Education team of the year comes from Roc van Amsterdam
Not as an individual mentor, but as a whole team to take up the mentorship and fully focus on parental involvement. The team helping care and welfare, level 2 of Roc van Amsterdam has been doing this for a year now. It didn't go unnoticed, they were awarded 'Education Team of the Year' yesterday.
Statue: algemene onderwijsbond
In Apeldoorn, the nine-strong team of social science teacher Nabila Akachar was presented with the award yesterday by education minister Robert Dijkgraaf during the Dit is mbo Ambassadors gala. Akachar laughs and says, “And the reality is, the next morning we were all back in front of the class to serve the students. We're having another party on Thursday."
Akachar certainly is proud. “Two colleagues had entered our team separately for the team of the year. At first I thought, should we do that or not? Teachers are humble creatures, are we going to put ourselves in the spotlight?”
Special
They did and out of 65 entries, the team came to the final ten entries and eventually became the winner. “You don't think about it, but what we do is very special.” After all, they started a team mentorship and parent involvement during her training. Both teams have care and welfare teachers who teach different classes. “The special thing is that we approach mentoring as a team and there is no longer one designated person. There is one point of contact for the student, but for us as teachers, the idea that as a mentor you have to do everything yourself has disappeared.”
The idea that as a mentor you have to do everything yourself has disappeared
Education for everyone
Students who have to deal with difficult problems, such as mental problems, illness, poverty or are homeless, pass by the course. The team mentor meets for an hour once a week to discuss how to handle difficult cases. “Each from his own expertise,” says Akachar. She recently had a student with two forms of epilepsy and therefore invited an expert on this topic. “Our starting point is always education is for everyone.” A plan came up and the team aligned on how to deal with this student and they gained knowledge. This allowed the student to remain in regular education.
Time
What Akachar says is most important: the time they get for quality assurance. “Space has been made for this by our manager.” That's often what teams struggle with. They also feel the safety in the team to be able to be critical of each other or to make additions. “We are a close-knit team, we take each other's expertise seriously and there is no meeting where we don't laugh.”
We are a close-knit team, we take each other's expertise seriously and there isn't a meeting where we don't laugh
In addition to mentoring, another spearhead is parental involvement. “We often try to get parents involved quickly, especially when it comes to students for whom we draw up a plan.” This actually starts with the information day when a student registers. The parents and student are then allowed to visit and the team already generates information about any specifics. “Then parents receive a welcome letter, available in several languages, about the contact moments. That is inclusiveness and showing: I take you into account”, says Akachar.
Minister Dijkgraaf also congratulated the team in five languages at the gala last night and said: 'This team combines experience and network to bind and motivate students. In a multicultural team in a multicultural setting, this team also brings the parents into the school. They don't do that as individual mentors, but together.' Akachar: “We hope to inspire other teams and show that you have to take time for quality assurance.”
Other prices
In addition to the education team of the year, four other MBO awards were also presented at the 'Dit is MBO Ambassadors Gala', such as the best training company (FC Social Work), the MBO ambassador (Clemens van den Broek, Curio), the best practical trainer (Mike Kastrop of car restoration company Classic Mike) and WorldSkills Netherlands Best of Excellence Award (Bart Willems, Roc Nijmegen). AOb-chairman Tamar van Gelder is on the jury. The prize is an initiative of the AOb and the BVMBO and was awarded for the third time this year.
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