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All 9th grade students have decided to continue their education; the majority continue in the 10th grade
or in upper secondary school, while others have opted for vocational training. During recent years, we have worked with communication and presentation techniques as a part of the pupils’ personal development. The pupils have been trained to stand up in front of their classmates and introduce themselves in a safe environ- ment where they have received affectionate and constructive feedback from role models and classmates. The pupils have shown great courage and commitment in accepting the challenge and have become better prepared for oral presentations.
At a special final event in May 2016 we received very positive responses from both pupils and teachers, who all indicated that the project, and particularly the visits to companies, had been of great importance.
Last year we parted company with the 9th grade pupils at Blågård Skole whom we had been following for the last three years.
All the pupils involved in the project also decided to continue their education, most of them continued in the 10th grade, in upper secondary school or higher technical examination programmes. The teachers at Blågård Skole have no doubt that the school project has been important to the pupils’ development and well-being.
In August 2015, we started collaborating with a new 7th grade at Blågård Skole. The first year is a running-in phase where we and the role models get to know the pupils through monthly meetings and visits to com- panies and work on building mutual trust and respect. This year we were again pleasantly surprised by the pupils’ ability to develop, come up with ideas and on the whole take a genuine interest in the project.
The visits to companies are and will be a central element of the school project and the business community is increasingly aware of the project. Many companies wish to contribute by asking the young people to pay them a visit as part of their own CSR work aimed at children, young people and vulnerable people. At the same time the companies have an interest in opening their doors to pupils who will become the employees of the future in a few years.
The school project is also an inspiration abroad and in the course of the year we were contacted by a Norwegian law firm that wanted to learn about Plesner’s experiences as a possible basis for starting up a similar project.
Berendsen Textil Service, Berlingske Media, Hass-Meincke, McDonald’s, the Danish Broadcasting Corpora- tion and the Danish Parliament are among the companies the pupils have visited during the past year. The pupils have been welcomed everywhere and have received first-hand impressions of a normal day at various workplaces through introductory presentations by many different employees.
The coming year
In the autumn of 2016, we will start our third collaboration with two new 7th grades at Nørrebro Park Skole. At Blågård Skole, the project continues with the pupils who are now starting in the 8th grade. We still have semi-annual status meetings with the school management and the teachers at both schools where we evaluate the project and regularly adapt our expectations to each other.
Even if the general framework is rather firmly fixed and largely works, we continue working with new ideas that may develop and improve the school project.
In the projects we have completed until now, we have parted company with the pupils after the 9th grade. However, we would like to learn about their progress after they have left the lower secondary school, and the pupils very much want to stay in touch, both with each other and with us. During the coming year we will therefore work more actively on monitoring the young people, for instance by using social media and by planning an informal annual reunion where we will learn how they are doing in respect of education or jobs.
During the past year some of the role models, who are all busy people with demanding careers, have been replaced. Therefore, it has been important to get new role models on board, and during the coming year
we will make an effort to improve the collaboration and strengthen the relationships in the group. As a new initiative, we will introduce regular meetings for the role models. Partly so we and they can get to know each other better, partly to promote the development of new and creative ideas in order also to be able to inspire and motivate the pupils in the school project in future.