Section leader tells

Section leader at a school in Roskilde tells

For many years at our school, we have had a network surrounding our vulnerable children and adolescents. The vulnerable have many names; anxiety, dyslexia, ADHD, autism, adopted, OCD, school anxiety, and self-harming youths.

These networks, which consist of professionals, we see as important scaffolding for our students, so that we always have manageable sub-goals, plans of action, and a similar way of talking about them.

Not that long ago I was contacted by two frustrated parents. Their child was deeply unhappy, and their learning curve was trending down steeply.

They had themselves had the girl assessed at Gifted Institute by Johnnie Rasmussen, and wished for us to start collaborating with Grith Tschorn, who worked closely with the family.

Something had to be done to get this student, who was in 6th grade, to start thriving again.

I had once or twice seen gifted students develop similar challenges, but they were older and usually had an autism diagnosis as the primary reason for the network.

It turned out to be the start of some new and deeply competent collaborators, whom I no doubt will use again in the future.

Our insight at the school in relation to gifted students is minimal.

A lack of insight which was about to have drastic consequences for the student in question.

Through meetings, sub-goals, and counseling from Grith, a plan of action was made which got a student who was trending towards school anxiety and unhappiness back to school.

My meeting with Grith verified my belief in how important it is that we are open when meeting with professionals.

And how important it is that we collaborate with the professionals who know how to help these children.

As a school our most important goal must be to ensure that the children are doing well. Thriving children learn better.

We must therefore never forget to look at the child from all the necessary angles, when they show signs of not thriving.