Guidelines

What do we mean with the term knowledge? First of all, we must consider the legislative system of each country regarding education and training, the different times of compulsory school, the organization of educational system and professional resources in the European context of EQF.(European Qualification Framework). It is important to know and compare the national systems of education, to take into consideration the European system of education concerning compulsory education, and also the different thematic areas concerning the main themes of education in Europe. Of course the headteacher must know National and Local guidelines of education and training systems. Each country has its own National Agency or similar who takes care of updating school laws, but, because of all the different specific systems, we also have to take into consideration the regional interventions on training and vocational schools. The headteacher must know all policies, all projects, all the different ways to tackle early school leaving, so as to transfer laws, projects and policies in any specific situation. This is a strategic step: each year the school needs to know how to work, how to manage students' risk of drop out, what to offer to students in need. After this step, the headteacher will decide “what” and “how” to transfer to his group of teachers and to all the actors involved in the educational and training process. He will also plan (usually in a shared leadership) the new school year, from teaching strategies to organizational aspects, from human to financial resources.