The “LES” training offer involves long-term actions for holistic school development, year-long e-learning courses for teachers, one-day workshops for teaching staff. “LES” has also cooperates with Collegium Civitas to offer Postgraduate Courses for Education Leaders.

“LES” introduces an original quality assurance system into the daily operation of schools, which improves pupils’ learning outcomes. The system is based on formative assessment, a set of learning strategies which constitute the basic tool for working with schools. By encouraging learners and teachers to become partners in learning, the system develops learning skills, strengthens internal motivation, and gives children and youth a sense of authorship. “LES” schools develop ways to perfect teacher performance, monitor results of activities, and share best practices with each other. The “Learning Schools” program improves the effectiveness of teaching and learning, organizing the functioning of a school as a learning institution, increasing the competencies and autonomy of teaching staff, strengthening the position of headmasters, and ensuring cooperation between the school and its outside environment.

In the course of 23 years, the program gathered some 12,000 schools, of which 1,600 participated in its core operations that aimed to introduce formative assessment. Nearly 200,000 teachers and more than 10,000 school principals benefited from various “LES” components.

With multiple pressures on the Polish education system, e.g. the changes introduced by the National Education Ministry in 2017, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine which resulted in an influx of refugees to Poland, it became necessary to help school principals and teachers rise to these new challenges. To this end, “LES” added “Resilient School” to its portfolio. The objective behind this new initiative is to create a network of schools, enhance teacher skills, and strengthen the position of headmasters by publishing conclusions of expert analyses, exchanging information, sharing opinions, and presenting best practices in education, learner counseling, and organizing work at participating schools. So far, over 3,000 principals and teachers took part in “Resilient School” activities.

The many years of “LES” experience is also used in various educational initiatives financed from EU funds. These include: “The Student Academy,” “Digital School,” “The Learning Schools Academy for Education Leaders,” and the “School for the Innovator”. The purpose of these initiatives is to develop competencies which students will need in adult life, by promoting innovative teaching, assessment and evaluation methods among teachers and school principals, and by reshaping the organization of schoolwork. So far, more than 10,000 schools have taken part in these initiatives.

PAFF is a partner with the “School with Class” initiative which promotes modern educational solutions among schools and teachers, cutting-edge ITCs, the design thinking method, and the adjustable methodology. The first “School with Class” campaign was kicked off in 2002 and carried out by the Center for Citizenship Education Foundation (the “LES” Program Manager) in cooperation with the “Gazeta Wyborcza” daily. In 2015 the School with Class Foundation took over as organizer. In the past the campaign expanded to include additional initiatives, such as: “Teacher with Class,” “Lego, Cogito, Ago,” “Student with Class,” and “School of Thinking.” In total, “School with Class” has gathered more than 10,000 schools from all over Poland and some 160,000 teachers.

The Foundation has disbursed $16,848,681, including $769,328 for the current edition.