Procedures and rules: they don't know any better in special education
After more than a week of working in the new normal, four schools for special education look back for a moment. They conclude that things are going 'astonishingly well'. Just keeping a meter and a half distance from students is impossible.
Image: Dr. M. Polano School
Perhaps things are going so smoothly, because the children are already so used to clarity and regularity, says Marin Belt, director of SBO school De Vonder in Slagharen. Her school has about eighty children with learning and / or behavioral problems. Belt: “Our structure of rules and procedures was already rock solid. Our students know that it is nice to stick to the rules, because then we all have a nice day. ”
Car wash
The new 'car wash', for example, is booming. The team has placed large soap pumps at the entrances to the school. Pupils pass by, rub the soap in while walking and then rinse their hands clean in the sink of their classroom or one of the toilets. Since its inception, the school has had one incident with a student who consciously challenged the teacher within a meter and a half. Belt: “It's just like after the summer holidays. Children will search again: where are the boundaries? ” The teacher in question had to stop the child, but not hold it, she says: "A conversation was enough to resolve the situation."
Taxi vans
Frans de Groot, team leader at the Dr. M. Polano School for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Rotterdam thinks that the start-up went 'astonishingly well'. A challenge is to get the students in about thirty taxi vans at the end of the school day, while the drivers are now not allowed to pick them up in the auditorium. Three quarters of the Polano children use bus transport, says De Groot: “What we do is that two drivers walk to the gate to indicate which pupils will pick them up. Then the teachers pick up these children, who stand in their own subject on the square, we also let older students help with this. ”
Do you do your best all day to keep that distance and then at the end of the day they are just eight in a van
It does have something contradictory, says Belt van de Vonder, where 80 percent also use student transport. "You do your best all day to keep that distance and then at the end of the day there are just eight of them in a van with the driver close on top." She admires the men and women who do this work. “I think it's brave. They too have a bond with our children. And for the students it is very nice that the trusted people bring and collect them. ”
Close proximity
Not only familiarity, but also literal proximity is very important for most pupils in special education (SO). Because suppose you are blind or partially sighted, like the students of Milou Westerik, how can they keep five feet away from the teacher? Westerik teaches at the middle building of the Bartiméus School in Zeist: “It is actually impossible to do that one and a half meters in relation to the students. For example, the sign in class is already very close to the children, for those who are visually impaired. And there I am again. I also regularly take the students by the hand so that they can feel something. ”
On the other hand, Westerik also sees advantages of the structure that was already present in the school. “There is now extra practice with walking routes, but you always walk right with us, for example. Otherwise you will constantly bump into blind children. ”
How are you doing with hand washing and when exactly should you do it?
SO pupils are generally more anxious and insecure than children in regular primary schools. Often there are several restrictions at the same time, otherwise they can go to the regular with adjustments. Westerik - who can 'read and write' with her students - received a remarkable number of questions about the agreements, especially during the first few days. “How are you doing with hand washing now and when exactly should you do that? What is allowed and what is not allowed: our children are also looking for clarity in this.”
Lots of adults
An advantage in corona time is that SO schools are usually more spacious. For example, the corridors are wider and there are far fewer children in a class than in regular primary education, usually around ten. On the other hand, often two adults work in a group. And that many other adults are present in the building, or come in for therapies or care.
It must remain workable, that is the starting point
Marion is a nurse at Mytylschool De Kleine Prins in Hilversum. She performs medical procedures within a meter and a half of the student, such as catheterisation or injecting insulin. The school has protective equipment. Marion uses gloves, but she normally did. She feels safe enough, even when it comes to distance from colleagues. “It must remain workable, that is the starting point for developing the protocols. All in all, I think that is going very well. ”
