The KARELIA project at IEJ Nivelles was conceived with two broad intentions in mind. Phase 1 will train staff on the Finnish education system, and Phase 2 will set up and develop links with Finnish schools for the benefit of our students. Phase 1, which is the subject of the current KA1 application, will involve individual staff training in Finland with enrolment on the VSKO "The Finnish Educational System - Study Visit Oulu" course in October 2014, and then the cascading of the lessons learned via whole-school training and sessions with other schools and the wider public. Why Finland? The reputation of the country as a world leader in education is one that we have followed for some time now. The objectives of the course offered by VSKO fit perfectly with our school development plan: Monde en évolution rapide : Les jeunes scolarisés aujourd’hui dans notre école, sont destinés à vivre dans une société où l’évolution technologique est exponentielle. Ils devront être armés pour s’adapter à de nombreux changements. La vie professionnelle d’aujourd’hui implique une mobilité dans le monde. Il est donc important pour nous d’explorer les pédagogies mises en place dans des pays d’avant-garde. Finland particularly attracts because of its reputation as a leader in immersion education. As a bilingual country, its relevance to the Belgian experience is obvious. As an immersion team, we have often had to concentrate on the immediate tasks in hand, creating our curricular path without a budget so to do. The training offers us the chance to look at some wider contexts and perspectives and give a much needed new impetus to our well-established project. It also enables us to demonstrate that we can play a leading role in improving teaching and learning within the school. The immersion coordinator will be the person undergoing the training. He has substantial experience across two countries' educational systems: of classroom observation, curriculum development, subject leadership and staff training. Whilst the implications for the school's immersion option are clear, it is important that he is acting on behalf of the whole school and wider community, and the subsequent training will be for all. The immediate outcome of the project will be - Whole staff training session in November 2014 - March 2015 - Immersion-specific training session in the same period We will demonstrate what we have learned in Finland, and ask for specific ways in which this good practice can be incorporated into our teaching and learning. The benefit for our students will be a greater stimulation by exposure to new teaching techniques, and a greater autonomy via increased participation in a more individualised and flexible learning process. The benefit for our staff will be an increased repertoire of teaching techniques and a broader perspective on the educational process. For the entire school we hope to create a 'buzz' that will not only raise achievement but pave the way for Phase 2. - Further feedback session by June 2015 on best practice sharing: what concrete outcomes have been observed We aim to disseminate the results of the project amongst our main feeder primary schools, especially since there is a primary perspective to the training offered. We will be referring the immersion-related benefits of the project in the "groupe d'accompagnement d'immersion" at educational authority level, an organization which has links into the tertiary sector. We also aim to organize a public meeting for the people of our own community, Nivelles. here will be a Karelia website by which video clips of the relevant teaching and learning and other relevant materials and documents may be accessed. Awareness of the project in the wider community will be heightened using press releases. So far as phase 2 is concerned, there is enormous parent and student interest in the potential for international contact and exchange; immersion has always been necessarily outward-facing in this respect. There is the strong feeling among staff that international contact should be integrated into the curriculum offer wherever possible, rather than just a floating extra activity; not just tourism, democratically available to as much of the student population as possible. We aim to enthuse staff and students with a whole new approach to international relations. Finland offers us an interaction with a good quality of English and, it is to be hoped, some possibility of interaction in French. The use of modern communications technology is in the ascendant in our school at the moment and we would seek to capitalise on this to develop phase 2.