Written by Baerland Primary School wants to become one of Norway’s best schools within spring 2019. Rector Tom Gilje first got the idea of applying lean principles at his school during a discussion with some of his family members who are working with lean in industry.
The teachers at Baerland agreed on two main objectives for their lean implementation:
- Increase the learning output for the pupils. Provide pupils with more time for learning, teachers with more time for teaching, and increase the quality of teaching.
- Improve the working environment for the teachers. Create a more attractive working environment at the school and remove “time thieves” in administration of classes.
The first steps included lean training for a smaller team of teachers with a local lean consultancy, and a pilot implementation. Today, Baerland Primary School is particularly focusing on three lean practices:
- “5S” workplace organization;
- Continuous improvement;
- Standardization of best practices of teaching.
An example of some lean practices include:
- The school is tries to get agreement on common practices for teaching (for example, how to start and end a class effectively).
- All Baerland employees gather for a five-minute morning meeting.
- Children also take part in improvement activities.
- Tape markings and visual instructions keep the school in an orderly state.
- When a thing is not used for a while it will be marked with a date and moved to a physical place where unused objects are kept for a few days before being removed from the school if not claimed.
Read the entire article at https://planet-lean.com/primary-school-lean-norway/