Through workshops and seminars in the last couple of months, our partners from Tallinn came to the creation of an early leaving of education and training (ELET) leaving prevention model and a feedback culture. They are now being tested in the pilot schools.
Detecting risks
Through qualitative focus group interviews among teachers, possible risk factors for early school leaving have been detected.
Based on those factors, specialists from the Tallinn Education and Counselling Centre and Tallinn Education Department, the local pilot schools’ representatives and the project’s coordinators developed an ELET prevention model. This functions as a tool to identify students at risk of dropping out at an early stage, and to describe intervention measures at school level –to keep students attached to school.
Positive words
Positive feedback is a stimulus for students ‘at risk’. Therefore, a model to encourage such feedback has been created, and teachers of the pilot schools are currently trained to give feedback in a constructive, unbiased way.
To enrich the content of feedback, words of motivation have been compiled in the appropriately named ‘Book of good words’.
Involve parents
To better connect to the students on the verge of dropping out, the school’s ties with their parents are essential.
Academic and extracurricular activities in the pilot schools were evaluated and revised. This led parents to participate significantly more in these activities.
Early school leaving is a complex problem. Involvement of all stakeholders –from teachers to parents – is important to detect its causes, risks and develop solutions.