Course description

To prevent early school leaving schools need to develop 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. The engine that helps to increase motivation and find the meaning is fuelled by relevant stimuli in a safe and significant relationship.

Part of the course is devoted to the BASE (Building Authentic Self-Esteem) programme. This programme, developed by Robert Reasoner, co-authored and run by Self-Esteem Institute with over 25 years of research behind it, provides manuals and teaching materials for elementary and secondary school students, with supplementary materials for administrator’s and parents. The second part of the course is devoted to the role of technology in preventing early school leaving, which is a new but very important perspective on early school leaving.

We will use various working methods to foster growth of course participants: Lecturing, working in pairs / groups, role play, discussion, expert consultations and examples from practice.

Preventing early school leaving course informs participants how to use systemic approach when dealing with problems of school drop-outs. Some of the acquired competencies in the course are:

• Understanding various factors that lead to school drop-outs.
• Getting familiar with systemic approach for preventing early school leaving.
• Strategies for working with school-children that have poor self-esteem.
• Strategies for working with unmotivated, emotionally vulnerable or behaviourally difficult school-children.
• Early identification of the children who are at risk for drop-outs.
• Empowering teachers & counsellors for dealing with drop-out problematic.
• Establishing fruitful cooperation with parents of students who are facing drop-out of school.
• Transfer of best practice: Experience with early school leaving prevention in Slovenian schools.

European Union has put early school leaving prevention high on the list of its priorities. The course doesn’t offer quick solutions. Instead it shows how to achieve sustainable results in the long term with holistic, systemic approach. You can apply newly acquired knowledge in the following areas:

• Analysing factors that influence school leaving in participant’s organization.
• Establishing team of experts in organization to deal with problematic of school leaving.
• Designing strategy for early school leaving prevention on organizational, local or regional level.
• Implementing new initiatives for working with children who have learning difficulties.
• Implementing new initiatives for working with emotionally vulnerable or behaviourally difficult children.
• Personal and professional development of teachers, trainers and counsellors who deal with early school leaving.
• Meeting colleagues of different nationalities and building fruitful networks for further collaboration.