How children grow up and are raised largely determines how these children will develop as adults and how they will approach life. Parents face many problems while raising their children. These problems may be related to deviant behavior of their children, learning problems, but also problems that have arisen due to, for example, a divorce or another serious event that has had a major influence on the family situation and the lives of the children. A child expresses his feelings in different ways. If a child has problems, this may manifest itself through reduced results at school, through deviant behavior, for example an aggressive or introverted attitude. Parents and children can contact the school social work with their questions.
What is school social work?
School social work is an accessible facility, available at school, which is aimed at identifying and tackling problems at an early stage. She fulfills a bridging function between child, parents, school and (youth) care institutions and focuses on the child whose development is stagnating. The guidance focuses on those who influence that situation. On the one hand these are the parents and caregivers, on the other hand these are, for example, teachers and (youth) care providers.
Core tasks of school social work are:
- signaling and prevention
- guidance for students and parents
- support to teachers
- refer to and coordinate assistance
In concrete terms, this means that the school social worker not only identifies, guides, coordinates and refers, but can also, for example, organize a consultation hour for students or a coffee/tea meeting for parents. In addition, there is regular consultation with teachers, internal supervisor, director, any orthopedagogue present and (youth) care providers about students who need extra guidance.
The working method of school social work
School social work is located in an institution for General Social Work. School social workers hold consultation hours on average once or twice a week at a primary school registered with them. This could be several primary schools. The activities of a school social worker include:
- Weekly consultation with the school’s internal supervisor.
- Support for the teacher in dealing with problem students.
- Care consultation with team/management.
- Consultation hours for parents.
- Home visit.
- Consultation hours/open walk-in for students.
- Helpful conversation.
- Referral for assistance.
- Information/theme meetings.
- Lessons and group discussions.
The exact form that school social work takes often depends on the school itself. This may differ per primary school, as the needs for school social work of the primary schools also differ.
Purpose of school social work
Improve relationship:
- between child and parent
- between child and school
- between parent and school
- between child and teacher
What can also be described as a goal is to increase care options within the school for children with problems, support in dealing with ‘hard to reach parents’, lower barriers to external agencies and strengthening options for parents.
Target group of school social work
- primary school
- teachers
- parents
- pupils
What does the school social worker do?
The school social worker guides parents/guardians and children when:
- behavioral problems
- educational problems
- family problems
- conflict mediation
The school social worker invites parents/guardians to the school or makes a home visit.
If during the discussions it appears that other assistance is necessary/desired, the school social worker will advise and/or refer the parents/guardians.
Who engages school social work?
When the teacher identifies problems with a child from his/her group, he/she first informs the parents. The school social worker can then be involved in various ways:
- The teacher or internal supervisor asks the parents/guardians for permission to discuss the problem during the consultation with the youth doctor, youth nurse or school social worker. The youth doctor invites the parents/guardians and the child. The school social worker is then called in.
- During the health examination, the youth doctor/youth nurse refers to the school social worker.
In Almere, for example, the school social worker has daily telephone consultation hours for the internal counselors.
School social work in the future
There is currently a development in which more and more schools are deciding to use school social work. Schools for special education and special primary education already receive a budget to purchase school social work. In some cities, for example Utrecht, the municipality itself has decided to finance school social work in regular education. Following the ‘Plan of Action’, a number of regular schools in primary education (particularly in the large cities) will receive financial resources from 2005 to deploy social work at their schools and a contribution will be made to a number of schools for secondary education. A number of schools are anticipating the plans and have already purchased school social work from their own resources.
read more
- School social work in Rotterdam
- Gender-specific assistance; assistance man and woman
- The family: change and development