Parent participation in MBO works
They were crowned 'MBO education team of the year' in 2022 because of their unique team mentorship and parent participation. The nine-person team is super diverse. Big advantage: the problem of a student is therefore always understood by one of them.
As is often the case with brilliant ideas, this idea also came about by accident. Namely after a wrong phone call from a mentor Brigitte Oostburg. She wanted to call a student and accidentally dialed the wrong number; she got the mother on the phone. She was delighted to speak to the mentor and promptly asked all sorts of questions about her daughter.
A little support from home can certainly make a difference
How is it going at school? Can I help? The conversation was so pleasant that Oostburg wondered why contact with the parents was not sought more often. “The students may be sixteen and older, but a little support from the home front can certainly make a difference. Many students still live at home and are not independent enough, so it can help to get them to school on time or to keep appointments.”
Parent participation on the agenda
What changed is that parent participation was put on the agenda of the nine-member team-mentorate care and welfare, level 2 of the ROC van Amsterdam. Oostburg: “We now schedule a progress interview twice a year with the mentor, the student and a parent. That parent can be a father or mother, but also a caregiver, sister, brother or partner.” The 'parent' plays an important role by thinking along about what the student needs in order to ensure that the career at school runs as smoothly as possible. Concrete agreements will then be made about this.
The team also makes contact with parents as accessible as possible, for example by sending an invitation letter at the beginning of the school year for an information day. A letter in five languages: Dutch, English, Turkish, Arabic and Spanish. “We are unique in that, the school does not do that itself. It helps, because the response has increased enormously. From two parents at an information evening of all study programs together to a turnout of twenty parents last year at our study alone.”
Come out mutually
An hour is set aside every Tuesday morning to sit together with the group of nine teachers, work-study coaches and care coordinators. In that hour they go through special cases in order to arrive at possible solutions. Jack. de Wit, designer of the team mentorship: "An important benefit of this consultation is that the students are not sent directly to external specialists, but that we first try to find a solution among ourselves."
A meeting sounds too formal, it certainly isn't. It is more like a weekly hour of professional coffee drinking
Nabila Akachar, team leader and teacher of citizenship/social behavior: “A meeting sounds too formal, it certainly isn't. It is more like a weekly hour of professional coffee drinking. We laugh a lot, but we also work seriously at the same time. The composition is different every week; there are a maximum of seven of us because all nine at the same time is not productive.”
In fact, they themselves only realized that they were doing something special when, during the MBO Ambassadors Gala, they award 'Education team of the year' were awarded by education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf. Akachar: “That recognition has ensured that several team mentors have been set up within the ROC, which work just like us.”
Off the radar
It is half past nine on Tuesday morning when six members of the team mentor are ready in the living room on the second floor of the ROC building. “Where is Brigitte?” asks health and welfare teacher Marita O'Bryan, who will lead the meeting. She connects her laptop to the screen and after waiting five minutes decides to start without Brigitte, who joins later. She says that today they work differently than they are used to, namely with solutions that are written on post-its per person.
After the short opening, a case is presented by citizenship teacher Sabirine Tahiri about a student with extremely high absenteeism. “He is only at school on Mondays and I don't see him for the rest of the week. When I call he says he is sick, has found blood in his urine or missed the train. His caretaker's number is wrong, because I don't get an answer. And he has no permanent residence in Amsterdam, but now lives somewhere in Brabant. What can I do?"
The team-mentorate meets every week in a different composition. The party is pictured (left to right): Marita O'Bryan, Jac. de Wit, Nabila Akachar, Brigitte Oostburg, Sabirine Tahiri, Sarah Yousfi and Marcel Haaksma.
Solutions are frantically written on post-its and categorized by O'Bryan. In addition to the categories 'concluding a contract with firm agreements', 'home visit' and 'exit', there is one post-it with 'paid internship' on it. The latter must be from De Wit, the designer of the team mentorship.
Oostburg: “If we think about an exit, Jac. often with a special solution. He's custom made. Like recently during a case about a student with a not so nice home situation and many responsibilities in the field of care. Then as a school you can say starting half past eight is starting half past eight: those are the rules. Point. Then comes Jack. with the idea for customization and after a short brainstorming session that becomes a mother pass that allows her to be late every now and then. A pass that is normally for students with children.”
If a student says they have been on holiday for a while, I know enough
Islamic background
This is what makes their team so special, according to the team members themselves. The presence of diverse identities, backgrounds and professional roles, so that the student's problems are always understood by a team member. Akachar: “We had a case last year in which religion played a role. Because of my Islamic background, I fully understood why a student could not come to school, while my colleagues had no idea.”
Or like during today's consultation when it comes to a student who says he has been off the radar for a while, and a team member immediately understands that he has been in prison. O'Bryan: "Off the radar is the same as when a student says they have been on holiday for a while, then I know enough."
The prize for the education team of the year will be awarded for the fourth time on 15 May 2023. This award is an initiative of the AOb and the BVMBO. Nominate your favorite teaching team from MBO before 20 January.
Nominate your senior secondary vocational education team of the year
