Teachers Experiences

School dropout

Alzira Reis

Child Health

20

Higher Secondary

Portugal

Identification of students’ at risk

The story took place 5 years ago (school year 2009-2010) at Escola Secundária Nuno Álvares, Castelo Branco, Portugal.
The main actors involved were the Child Health teacher and Class Director of the higher secondary vocational Child Studies course, a 19-year-old girl student at risk of school leaving and her mother. The Class Director is in charge of establishing links between the school and the students’ families.
This particular girl was in year 11 and had been my student since year 9. When she arrived at this school she had already failed several years and had left school in 2006. She had good cognitive skills, but she lacked punctuality, especially in the morning. She was obviously very unstable emotionally and ceated many conflicts with her peers. Her motivation to attend classes was very low and most of the times she came to school because I had phoned her.
During my conversations with her, I realized that she slept in a windowless room and that her mother did not wake her up. The mother didn’t care either that her daughter missed classes. The mother daughter relationship became worse every year and this reflected in the girls’ marks at school. It all became worse when the student started her professional internship, because she started not going to work and hardly justified why. This was a place she had already worked in and therefore her supervisor knew her as diligent and dedicated to the children.

The actions carried out to identify the causes of the students difficulties
1 -On being told that the student was not going to work, I managed to talk to the student after many frustrated attempts to cal her. She was utterly in despair and cried compulsively. She had kept to her room the last three days
2- I realized through our talk that she did not have enough money to eat and that there was no food in the house.
3- I phoned her mother several times in order to solve the problem, but it was useless. The mother either did not do what we agreed or she told me she had to concentrate on her own life.
3- The students’ workplace offered to buy the girl lunch while she was doing her internship.
4- After meeting with the school director, it was decided that it would be best for the student to leave home for a while and occupy a vacant room I had in a flat.
5- The mother was informed of this decision and she did not show any concern.

Support received by fellow students, colleagues, school management and parents:
1- The student’s colleagues showed solidarity and brought her food and clothes.
2- The Class Director allowed the student to fetch an afternoon meal from the school.
3- The student’s father, who was an alcoholic and was unemployed at the time, invited his daughter to live with him after she had finished her internship.

Results achieved
The student finished her internship successfully and moved on to year 12. Emotionally she had re-achieved balance.
Strengths and weaknesses of the experience
It is good to know that our effort was worth something. As the student grew up she was able to deal with unpredictable situations better. By moving in with the father, she could have a diferente perspective on her mother and gain some understanding on why she did things the way she did. The following year she managed to live with her mother again and to finish her professional training.
She now works in London.