Bruges Center Middle School (Go! – impact) can call itself the country’s Entrepreneurial School of the Year this month, because the school is the Belgian laureate of the European Entrepreneurial School (TES) Awards. Moreover, with the eTwinning project “DLAB 2 – Changemakers”, the Bruges school received a quality label both nationally and European, and the project also won the prize for collaboration with a teacher training college.

The 6th edition of The Entrepreneurial School (TES) Awards took place on November 9, 2020. 39 schools from 25 European countries were selected. Bruges Center Middle School (Go! – impact) was awarded the Belgian laureate for its innovative vision and remarkable execution of entrepreneurship among teenagers. As a result, the school can call itself Entrepreneurial School of the Year.
Learning to do business from an early age
Bruges Center Middle School stimulates entrepreneurship from an early age. This secondary school works closely with many primary schools, including GO! primary school De Springplank (Bruges) and GO! primary school King Baudouin (Oostkamp). Every year, Middenschool Brugge Centrum invites a class of 11 to 12-year-old pupils; through a series of interactive workshops, the students discover their entrepreneurial skills and work half a day in a branch of supermarket chain Albert Heijn.

Secondary education: building your own company
In the first year of secondary education, Middenschool Brugge Centrum provides additional tools to discover entrepreneurial talents. Each class organizes a project where involvement is paramount. In the second year of secondary education, Middenschool Brugge Centrum offers the basic option ‘economy and organization’. Students of this basic option are introduced to the Business Model Canvas and build their own business. They discover real life in the workplace through a talent internship.
For its implementation of economic education, Middenschool Brugge Centrum works together with various partners (including Vlajo) and guest speakers. The school also organizes fair trade campaigns.

Jury rewards innovation
Middenschool Brugge Centrum is a laptop school: each student has his own device; this ensures maximum learning benefits for students. During the first lockdown, the team took the flight ahead: from day 1, the entire school switched to online distance learning. Teachers, pupils, parents and the principal were in constant contact with each other; the school even recorded attendance and successfully managed to get each student to actively participate in virtual, interactive lessons. This rapid transition during difficult teaching times was greatly appreciated by the jury of the TES Awards.

This year’s online award ceremony
The TES Awards (link: http://theentrepreneurialschool.eu/) are presented annually and are led by Junior Achievement (JA) Europe. (link: http://www.jaeurope.org/) Under normal circumstances, the TES Awards ceremony takes place abroad, this year in Berlin. Unfortunately, things turned out differently: Due to the corona crisis, 51 principals and teachers gathered online to receive their school’s award and have inspiring debates.

With the eTwinning project ”DLAB 2 – Changemakers” of school year 1019-2020, Middenschool Brugge Centrum has obtained a national eTwinning quality label. The school was also the winner in the category ‘Collaboration with teacher training’ and also received the European Quality Label for its project! “DLAB 2 – Changemakers”. This means that the extensive work of the pupils and teachers involved and the students and lecturers of Howest is recognized at the highest European level.

So three times the price, but what is DLAB? DLAB stands for: digital learning across boundaries, an international project involving five European countries: Great Britain, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Belgium.
Not only schools, but also colleges and universities are part of the project. Pupils and teachers work together with students and lecturers.
DLAB 2 is inspired by the changemakers movement that stimulates individual skills and characteristics in order to find innovative solutions to societal challenges.

The project runs over three school years, with one specific ‘learning across boundaries’ challenge in each year. During the first year, this was the crossing of physical boundaries. For example, ideas were developed to get more physical movement in general subjects: learning environment and furniture were adapted for this purpose, but digital gaming or consultation of social media was also linked to a real physical challenge. The school thus won three prizes.

Corona: an opportunity for changemakers
This year, the covid 19 reality forced the school to thoroughly redesign and reorganize the collaboration. An opportunity for a real changemaker! The focus is now on breaking open personal boundaries, such as ambitions and self-confidence. By means of a performance, the school wants to help realize ambitions, increase self-confidence and help acquire new skills.
Next school year the project will be about learning in unusual or different places.