The We Learn team visited schools in Puerto Natales that are part of the English pilot program.

The objectives of the meetings were to observe classes and reflect with teachers on their pedagogical practices and their impact on children's learning.

For a week, from June 10 to 14, the teachers and directors of the Baudilia Avendaño de Yousuff, Coronel Santiago Bueras, Capitán Juan Ladrillero and Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins schools in Puerto Natales received the We Learn team that is monitoring the pilot program that, during 2019 and 2020, will improve the English language skills of nearly 600 children in the area.

This pilot program, carried out by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad together with the Subsecretaría de Educación Parvularia and the Corporación Municipal de Puerto Natales, began to be implemented in March and at this stage of the year it was necessary to analyze with teachers and directors the state of progress and analyze possible improvements to be implemented during the remainder of the school year.

The We Learn team also observed classes and reflected with teachers on their teaching practices and their impact on children's learning.

Trinidad Castro, from the Learning Transfer area of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, highlighted the work carried out during the visit to the Magallanes region. "We worked with teachers and management teams with the methodology of continuous improvement that allows schools to identify where they are improving, where they need a little more help, and to design their own strategies that allow them to advance and meet their objectives," she explained.

WE LEARN EXPERIENCE

To enhance the work and with the objective of showing the experience of 12 years of We Learn work in the Elqui Valley, the director of the Edmundo Vidal Cárdenas school in Vicuña, Ruperto Pizarro, was invited to share with the teams from the schools of Puerto Natales. "It has been a good instance to tell our experience and how the program has allowed us to install skills and develop English competencies in children from a very early age".

Ruperto Pizarro, who was also a finalist in the Global Teacher Prize Chile, popularly known as the Nobel Prize for teachers, valued the fact that We Learn is taking place in Puerto Natales, since "just as the Elqui Valley has a tourist context, many foreigners arrive, and the fact that children and young people have the tools to get by speaking this language is a great advantage".

Jordi Longás: "It is well proven that the positive relationship between school and families points to success".

The Spanish doctor in pedagogy shared his experience in socio-educational networks with educational teams and directors of the O'Higgins Region.

Jordi Longás, a researcher specialized in the creation of spaces for collaboration between schools and the community, visited Rancagua to give a talk and share experiences with nearly 100 participants of the Improvement Network A Good Start (UBC) of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, composed of educators, kindergarten technicians, UTP heads, directors and managers of 89 schools and 118 classrooms in 12 municipalities of the O'Higgins Region.

During the event, together with the members of the only network in Chile focused on improving kindergarten education, Longás presented details of his experience in collaborative work and invited the participants to carry out practical exercises to recognize who their collaborative networks are and what relationship they are building with them.

"We have had a spectacular day with a lot of participation and interest in collaborative work," said Jordi Longás after the meeting. And he took the opportunity to leave a message to the community: "it is well proven that the positive relationship between school and families points to success. I would tell them to help the teachers, to trust them and also that the school trusts the parents. Between them, they should build good collaborative relationships".

At the meeting, representatives of the communes of Coltauco and Chimbarongo, members of the UBC Improvement Network, also had the opportunity to share with their peers from the O'Higgins region some of their successful practices to improve children's learning. Afterwards, they joined a panel to exchange ideas that was moderated by Álvaro González, Systemic Leadership Coordinator of Líderes Educativos.

The director of the Chimbarongo Nursery School, Marcela Lira, emphasized that "it was very enriching to listen to Jordi because he gave us new tools to further improve our Improvement Network. The fact that we were able to share our experience is part of what it means to work collaboratively: We all learn from each other".

Innovation is in the DNA of the We Learn English programme.

This quality was emphasised by the teachers, support professionals, management teams and the school principals of the 14 schools in Vicuña and Paihuano that are part of the early English teaching programme We Learn, which Fundación Educacional Oportunidad has been implementing for 12 years in the Elqui Valley.

Analysing data at classroom, school and Improvement Network level; sharing learning and successful experiences of schools; defining what a We Learn classroom and school is based on the work carried out in these two years by the Improvement Network; were some of the objectives of this 3rd Learning Session 2018 of the We Learn English programme.

Paulina Sepúlveda, English teacher from Vicuña, said: "I found this session very motivating and I really like these instances where we can share our experiences outside and inside the classroom. I love the spirit of camaraderie that is generated". Claudia González, local coordinator and teacher of the programme in Paihuano, said: "I am very happy to see that most of the schools have met the goals and that this session allows us to network and listen to the different advances in the teaching of English".

One of the activities that attracted the most interaction and opinions was defining what a We Learn school and classroom is. Teachers and directors defined it as: innovative and playful, sharing networking, involving families, promoting interactions, encouraging students to play a leading role in their learning process, involving the community in English, seeking to incorporate this foreign language in other subjects and making decisions based on their data.

Regarding the involvement of families, Macarena Matus, principal of the María Isabel Peralta rural school in Cochiguaz, said: "I think this programme is wonderful, because it is not only for the students, it also includes the parents so that they can participate in their children's learning. Many times when there are tests or activities they come to help us at school and that's wonderful.

Since 2017, the We Learn English programme of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad has incorporated the Continuous Improvement methodology, which is based on collaborative work, where each educational community tries out ideas for improvement in their own context, and after applying them, analysing them and studying their results, they make the necessary adjustments and if the idea is successful, they share it with their peers through the Improvement Network that accompanies the Foundation.

Susana Toledo, coordinator of the Foundation's continuous improvement area, explained that for 2019 "we want to maintain the achievements made with first and second grade, sustain the strategies and manage to install them in the educational community, and we also have the challenge of taking this improvement process to other levels such as third and fourth grade".

Susana Toledo, coordinator of the Foundation's continuous improvement area, explained that for 2019 "we want to maintain the achievements made with first and second grade, sustain the strategies and manage to install them in the educational community, and we also have the challenge of taking this improvement process to other levels such as third and fourth grade".

Headmasters and principals of 60 municipal schools in the VI Region are trained in sustainability.

In order to maintain the strategies of the Good Start programme over time, directors of municipal schools and school managers from 13 municipalities in the O'Higgins Region attended training given by the area of Continuous Improvement of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

Sixty schools from 13 municipalities that make up the Improvement Network of the Good Start programme met to learn about and deepen their knowledge of sustainability tools that will allow them to maintain the strategies and methodologies of the Good Start programme in their classrooms, schools and municipalities over time.

"The objective of this instance is to study and strengthen the sustainability processes experienced by the school and community teams this year 2018 through the delivery of concrete tools for continuous improvement. In this, the management teams and supporters play a fundamental role, as they are the ones who must lead the process that ensures that the strategies and methodologies that worked at the initial level are maintained, making this a continuous process in the classroom, school and commune until quality is fully integrated into the structure and operation", explains Carolina Soto, director of the Foundation's Continuous Improvement area.

During the day, attendees recalled the importance of sustaining strategies to maintain quality, studied their sustainability processes, highlighted the importance of recording specifically in the PHEA (plan, do, evaluate and adjust) improvement cycles to build learning and adjusted ideas or innovations to continue improving in the second half of 2018.

"It has been a great help for us this year and now we want to sustain the strategies, so we are very interested that this programme can be repeated in the other classes and that is why we have attended this training. We have to recognise that this programme has changed early education," said Hernán Barraza, principal of the Mariano Latorre school in Codegua.

Prior to this training, management teams and supporters have received workshops on PHEA continuous improvement cycles, data analysis, the 5 elements theory for sustainability and the 7 levers for leadership.

The objective of all these trainings is to empower management teams and supporters by providing them with the tools to lead improvement processes and implement strategies and methodologies of the Good Start programme to improve teaching and learning autonomously when the Foundation is no longer with them on the ground.

The head of the Chimbarongo DAEM, Víctor Gajardo, values this work with Un Buen Comienzo, "working with the Foundation has been wonderful. We were among the first municipalities to join the programme and it has given us excellent results".

A Good Start is a professional development programme for teachers and managers that seeks to contribute to improving the quality of early education, supporting schools in improving pedagogical and leadership practices so that children can achieve better socio-emotional and language development, and that this 2018 seeks to sustain the strategies delivered in previous years in schools and municipalities.