How to Get Children to go to School - An Innovative Project from Spain!

Gabriele Guazzo of CITTALIA (Project
Manager of +RESPECT) and I

In May 2011 I was asked to present at two of the three seminars part of the +RESPECT Conference in Rome organised and headed by CITTALIA. As I had to literally run from presenting at one seminar (on the media) to give my speech at the other seminar on promoting good practice, I missed some of the fantastic work described in the seminar on sharing good practice. Luckily, the organisers had arranged for an evening meal after the conference where we had the opportunity to socialise with the other speakers at the conference.

Tomas, Maria & Andres at
+RESPECT Conference, Rome

I was told the meal was at 9 p.m at an Italian restaurant (What else could it have been?! We were in Rome!). As I am someone who is always punctual, I got there for 9 p.m. sharp, forgetting that this was Rome and in Italy 9 p.m. means 9.15, perhaps even 9.20... I was standing opposite the restaurant, admiring the way Italians talk with their entire body, especially with their hands; when someone came to me and asked if I was Adelina (luckily, I was!) as they are the Spanish group who also presented at the same conference.

Tomas and Maria at +RESPECT
Conference, Rome, May 2011

They politely introduced themselves: Maria del Mar Gonzales and Tomas Robles Guirado work for the Social Services in Puerto Lumbreras, Spain and Andres Lledo is the Chief Constable for the police in the same town. They kindly invited me to join their table whilst the rest of the group slowly began to turn up. They, just like me, had turned up on time and then discovered they even had time for a "before official meal" appetiser before everyone else arrived.
Whilst chatting to them, I discovered they had also given a presentation about their project at the same seminar on good practice, only that I had missed it as I was giving a presentation in the other seminar on the media.
Over 10 years ago, Maria del Mar worked in education in a neighbourhood where the majority of the children came from disadvantaged families, mainly Roma. She realised that there is a serious problem with school absenteeism but also that there was no support for the children after school and decided to do something about it!

Children during the workshop
learning through arts and crafts

She designed a programme to address this by creating workshops after school to help children with their homework as well as getting children who had dropped out of school back into education through arts and crafts. Initially it was difficult to get the children engaged, as this had never been done before and they were scared of the unknown. However, this challenge was easily overcome by Maria’s ingenious mind! She promoted and indeed started out the workshops as fun, extracurricular activities, such as: organising theatre plays, doing nature walks, photography sessions, music groups and so on. She realised she had to keep these children active and entertained!

A changed attitude to learning

Once the children were hooked, she was able to slowly add educational materials from the school curriculum in a fun way into the workshops. Because children really enjoyed the workshops and were very keen to attend, she was then able to put as a condition that they have to attend school in order to be able to participate in the workshops ...and it worked! Moreover, children also got certificates of attendance, which gave them recognition for something they were doing! Schools absenteeism was reduced massively and they even got children to realise things they were really good at, that perhaps through regular school classes they would not have been able to identify. Some children went from being closed up, not communicating and basically failing in school to successfully going to high school and working towards obtaining an art qualification. Other children who initially were violent and disturbed the class have now become passionate about music and have even joined the town music band.

But, what is it that changed these children’s attitudes? 

Long-lasting friendships are created
at the workshops

From what I gathered from both Maria and Tomas; in the workshops, they LISTEN to the children; they show them that they DO care about them and that these workshops are a safe, peaceful place where they are seen as individuals. They also integrate into the workshops the children's ideas and interests and so, they are an integral part of the design of a workshop. When they first come, Tomas works closely with the children to break down the barriers they have, by talking to them about things that interest them such as sports or cartoons. Once the barriers are broken down, the children integrate easier with the rest of the group and actively participate in the activities, sometimes even excelling and discovering talents they never thought they had! The workshops offer the children a place where they can make friends and tie long-lasting friendships with people who understand them and more often than not, are just in the same situation as they are.
It is amazing how by simply listening, one can fix such complex problems!