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TITLE OF GOOD PRACTICE:

CPMS ( Psycho-Medico-Social Centres), School Mediation and Mobile Teams

KEYWORDS:

Mediation, prevention, dialog, conflict management, assistance

GOOD PRACTICE TYPOLOGY:

National Project

TARGET GROUPS:

All the schools of the French Community of Belgium: pupils, staff members, parents…

WORKING GROUP COORDINATING THE INITIATIVE:

Ministry of the French Community of Belgium

COUNTRY WHERE IT TOOK PLACE:

Belgium

LANGUAGE OF THE REVIEW:

English

DEFINITION OF TARGET GROUP:

Parents, Policy Makers, Teachers, Young People, School Directors.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GOOD PRACTICE:

The psycho-medico-social centres (CPMS) are the primordial referents regarding dropping out and violence at school. Their missions have been made clear again by the decree of the 14th July 2006.
Two devices have been created to solve more specific problems:
• the School Mediation, set up by the decree of the 30th June 1998;
• the Mobile Teams of the General Direction of Compulsory Education, created by the decree of the 12th May 2004.

Territories, actions, modalities

• The School Mediation Service of the Walloon region (SMSW) works on the whole territory of the Walloon region. The mediators are external: they cover a defined area and operate individually or in groups in schools without being linked to them.
• The School Mediation Service in the region of Brussels works on the territory of the region of Brussels. The mediators are internal: they are present in schools all year long.
• The Mobile Teams work in all the schools that are organised and granted by the French Community. The mediators are external and the work is most of the time managed by at least two persons.

Mediation and education levels

• The School Mediation Services in the Walloon region and in the region of Brussels work:
- at the level of regular secondary school;
- at the level of nursery school and regular primary school at the time of exceptional circumstances.
Actions are led as a priority in positive discrimination schools.
• The Mobile Teams work in nursery schools, regular primary schools, regular secondary schools and in specialized education.

Competences according to the target groups

• The School Mediation Services in the Walloon Region and in the Region of Brussels deal with relational problems between pupils, between pupils’ parents and staff members, between staff members and pupils or class-groups. The problems between staff members are not taken in charge.
• The Mobile Teams intervene on the same problems in primary education and in specialized education. They intervene in the regular secondary schools for problems that are not undertaken by the mediation: conflicts between adults and crisis situations.

RESULTS:

Missions of the SMSW are divided in two parts, working axes and services

Working axes :

The recurrent questions articulate around three working axes :

- the authority in the educative and pedagogic relation, the relation to the law : the rules, the norms, the limits, the sanctions…
- the sense of the school and the school motivation,
- the families/schools dialog;

Services :

The SMSW meets its missions by providing the following services :

1. Mediation in conflict situations between pupils, between a pupils group or class group and one or several teacher(s), between a pupil and/or his family and the school.
2. Accompaniment of a teenager or a group of teenagers in violence situation, in situation or risk of school dropping out.
3. Creation of sensitizing and prevention tools in the field of violence and re-schooling,

Tools examples :

• the class climates,
• the pupils welcoming,
• the scapegoat phenomenon,
• the racket,
• the sense of the rules and of the ROI (internal order rule),
• the notions of just and unjust,
• the use of new technologies.

4. Accompaniment of the schools for the setting up of projects and devices to foster re-schooling and to prevent violence situations.

Devices examples :

• education councils,
• pupils delegation,
• disciplinary committee,
• school “airlocks”,
• places dedicated to dialog and listening,
• cooperation councils,
• …

5. Contribution to the exchange of good practices in the field of violence and re-schooling.

The school mediation service strives to activate internal resources in the schools and cooperates with other services according to the problem specificity.


The Mission of the School Mediation Service of Brussels:

To prevent violence and dropping out. To reach this goal, the service:
- offers a welcoming, listening and dialog space allowing a mediation work between the persons;
- tries to bring the points of view closer;
- helps to find alternative solutions to difficult or blocked situations;
- proposes a support to overcome obstacles directly or indirectly linked to school issues;
- …
The permanent and long lasting presence of the mediator in the school, his/her independence, hi/her neutrality and his/her secrecy allow to foster:
- the expertise of internal and relational dynamics of the school;
- the setting up of a deep relationship with the different actors of the school;
- the long term evaluation and the institution of trust and credibility between the actors;
- the creation of a reassuring and appeasing framework in the dynamics of violence, exclusion and dropping out.

The mission of the Mobile Teams :

To act for a pupil undergoing a crisis, to act in a preventive way in order to avoid foreseeable tensions, to act for the reprise of dialogue within a school that has experienced a crisis situation, to offer actions of sensitization to conflict management.
To do this, they implement modalities of action around six axes of intervention:
1) Youths in school situation: class meetings, discussion time, delegates meetings, negotiation…
2) Youths undergoing a crisis: round table, individual and collective meetings, short systemic therapy, frequent collaborations with the different actors of the school world or external of the school…
3) Work with adults and education teams: Team Building, coaching, analysis of professional practices…
4) Listening and support of crisis: discussion time, individual or collective meetings, collaboration with the CPMS, very frequent contacts with the different actors of education (direction, teachers, parents, pupils…)
5) Support in the management of conflicts: active and passive listening, individual or collective meetings with the different actors of education, reminder of the law…
6) Training in conflict management: methodology of conflict management, implementation of short systemic therapy, methodology of appropriation, immediate intervention techniques...


INDICATORS:

Detection protocol, Intervention protocol, Help-line/counseling.

EVALUATION:

These measures have been taken by the Government of the French Community of Belgium. The strategies and devices are regularly assessed and adapted according to the results of the experimentation and the conclusions of the reports produced by the experts.
The assessment is done both through an annual activity report and a triennial evaluation report, given back to the tutelage authority. pages

NAME OF COMPILER:

Christine CLOES

NAME OF INSTITUTION:

INFOREF

ROLE:

Directress

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