Lifelong Learning Programme

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Success Stories

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TITLE OF THE SUCCESS STORY
A Successful Girl
COUNTRY WHERE IT TOOK PLACE
Turkey
AUTHOR OF THE SUCCESS STORY
Headmaster
SCHOOL TYPOLOGY
Lower Secondary School
THEMATIC AREA
Integration of immigrants students
DESCRIPTION OF THE SUCCESS STORY
Our student has been attending 7 th grade in this educational year. She has been attending our school since 1 st grade. Her educational background and process can be named as a bit complex because of the fact that she had to take two year off during 4-5 th grades. During this time she attended a special program named YSÖP. Until 7 th grade our student has attended the classes regularly and she was one of the best successful student in her class.
As well as her academic success, she can be named as mature and conscious. At the beginning of this educational year, it was realized that there was a problem on her school attendance. She was so hardworking and ambitious that it was not difficult to realize that something was going wrong on her situation. A letter was sent to her parents to make them aware of the situation. Upon this letter, her parents were invited to school by class teacher but they did not come and during this period she did not attend to school, either. We could not get any information from her classmates and our school counselor and her class teacher decided to visit her house to understand the situation better. Until this visit, we were not aware of her family problems and this was the situation we encountered then
An immigrant family who moved from Ağrı to Kocaeli ten years ago. Her father was a worker and her mother was a housewife and she did not know any Turkish also she was illiterate. Her father had left house and the family had been living a part for a long time. The family had five children and our student was the oldest. Her father had been living in another city and with another woman and he sometimes visited the family but the parents did not get divorced. During this visit, her mother stated that she was so willing to send her daughter to school and add that it was the student’s decision to leave the school but she said she would convince her daughter to attend to school. Upon this visit our student attended to school for a few weeks but later she explained her decision about leaving the school. Almost all of her teachers tried to talk to her to understand the reason of her decision .She did not share the real situation at first and said that it was completely her decision because of some emotional problems she stated that she fell in love with one of her relatives and she lived big disappointments and she did not want to go on her educational life anymore .She did not attend to school for a long time and our teachers could not do anything because our students stated that it was completely her decision and the factors were emotional. But during this period, our teachers visited her house a few times to change her mind but the result was the same.
Just before the end of first semestre,our city mayor visited our school and we had a meeting about the SBS success of our students. While we were talking about our successful students we mentioned about this student’s situation. He showed a special interest to the situation and visited the student’s house. At the city mayor’s visit our student explained the real reason of her decision. She stated that it was her decision to leave the school but the reason was not really emotional but she had to find an excuse to convince her teachers. The real problem was financial and she had to work on a textile factory. Her father did not help the family financially and she felt a responsibility to her family. She explained that her mother wanted her to continue her education but she was the oldest children in the family and she wanted to support the family financially. When the real problem was understood, city mayor promised to help the family. Upon this promise our school counselor helped the family for the process to get the fund which was provided by the local authorities. Our student attends to school now. And she is more determinant and ambitious now. We are so glad that she is at the place where she should be. We expect much from her and she knows what to do for her future and for her family.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Our student’s story ended up with a happy ending and we were so glad that the result was desirable at the end. Because it took a long time for us to understand the real reason behind the situation. When our student took all the responsibility and said that her decision was related to emotional factors, we felt so hopeless and could not really do anything. There was nothing to do except feeling sorry for the family and for our student’s future .I really appreciated my teachers’ attempts to convince our student. Almost all of the teachers showed a special interest for the situation and they tried their best. The most important thing was that our student felt she was important for her teachers and for her classmates. It was a difficult process for both the student and for her mother, too. We have learned that it is so hard to find the real reasons behind the situations like this. We are really grateful to our city mayor for his interest to the situation. Thanks to the fund provided by the local authorities our student can continue her education. She is a dedicated and ambitious girl. We really believe that she will be successful in her academic life.

20 December 2014

Final Partners’ meeting

The fourth partners’ meeting took place in Florence (IT) on 15 December 2014. The meeting had the objective to check the activities carried out since the third meeting of the project and share and assess the in progress results. A special focus has been dedicated to the presentation of the strategies to solve the case scenarios.