Premiere! – Preventing early school leaving course

We are proud to organize a course on Preventing early school leaving for group of curious teachers. For the first time we have been educating curious people about Preventing early school leaving. We had a pleasure to spend last week in April in the company of 12 great participants. We hosted participants mainly from Turkey and Estonia. Our trainer Ksenja Kos did a great job of passing the knowledge and experience to the eager and engaged Erasmus+ group. This course was also special, because for the first time we hosted translator from Turkey, who did an amazing job with almost simultaneous translations from English to Turkey.

Course was oriented into developing a systemic approach that includes simultaneous activities on multiple levels: work with teachers and counselling service, work with parents and work with pupils. Dropping out is linked to the feeling of being powerless, of senselessness and extreme lack of motivation. Through various working methods and practical exercises participants have learned how to empower pupils, teacher and other school workers to get the feeling of security, identity, belonging, purpose, and competence, which helps to increase motivation and find the meaning of education.

The establishment of a secure relationship is the best protection against early school leaving, so the first two days were dedicated to development of relational competences. For the next two days we were discovering pupil’s perspective through different practical activities, which can be transferred to professional practice for better understanding, motivating, working with, treating and managing emotionally vulnerable children and adolescents.

Participants stated that they would really like to see Ksenja work at her school. According to the participants’ wishes we also organized quick trip to primary school in Medvode, where we could attend special activity in 2nd grade developed by Ksenja. Thursday was reserved for study visits. We were hosted at Andragogic centre Slovenija, Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Vocational Education and Training and Institute Bob. We were also visited by Greta Bratovš from the Institute R.O.K., coordinator of Slovenian Self-Esteem programme, who introduced us the Robert Reasoner’s preventive programme of self-esteem in schools.

Of course we didn’t forget about more relaxed and fun parts of the mobility experience. Participants enjoyed surprisingly moody weather in Ljubljana. On the one hand they were enjoying sunny day and right the next day they could throw snowballs at each other. That was a very interesting experience especially for Turkish participants. Our guest were also really enthusiastic about exploring other countries around Slovenia and they decided to visit Trieste as well. We also visited mysterious Postojna cave and we ate at Skuhna, where we were taken away with such a good atmosphere and we didn’t just eat, but we also danced and sang with our host – the owner of Skuhna from Zimbabwe.

According to smiley faces evaluation and fulfilled expectations we can conclude that we organized another successful event and we promise we will put all our efforts into providing courses that are worth every minute of your time and help you make your lives better. We are excited and happy to announce that we will hold another Preventing early school leaving in July 2016. We hope to meet you soon.