Finland with Attitude

How serious are we about our children? Do we want to be part of the BIG 5…

Finland focuses on early intervention, preventative measures, building strong foundations, and over time you can loosen up…they are ready to fly alone.

It seems that the Finnish want can be simply summed up as “Our main aim is to have a good school education system”. But surely all of us want that right? We all understand that at the core of any successful society, children must be central to our planning and preparedness for the future…is that what we do? The Finnish attitude is that children must Play,Play, and Play, hence starting school at the age of seven. Attitudes towards mothers are that of respect and great value, hence significant support, after all happy mothers create happy children. Women generally in Finland are highly esteemed with something like 47% of ministerial positions being occupied by women. So education…the focus is all about children, not data, control and statistics:

-early years is heavily invested in

-special educational needs is a core element of teacher training, after all if you are going to be working with young people you need to be able to recognise who and where they are: you know them, you see them…

-health and well being work very closely in partnership with schools

All of this is wrapped around learning and partnership work with families, with a clear aim to secure the maximum potential of every child. This is achieved by personalising education for children, by securing high quality education support and guidance. Teacher training secures teachers knowledge on child development and understanding on how children learn. The cultural attitude towards teachers being high trust, respect and collaboration this means that every teacher is a leader of children’s learning, with every child of compulsory school age receiving high quality education and support. Finland is a country where wealth does not guarantee education learning outcomes….this is how serious children are valued.

Finnish government invests in collaborative partnerships

Both Keskuspuisto and Jarvenspaa Colleges, are recognised as specialists in special needs  and have been funded by the Finnish government to share their knowledge and skills in special needs to other schools.

This project will facilitate for outstanding practice to be disseminated widely. Minna, is very clear that in essence this will mean that special needs teachers in bathe colleges will be able to develop their leadership and coaching in special needs. Minna, also wanted to re-iterate that it would not be their role to go into schools and re-write policy, or define what they need to be doing differently, but rather for them to go into schools, and work alongside colleagues in supporting them to achieve desired outcomes in areas of special educational needs. This will range from direct support with individual or group of students, teacher professional development and policmost view. The most important development being that the school or college requesting support drives the agenda of need -and it’s for free!

Liisa also points out that because  teachers are so highly valued, networking is very strong as there is real trust in the profession, as well as widely felt social responsibility to develop young people. At the colleges, there is extensive training in managing the full range of challenging behaviours  and needs. All training that addresses challenging behaviour does focus on understanding triggers, preventative approaches and de-escalation strategies.

Special Needs Support at Vikki Training School- co planning

At Vikki Training School, co-planning to meet individuals needs is an essential aspect of personalisation, hence the school having two highly trained SEN teachers. These teachers work alongside all subject teachers to ensure that curriculum delivery is successful for all learners. Where there are challenges in engaging learners with learning at Vikki School, subject teachers co-plan with the special needs staff to define better differentiation, or in some cases planned withdrawal from a mainstream classroom. This is only ever done with the teachers working and planning together, ensuring that whatever lesson a student is taken out of, that the student actually does get taught that same topic (but in a different way) and so is not disadvantaged. From my own experience, when this is done well, it causes less stress for both the teacher, the rest of the learners in the classroom and the withdrawn student. When the student returns to the mainstram classroom, as the gaps in learning are minimal, the student doesn’t necessarily feel different, so self-esteem is reasonably intact- a key ingredient to good learning.

Jyrki update, and my thoughts on the tutor…

Being a newie to the Blog world, I am so impressed by this communication medium, although suspect it is already being outdated!
Jyrki, thank you for coming back to me and adding a few details that I missed. Jyrki reinforces the role of the tutor meetings with parents, these take place between Oct-Dec, and again March-May, planning goals and reflecting on students self-assessment is given considerable emphasis. This makes so much sense, and understand how this collaborative work promotes confidence and trust in children, I.e they are so important and special, cared for, and they are therefore taken very seriously. The tutor is almost like a strategist that supports the family to secure the best outcomes for their child.

Another interesting observation is how the teacher culture is transparent and collaborative within the community. There is no working in silos, there is only co planning, so “moaning” is meaningless. Teachers as strategists, have confidence in requesting support, challenging norms to establish what they need. For example, when working as a tutor, a young person that exhibits attitudes that are challenging to shift, input is requested from various services, and joint planning supports an Individual Education Plan, supporting positive outcomes for that YP, and the tutor continues to lead with that student. I believe that this empowers and values the teacher professionally.

Vikki Training School – Helsinki

Another beautiful sunny Spring day in Helsinki. I Spent the day with Jyrki Loma, Principal at Vikki University. Jyrki spent time explaining the teacher training programme where pedagogy is a key aspect of teacher training. this was followed by observing maths and technology lessons, where each lesson was 75min. I still need to reflect on the teacher culture in the classroom, there was a definite gentleness and purposeful approach. In Finland, young people aspire to be primary school teachers as much as they would dream about wanting to be a pilot, a doctor or a lawyer. It is seen as being a privilege to teach young children and it is hugely competitive to get onto University degrees. A big emphasis of teacher training is spent on pedagogy, I.e. focus on how children learn and meeting needs of various learners as opposed to teaching. The school culture when working with parents, is approached as co planning, and so co-plan goals with students and parents. This means that the tutor spends about an hour with the parents and student around November time to establish strong links, with parents being updated weekly via a virtual platform. To further develop students ownership of their learning, the student is engaged in ongoing self assessment of goals. Learning in lessons is skills driven, with a strong framework of knowledge.
Student focused planning is a key priority, there are weekly “student welfare meetings”, discussions on students and barriers to learning which is driven by tutors and overseen by Deputy Heads. The school is also well supported by an Ed Psychologist, a doctor, nurse, social worker and counsellor. Great emphasis on student support to enable the young person being ready for learning. The school CPD has a significant amount of training that runs throughout the year on different types of learners, and every teacher is active in developing an Individual Learning Plan, thus supporting appropriate differentiation.
Culturally education is perceived as a privilege, and yes it is for FREE, from 6 to University (we should start suggesting to our children to come and study in Helsinki – it is also for free for EU citizens!!!). Curriculum design has no dead ends, whatever choice a young person makes, there is a visible next path…great flexibility in pathways, so you can start in car painting, go onto the Polytecnic, and then still go onto University.
Underpinning this educational setting is TRUST, not control, there is this precontractural trust, which is irrespective of possible risks. Relational trust is developed through cooperation, communication and experiences, and then there is structural trust which grows on the basis of close relations around the institutes structures. Trust and respect for teachers underpins this profession.