Q&A: Babs Goethals on Lier’s plan to keep youngsters in school

What led to the launch of the Plus project?
We have noticed that there’s a need for extra support for secondary school students, teachers and school staff to prevent the escalation of problems at school. Arktos has been working for six years to help pupils with behavioural problems to integrate, but we could no longer carry out this project alone. We joined forces with different partners to create a more powerful team that should improve the results.

How do you provide guidance to individual pupils?
The pupils are often no longer motivated to go to school, have difficulty following the rules or have problems dealing with academic pressure. We’ve received 32 requests for help since we began in November and currently work with about 10 youngsters a day. We work full-time with individual pupils outside of school for two-week periods.

In the morning, we help them with school tasks, so they don’t fall behind. In the afternoon, we try to provide valuable insights about life through workshops. We show the necessity of rules, boost their self-confidence and teach them to work in a result-oriented manner. For example, we give cooking or woodworking lessons, like some pupils have at school, and demonstrate the right way of working and behaving. After two weeks, students can still receive guidance from us, but not full-time.

Do you also help in the classroom?
We sometimes help class groups, in both secondary and primary education, when there is a particularly disorderly class, for example. We try to match student participation with the expectations of teachers by leading discussions on the problems and reflecting on possible solutions. We also provide training to school staff on things such as how to deal with conflict situations. In cases of specific conflicts between a teacher and student, we try to restore the relationship by organising meetings at which they talk over the issues.

Photo: Representatives of the GO! school network, CGG De Pont, Don Bosco, Arktos and JB David school community and alderman Ivo Andries at the launch of the Plus project
Courtesy De Standaard