The Belgian working group has created a blog dedicated to the “Stay@School” project. It is an exchange space for students on the topic of early school leaving.

Aims
The blog is addressed to students. The testimonies and videos catch their attention, presenting problems they might have and implying they are not alone in this situation. The purpose is to break taboos on this sensible subject. Students can in this way gain self-confidence, be encouraged to talk about their problem and seek a solution to it. Use

The testimonies express a situation related to early school leaving. They are all related to a risk factor, which is not mentioned in the blog. In this way, students can think about the sentence and try to imagine the situation of its author. The next step is to watch the associated video showing a situation related to the same risk factor. Again students can think about the situation described, find a solution to that specific problem and try to see a connection with their everyday life (experienced by themselves or by their friends). Students should be encouraged to talk about the subject, or at least to write a comment under a video to have a dialogue with other students.

The blog is available at: http://inforef.be/projets/stayatschool/

Click on the links below to download the patterns of the cube:

• Cube pdf
• Modifiable Cube word
• Presentation of the tool for students: Guidelines – Educational tool

All the educative community is involved in the “activity”: the school board, the teachers, the tutors and counsellors, the students and their families. Each one has a specific role:

Students:
At least two students will be pointed for each subject. They will be students with particularly like the subject and with good organizational skills.

Role of these students: become “experts” with the tutor’s help at the assisted study time.

Teachers:
They must have an active role in this process and must be coordinated with the tutors. The students must get a clear idea of

• The best way to reinforce their learning of the subject’s content
• How is he going to be assessed
• What does the teacher expect from him

Teacher’s role: Make clear every day what are they going to do at class, how are they going to work, when and how (criteria) are they going to be assessed.

Families:
A workshop for families will be organised at the beginning of the academic year to explain them the methodology and their role.

Families role: Management of the planning of the work at home, coordinated with the tutor.

Tutor:
He is the manager of the whole learning process. He coordinates students, teachers and families, having direct contact with all of them.

Role of the Tutor: Organize the assisted study time at the school:

• planning the work at the agenda
• preparing group study activities (using collaborative techniques with learning circuits among students)
• preparing, together with the students, the global monthly planning
• Reinforce the individual planning of the students who need support
• Work with families and teachers on specific improvement actions

The whole activity is based on a planning diary adapted to the situation and needs of these type of students (on drop put risk)

The idea is making the student follow the steps that will lead him to:

• Daily supervision and registration of what it’s been done at class
• Finalise the assignments. Complementary activities.
• Do the unfinished work/study

Download the Active Diary Guidelines

The video describes the social condition of one student who is a early school leaver and the negative consequences that can affect his life nowadays and in the future. The video is divided in two parts: one set in recent years and the other in the future. The video is structured as an interview held at the leading actor’s house today and in the future. The interview deals with specific questions aimed at showing the negative effects of early school leaving. The main scene is repeated but set in a different extension of time. The video uses a simple but colloquial language; it is in Italian with subtitles in English. The product is addressed to students of high schools. It will be showed to young people in order to highlight the negative effects and the lack of future expectations and prospects when a student decides to leave school early.

The school campaign on Stay@school consists of two main components: one component is raising awareness about the issue in schools and in families. The other component is focused on activities and techniques which will hopefully reduce the number of students dropping school. The educational materials created provide an alternative way of reducing the number of students who drop out school. What is special about them is the fact that they were devised by students for students. The materials draw attention to the consequences of school abandonment. The message is very direct, clear andpowrful: ‘Young people who do not manage to get a high school diploma face many more obstacles in life than people who graduate’. We advocate the use of such materials because they are convincing, accessible, easy to use and adapt to each school context.

Introducing students themselves in campaigns on reducing school dropouts can accelerate the efforts towards better school attendance. Students are more convincing because they come from the same school context, they have spent time together, they know each other, and they share a lot of things in common. The students involved in the campaign will speak to their peers about the benefits of education as well as listen to them in order to understand their problems and doubts. Trying to remove obstacles in a common effort will be rewarding for all participants.

The campaign spot is available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd88nN1wZGI
Download the Guidelines in English.

This tool is focused on real life at school, viewed through students’ eyes. A students write a short story, concerning himself, his life at school. A teacher consider him, and from this he starts with a group of student an activity, in order to :

• Write a scenario
• Produce a video
• Discuss the video

It is interesting the whole proposal , its different steps.
From random writing about a negative situation of school refuse , a teacher is able to motivate a group to produce a video. And finally the group itself is able to discuss the results.
The tools consist of:

• The basic story , a short story “The lost case”
• The video
• A questionnaire based on video and discusses among the students

Download the Guidelines in English.
Download the Guidelines in Italian.
It is also possible to download the Italian version of the video.

This tool dedicated to the students on the topic of school discomfort and difficulty stems from the awareness that within the learning paths of school life and the use of technology, social networks now represents an aspect on which having at least compare with the students.

Tool is thus presented as a tool centered on teaching proposal on the methodologies that address the difficulties of a learning style is not always homogeneous. ( you can find reference also in Training Package of School Inclusion Portal, chapter on Teaching methods)

Teaching strategies starting from this point of view are manifold, and having to choose what you prefer to seek to depart from the experience of the student and its impact with the reality of high school.

Download the product.

Aim of the study was to verify how the reorganization of vocational schools has had an impact on how students “lived” school, especially those students who already had great difficulty in relating to this environment and with a commitment to study. The reorganization of vocational schools doesn't allow to those who wish to achieve the qualification at the end of the third year, to get a degree. Moreover, in recent years, the number of incoming students in the second or third year has increased, so we felt the need to try to understand the reasons why these pupils apply for a school change after two years spent in other schools.

We have worked on third year classes, to see how many of them have had an impact on the reorganization of vocational schools, pupils are already aware of their choices and their future intentions, they know quite enough about that environment to be able to critically analyze it. 9% of them, then, comes from school experiences lived in other institutes.

This project has been conceived as a reference tool to be suggested – all or part of it - to the students of the first two years to foster reflection, debate and discussion on their own situation and school experience compared to issues of those who had lived the same situations before.

Download the product.