Barn- och utbildningsförvaltningen i Sundsvall

Sundsvall is located at the northern east coast of Sweden and has about 96 000 residents. Sundsvall’s municipality has 6 950 tenured employees in its municipality, among these, 2 900 are working under the child and educational administration. There are a total of 87 pre-schools in Sundsvall. These include 4 550 children age 0-5. Public pre-school ages are 3-5.

The municipality has 42 public compulsory schools including grades for children ages 7 to 16 and in accordance with the principle of location, all children have the right to attend the public school nearest their residence. Sundsvall’s secondary school has the largest offering of courses within the municipality. There are 15 different courses of study and over 20 different majors.

Our goal is to provide the children of Sundsvall with the best possible schools. We can reach this goal by learning from the best examples and ensuring that the necessary resources are made available. The school and the educational process should, in the framework of a secure and educationally enriching environment, give students the foundation needed to reach their full potential.

Vision and values are a central part of our organizational criteria and should remain at the core of the goals we set for ourselves and what our colleagues should base their work practices on – We make the good life possible! Always striving for continued learning! Learning, relationships and enriching encounters are the key words and our words of value are courage, openness and a comprehensive view.

Our intention is to create the best possible foundation for children’s and student’s lifelong learning and development. Our work should be defined by good relations, enriching encounters and constant feedback. The work we do should be founded on science and learned experience.

This is how we saw the role of our organisation in the project:

• Coordination of the Swedish partners by continuous monitoring of the project, especially with regards to contents.
• The Barn- och utbildningsförvaltningen (child service and education office) provided for personal as well as organisational resources to carry out the project, especially for project meetings in Sweden.
• The results will further be disseminated in in-service teachers trainings, presentations at conferences and symposia and in official bulletins, teachers’ magazines etc.
• Hosting Swedish and Bavarian teachers, headmasters and school administrators and acquainting them with local and regional historic and actual conditions.
• Using digital media and ICT such as Android tablets to support the evidence-based learning approach.