The joint project “SING - Making Schools Inclusive: development of specialist didactic concepts and organizational structures of an inclusive school" is coming to its end as a project. The project has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the Program Framework for Empirical Education Research since 2018. During this time, the Fraunhofer IMW’s Professional Development and Competence Management Unit team carried out comprehensive surveys and evaluations of inclusive school development, conducted in-school workshops and prepared practical guidelines at five pilot schools in subproject C: “Organizational Development of an Inclusive School.” The results and experiences of this insightful project were presented at the interdisciplinary final event.

The organizing team of the project’s joint coordinator, the Technical University of Dresden, invited participants to a digital conference series with weekly events in the form of a lecture series between October 29^th and December 3^rd 2020. The aim was to discuss different perspectives on school inclusion with participating experts and to exchange experiences. 

Under the direction of Anzhela Preissler, Head of the Qualification and Competence Management Unit, the Research Fellows Fanny Hösel and Desireé Jörke, together with Reserach Assistant Lucia-Sophie Hansel, designed the final workshop of the subproject on November 19 2020, which was attended by approximately 30 participants. The focus of the event was to understand inclusion as a task for organizational development and to use strategic potential together. For this purpose, the "design model for inclusive school development" developed by the project group was presented and its practical use was outlined as a basis for orientation in the inclusive, organizational change processes of the schools.

In addition, Prof. Martin Heinrich, a leading expert on school development, was recruited as a panelist. He commented on the model and the theoretical background, discussing analysis perspectives on school development and expanded educational policy framework.

Overall, the format chosen for the completion, namely a digital lecture series, instead of a two-day presence event, proved effective. This format was supported by a large the number of participants (30-50 per lecture), who reviewed the online format positively and also enjoyed the fact that there was little overlap between lectures, allowing participants to attend all of their preferred events. With this background in mind, considerations for enriching future in-person events through digital formats – beyond the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic – seems worthwhile.