gives the prin­ci­pals tools for autonomous school man­age­ment and school devel­op­ment. Deep­en their knowl­edge and under­stand­ing of ped­a­gog­i­cal lead­er­ship and man­age­ment. Strength­ens the imple­men­ta­tion and ver­sa­tile devel­op­ment of the school’s cur­ricu­lum in coop­er­a­tion with var­i­ous stake­hold­ers. Clar­i­fy the prin­ci­pal’s role as a val­ue leader and a design­er of prac­ti­cal implementation.

Out­comes:

Schools’ vision, mis­sion and strat­e­gy which fol­lows nation­al guide­lines and school’s own oper­at­ing mod­el. Build­ing a own cur­ricu­lum mod­el fol­low­ing advanced ped­a­gog­i­cal approach and eval­u­a­tion mod­els. Devel­op­ing school‘s action plan and qual­i­ty assur­ance pro­ce­dures. Find the objec­tives of cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment and high­light prin­ci­pals role as val­ue leader of his/her learn­ing community.

Dura­tion:

40 hrs. includ­ing indi­vid­ual  inde­pen­dent devel­op­ment work and peer mentoring

Learn­ing mate­r­i­al Ari Pok­ka: Top Class – Finnish School Lead­er­ship and Management

Con­tents:

MODULE 2  CORNERSTONES OF WELLBEING AND PARTICIPATIVE SCHOOL  

Objec­tives:

Give a prin­ci­pal a ver­sa­tile idea to devel­op unique school cul­ture and well­be­ing school. Cre­ate the mod­els to low­er dropout rates and increase stu­dents’ moti­va­tion and self-aware­ness as an active learn­er and par­tic­i­pa­tor of school. Improve school prin­ci­pals’ capac­i­ty to cre­ate safe and inno­v­a­tive learn­ing envi­ron­ments and expand school‘s role as an impor­tant stake­hold­er with local com­mu­ni­ty and parents.

Out­comes

Prin­ci­pals get insight of dis­trib­ut­ing school lead­er­ship and they are capa­ble to work in team-ori­ent­ed school. Main of school oper­a­tional action have been planned strate­gi­cal­ly and they are part of year action plan. Prin­ci­pals improve school‘s edu­ca­tion­al sys­tem to help each indi­vid­ual learn­er to find their place in school com­mu­ni­ty. Prin­ci­pal has a clear vision of school safe­ty and he can pro­mote new activ­i­ties with par­ents and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

Dura­tion:

40 hrs. includ­ing indi­vid­ual  inde­pen­dent devel­op­ment work and peer mentoring

Learn­ing mate­r­i­al Ari Pok­ka: Top Class – Finnish School Lead­er­ship and Management

Con­tents:

MODULE 3 ​PROJECT BASED AND PROGRAM ORIENTED SCHOOL

Objec­tives

To cre­ate a mod­ern school oper­at­ing cul­ture based on the imple­men­ta­tion of var­i­ous projects and edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams. Increase the school prin­ci­pal’s knowl­edge and skills to strength­en the pri­or­i­ties of the cur­ricu­lum and devel­op the school’s pro­file. Empha­sizes the con­nec­tion between the cur­ricu­lum and school oper­a­tions and the inter­ac­tion between dif­fer­ent school models

Out­comes

Sharp­en­ing the school’s cur­ricu­lum and strength­en­ing the teach­ing offer between pri­or­i­ty areas. To build new forms of coop­er­a­tion between dif­fer­ent actors in soci­ety and to cre­ate sus­tain­able solu­tions for the devel­op­ment of stu­dents’ skills. To cre­ate effec­tive forms of coop­er­a­tion between dif­fer­ent schools and enable stu­dents to be con­nect­ed to work­ing life.

Dura­tion:

40 hrs. includ­ing indi­vid­ual  inde­pen­dent devel­op­ment work and peer mentoring

Learn­ing mate­r­i­al Ari Pok­ka: Top Class – Finnish school lead­er­ship and management

Con­tents: