Information evenings with parents
The following orientation measure addresses specifically parents of those students, who at the end of the middle school, must choose between the educational offer of the secondary schools and that of the VET schools. Usually, it is organised as a presentation of the educational offer at provincial level and/or involving a psychologist/counsellor to give parents some advice about the transition between different orders of schools.
Background
In all middle schools of Trentino, it is quite established to organize one or two events per year, to inform parents about the educational offer of the autonomous province of Trento, and to give them some advice from an external expert (psychologist or counsellor) for better understanding which kind of difficulties, their children may encounter, in the choice of the new school.
Goal
The main goal is to give information, which are not only useful to know better the different types of schools and opportunities, but also to support parents in their way of managing the school’s transition of their children from a psychological point of view.
Description of the type of measure
The target groups are the parents of students at the end of middle school, who must choose how to continue their educational path between upper secondary schools and VET schools.
The organization of the evenings is entirely carried out by schools and their teachers of reference for guidance or by networks of schools; flyers are usually used to communicate dates to families; schools organize these events at the beginning of the third year of middle school before families must choose the new school.
Implementation
Directors of the middle schools, school networks, counsellors are the main actors involved.
Evaluation
Every year there are internal evaluations from the side of the teachers using questionnaires to parents, and in discussing among them about how it can be improved and what can be needed for the future, both at the school level and in the context of schools’ networks meetings or meetings with the counsellors/psychologists involved.
Lessons learned: Last year these events could not be realized due to the pandemic, precisely because of the large number of people they usually involve. Online meetings were organized by the Department of Education and Culture of the autonomous province of Trento to support directors and teachers in organizing these "information evenings”, which are well known and needed by the parents to have some “guidelines” in the process of orientation of their children.