The workload of teachers is high and teachers do not always have the necessary expertise to respond quickly to children’s problems. The school social worker plays an important role in schools. A role that can be important for the further development of the child. Truancy, language deficiency and early school leaving are commonplace. School social work in Rotterdam.
What is school social work?
If children have problems, this can have negative effects on their learning opportunities, but also on their personal and social development. School social work can be called in for problems related to the home situation or education.
School social work offers support and consultation to teachers in guiding students. T he most important feature is the intensive collaboration with the school.
School social work is social work based in schools. There are a number of factors in our society that mean that schools are increasingly confronted with students who have problems. These factors include increasing individualization, less strong social family ties, more broken families, long unemployment and the increasing demands placed on personal and social functioning. School social work is available for children with problems at school, but the home situation can also play a role.
When analyzing the problems, the school social worker looks at the child itself, the parents and the school and how they influence each other. He or she will enter into discussions with all three and look for solutions together with them. The school social worker first asks the parents for permission to work with the child in question.
Sometimes the school social worker enlists the help of others.
The purpose of school social work
The aim of school social work is to prevent serious problems, school dropout and to contribute positively to the child’s development and school career. School social work is therefore concerned with providing assistance to the school-age child, but also to the parents in their role as educators. This happens both directly in a situation where assistance is provided to the child itself, and indirectly, in which case parents and teachers are actually involved in the assistance. If necessary, students are referred to other forms of assistance. The aim of school social work is to identify problems in children or families at the earliest possible stage and thus prevent them from worsening. She also wants to combat educational disadvantages and optimize learning conditions.
Tasks of school social work
School social work comes into the picture at these intersections. Its main task is to provide help to the child and parent, to look for the causes of a problem and to contribute to finding a solution where the school cannot provide the necessary expertise. Moreover, the use of school social work is intended to broaden the professionalism of teachers and internal supervisors and to enrich the school’s student care.
The task of school social work is twofold: on the one hand, preventive (solving minor problems and preventing larger problems), on the other hand, providing limited assistance and calling in appropriate agencies, such as the Youth Care Office, etc.
Why school social work?
Young people do not have an easy time in Rotterdam, especially at school they come into contact with values, norms and rules of conduct from other cultures. More than two-thirds of the residents in Delfshaven are of immigrant origin. This can cause young people to lose their balance, causing their performance to deteriorate at school. Their interest in school can then decrease, causing them to develop an aversion to school and to feel more attracted to groups on the street. This means that truancy increases and the training is not completed. The long-term consequence of this is that they will have a low level of education and will therefore be eligible for a low-paid job.
Children are not only part of the world and of the school , but also of the world at home, of the family in which he grows up, the neighborhood in which he lives and the children he plays with. The child moves between these different worlds every day and they become increasingly convinced that these worlds influence each other. Schools tend to approach parents about behavioral problems of students; parents believe that the responsibility for their child’s behavior at school is also the responsibility of the school itself. It has also been found that parents often do not show up for discussions with teachers about their child, for example. This is partly because the parents of foreign children have insufficient knowledge of the Dutch education system, as a result of which they cannot help their children properly in making the right choices in, for example, secondary education. As a result, it becomes more difficult for a school to solve the problems.
Schools are seen as an important place of residence for young people and, because they are such a confidential place, where signals of psychosocial problems manifest themselves. By bringing social work to schools, students can be recognized and supported at an earlier stage. This can prevent early school leaving.