The network of leading schools, established on the initiative of the Center of Pedagogical Excellence of the AOE “Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools”, was identified as a basic network platform for broadcasting the experience of Intellectual Schools for secondary schools in Kazakhstan. Leading status is acquired by school teams on the basis of active leadership, innovative work, fixation of good achievements and, most importantly, readiness to organize and conduct methodological work in the network of partner schools.
Every year the list of schools that receive the status of leading is actively increasing. In 2021, their total number in the republic was 1412.
The pace of interaction between professional communities makes it possible to switch to personalized and more focused methodological support for teachers of secondary schools. It is in close cooperation that the teacher acquires new experiences, new skills that affect the change in school practice. This support has been facilitated by leading schools, cascading best practices to their partners. Today, leading schools have become a kind of drivers for partner schools. Through their efforts, the educational environment is actively developing to improve the quality of teaching, teacher-leaders show an example of productive teamwork, test and suggest their experience to others. Over the years, the system of leading schools has acquired the scope of a comprehensive network, in the life of which each school is involved.
From 2018 to 2020, 4 studies on the work of the leading schools' network were carried out and published on authoritative Kazakh and international scientific platforms. Research has shown the scale of leadership creativity of the leading schools' teams, which have accumulated a significant methodological potential of the professional and pedagogical environment. Relying on the support of the trainers of the Center of Pedagogical Excellence, the schools were able to create a professional asset, which includes more than 13 000 school trainers and coordinators in teaching methods and technologies, research and assessment. We are currently making significant efforts to support the asset of the leading schools and train them in specific skills of working with an adult audience.
The network of the country's leading schools is developing not only quantitatively, but also organizationally. In 2020, the leading schools of 17 regions were united into five large sites, the work of which is annually summarized at regional forums of leading schools. This year, work is actively progressing to create an online platform, where training workshops, trainings, counseling will be held for school methodological assets and dialogue platforms will be organized to discuss methodological issues and ideas for updating school practices and sharing experience. The project of leading schools in Kazakhstan not only proved its viability and significance, but also became an example of the implementation of the most relevant world trends in the development of the professional and pedagogical community.