ESTONIA
The Child Study
Child study is the practice of studying a child within the community of his/her educators. The child study is organised in accordance with an agreed structure and it is initiated when a teacher has a question regarding a child - for example, the student doesn’t respond as expected, or doesn’t achieve what the teacher had hoped for him. The child study practice is based on the principle that education requires a relationship.
The child study group is formed from a community of teachers who work with the given student according to the following principles:
It has been observed that the child study process improves the relationship between the teacher and the students and works as an incredibly supportive tool for the teacher. Publishers of waldorf education have issued thorough materials on this topic. It is also possible to study a class or the school as a community according to the same principles.
Further reading:
Mitchell, David. Observing the Class. Observing the Children. https://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/articles/WJP18issue.pdf
TURKEY
Parent/Community Involvement
Parents, families, educators and communities—there’s no better partnership to assure that all students have the support and resources they need to succeed in school and in life.
In crowded schools such as ours, parents and community members play an important role in helping developing, understanding, and supporting a clear and common focus on core academic, social, and personal goals. The school community works together to actively solve problems and create win-win solutions.
It takes a village to raise a child is a popular proverb with a clear message: the whole community has an essential role to play in the growth and development of its young people.
Parent, family, and community involvement in education correlates with higher academic performance and school improvement. When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs. Researchers cite parent-family- community involvement as a key to addressing the school dropout crisis and note that strong school-family-community partnerships foster higher educational aspirations and more motivated students.
For Further Reading
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.204.7661&rep=rep1&type=pdf
FRANCE
The French education system offers a wide range of tools to help students with SEN.
The first tool we are lucky to offer at our school is the SEGPA groups. Students with the recognized profile for these groups benefit from smaller groups, trained Spec Ed teachers, social and health monitoring and a deeper concern on their future professional skills. However, in our school, these students are easily included in projects involving all students as they are well included in the school. Other students benefit from their more practical skills and SpecEd teachers help create resources and activities for students with SEN from other classes.
SEGPA students as well as students with SEN in other groups benefit from institutional and personal monitoring according to their needs. Families, teachers, admin and relevant partners ( social workers, foster families, speech-therapists, doctors, SEN specialists…) meet and work together to identify and formalize the best solutions for each student. Once the personalized adaptation or intervention plan has been created, all adults involved in the student’s education are informed. Those plans are regularly monitored and re-assessed according to the student’s evolution and needs with the in-put of all partners.
Teachers and staff at Collège Charles Lemaitre have long been convinced that a strong link between the students’ families and the school as well as inside the school is a key to the success of these plans and thus to better achievements for the students themselves.
As a consequence, teachers at Collège Charles Lemaitre have developed lots of tools and support systems to help students with SEN: adapted documents, larger prints, adapted tests, tutoring by other students, group work, diversified activities with several levels of difficulty or step by step process…
The most valuable staff in helping students with SEN are the SEN assistant. There are 5 of them in our school and they spend long hours working closely with the students, offering support and help to students with all kinds of Dys- issues, ADHD, hearing or visual impairment, EBD, ASD… Their feed back is more than useful in adapting teaching documents and activities to include students with SEN in classes and making sure they fully achieve their potential.
To conclude, with years of experience and a common set of goals, teachers and staff in Collège Charles Lemaitre have created a benevolent and lenient atmosphere for students with SEN and their families to feel comfortable, grow and fulfill their potential in.
The Child Study
Child study is the practice of studying a child within the community of his/her educators. The child study is organised in accordance with an agreed structure and it is initiated when a teacher has a question regarding a child - for example, the student doesn’t respond as expected, or doesn’t achieve what the teacher had hoped for him. The child study practice is based on the principle that education requires a relationship.
The child study group is formed from a community of teachers who work with the given student according to the following principles:
- It is a circle without gaps - it only consists of staff members who are genuinely interested in working on the issue at hand;
- The process is not rushed - it consists on a presentation of the child by the teacher who initiated the meeting and of active listening and contribution by the fellow staff members. At least one hour should be granted for the process.
- The process is as objective as possible - the child is described objectively and without judgement.
It has been observed that the child study process improves the relationship between the teacher and the students and works as an incredibly supportive tool for the teacher. Publishers of waldorf education have issued thorough materials on this topic. It is also possible to study a class or the school as a community according to the same principles.
Further reading:
Mitchell, David. Observing the Class. Observing the Children. https://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/articles/WJP18issue.pdf
TURKEY
Parent/Community Involvement
Parents, families, educators and communities—there’s no better partnership to assure that all students have the support and resources they need to succeed in school and in life.
In crowded schools such as ours, parents and community members play an important role in helping developing, understanding, and supporting a clear and common focus on core academic, social, and personal goals. The school community works together to actively solve problems and create win-win solutions.
It takes a village to raise a child is a popular proverb with a clear message: the whole community has an essential role to play in the growth and development of its young people.
Parent, family, and community involvement in education correlates with higher academic performance and school improvement. When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs. Researchers cite parent-family- community involvement as a key to addressing the school dropout crisis and note that strong school-family-community partnerships foster higher educational aspirations and more motivated students.
For Further Reading
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.204.7661&rep=rep1&type=pdf
FRANCE
The French education system offers a wide range of tools to help students with SEN.
The first tool we are lucky to offer at our school is the SEGPA groups. Students with the recognized profile for these groups benefit from smaller groups, trained Spec Ed teachers, social and health monitoring and a deeper concern on their future professional skills. However, in our school, these students are easily included in projects involving all students as they are well included in the school. Other students benefit from their more practical skills and SpecEd teachers help create resources and activities for students with SEN from other classes.
SEGPA students as well as students with SEN in other groups benefit from institutional and personal monitoring according to their needs. Families, teachers, admin and relevant partners ( social workers, foster families, speech-therapists, doctors, SEN specialists…) meet and work together to identify and formalize the best solutions for each student. Once the personalized adaptation or intervention plan has been created, all adults involved in the student’s education are informed. Those plans are regularly monitored and re-assessed according to the student’s evolution and needs with the in-put of all partners.
Teachers and staff at Collège Charles Lemaitre have long been convinced that a strong link between the students’ families and the school as well as inside the school is a key to the success of these plans and thus to better achievements for the students themselves.
As a consequence, teachers at Collège Charles Lemaitre have developed lots of tools and support systems to help students with SEN: adapted documents, larger prints, adapted tests, tutoring by other students, group work, diversified activities with several levels of difficulty or step by step process…
The most valuable staff in helping students with SEN are the SEN assistant. There are 5 of them in our school and they spend long hours working closely with the students, offering support and help to students with all kinds of Dys- issues, ADHD, hearing or visual impairment, EBD, ASD… Their feed back is more than useful in adapting teaching documents and activities to include students with SEN in classes and making sure they fully achieve their potential.
To conclude, with years of experience and a common set of goals, teachers and staff in Collège Charles Lemaitre have created a benevolent and lenient atmosphere for students with SEN and their families to feel comfortable, grow and fulfill their potential in.