Peer Support in Action
Peers
& Pros:
A
Network of Students and Teachers
Target group
Pupils, teachers and headteachers of primary and secondary schools in the 15 EU member states.
Aim
To form a EU network of schools in order to exchange experiences, instruments and good practice and thus to learn from each other.
Peter Reuben and Frits Prior act as EU webmasters. They hand out an ID and a password to the national co-ordinators.
The national representatives in the EU working group "Violence at school" will act as national co-ordinators. In practice they will delegate their tasks to others.
- To enter a text on national policy (in English and in the national language) and to renew its contents periodically.
- To promote and monitor the network nationally.
- To hand out user-permits and passwords to schools.
- To discuss problems with the EU-webmaster.
- To maintain the quality of the national contributions.
Schools apply for an ID and a password by sending their data to the national co-ordinator. The tasks of each user are:
- To enter their school information.
- To visit the website frequently.
- To translate open text frames to or from English.
- To comment on entries by using email.
- To cleanse their entries (renew, delete or change) periodically.
Linked to the EU network each country can open a national site using the same framework!
Special topics
a. examples of pupil participation, such as:
- - participation in formal advisory groups
- - forms of peer support, such as peer mentoring, peer tutoring, peer mediation and peer counselling
- - the use of problem-solving groups of pupils
- - problem-centred and interactive learning
- - teaching of social and emotional skills
b. examples of teacher support, such as:
- - teacher training aimed at coping with violence
- and calamities
- - teacher training aimed at teaching social and emotional skills to pupils as a part of their regular behaviour inside and outside the classroom
- - the introduction of peer assessment and peer coaching among teachers as a means to implement skills and policies into daily school life.
c. forms of headteacher support aimed at involving pupils, parents and staff more actively in evaluating the school climate and planning and achieving improvements.
Working languages
The working language will be English: all the information appears in English and in the national language of the information supplier. Information in the national language(s) can be accessed through one of the 15 national gates.
Translation by participating pupils and teachers
The participating schools provide information to the website in their own language and in English. If necessary, they translate website information on foreign projects into their own language. Making the translations could be incorporated in the school’s foreign language programme. If needed, schools may use the notice board to ask for help with the translations.
Funding
The EU funding will mainly be used for:
- developing, producing and maintaining the website and the database
- promoting the participation of schools nationally
- organising a EU network conference in September or October 1999 (pupils and teachers)
There will be no budget for project activities.
Password
Schools will receive a special password from their national co-ordinator for entering information into the database. This security device is intended to safeguard the quality of the database and the website.
This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards,but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.