This document discusses strategies for reducing early school leaving at a school in Italy. It describes detecting students at risk, selecting tailored activities to engage them, monitoring their progress, and evaluating the outcomes. Key approaches involved offering competence development support and hands-on workshops, using small groups and letting students take new roles, such as through eTwinning projects where they collaborate with foreign partners. Evaluations found these non-traditional strategies improved student performance on tests when combined with collective learning and involvement of teachers, students, parents and the community. Motivation is important to engagement, so adding "chocolate" or enjoyment to teaching is encouraged.

1. Reducing early school leaving:
the very first step of any success story
Laura Maffei
Teacher – eTwinning Ambassador
Scuola Secondaria di Primo grado
«Arnolfo di Cambio»
Colle di Val d’Elsa (SI) – Italy
laura_maffei@yahoo.com

2. 2016: where is the EU?
Source: Education and Training Monitor 2015

3. ...where are European Countries?

4. …and where is my school?
• lower secondary school (800 students, 11-14)
• set in Colle di Val d’Elsa (around 21.000 inhabitants)
• internal and external immigration (16% of students have foreign born parents)
• fourth mosque in Italy
• near the Chianti area
• industrial area
• high tourism and occupability
…before the CRISIS
«Arnolfo di Cambio»

5. breaking the cycle
• 7% of students failing in 2012-2013
• of whom, 45% with foreign born parents
• and 30% under the care of Social Services
• local professional Institutes report ESL at 16/17%
• youth unemployment in the area: 18.4 %
Early School Leaving DEPENDS on
where you come from
and DETERMINES
where you are going to be in society

6. Our Project: POSSO, VOGLIO… RIESCO
I can, I will… I make it
• Step 1: DETECT learners at risk
• Step 2: SELECT among a range of activities
• Step 3: MONITOR the progress
• Step 4: EVALUATE
• Step 5: DISSEMINATE results
• Step 6: ADJUST/RETHINK

7. DETECT
We defined a set of criteria for identifying students at risk of dropping out:
- scarce involvement of the families in the pupil’s school life
- students with high rate of negative marks in the different subjects
- students failing in the previous school years
- students with personal, social, economic, gender disadvantage
and for boosting the chances of success in the whole keeping-in process:
- students with (almost) regular attendance
- no major behavior issues
- interest for different aspects of school life: art/ICT/technical-practical activities, etc…
quick detection and identification of learners at
risk of early school leaving is crucial to success

8. SELECT
if the everyday lesson doesn’t apparently work for some students,
it won’t help giving them the same kind of lesson twice
We offer the pupils two different pathways. Teachers choose the more suitable
pathway for them, but the families have to approve of it.
• Activities A: competence development support
(English, Maths, Italian)
• Activities B: inclusive and coordinated workshops and lessons from both
educational and non-educational stakeholders: Art/Music/Theatre
workshops, hands-on workshops at the local Professional Institutes,
seminars, counselling services.

9. What kind of lesson?
• Students work in small groups, out of their classes (controversial
decision, but with a reason)
• Activities A can easily fall back into the catch-up-lesson standard
• To avoid this, we have the students step out of their comfort zone and
take a different role
• eTwinning is perfect here:
• by meeting foreign partners, new to everyone, they can be «new» as
well: they can redefine themselves, how they learn, what they need,
and discover their talents.
Hint: here comes eTwinning

10. Giving reasons to stay
• Personally, I involve these students in my running eTwinning
projects
• they are my «experts» (in whatever I find them expert… and
they always are)
• every frontal lesson is linked to an aspect of the project
they will later work on
• I let the students introduce their work during school
meetings and other events
• I encourage their collaboration with each other and with
the foreign partners
• I try to make them feel important, useful, competent
it’s not only a matter of knowing or doing, but also of feeling

11. EVALUATE
The evidence collected during these three years shows
that students following these pathways perform better also in national tests
non-traditional strategies + a collective approach to learning
work well also for traditional tests
The key to success is INVOLVEMENT – of teachers and students first, then
parents, local community, authorities and companies
Surprise: it works!

12. The chocolate bar
• students need motivation
• a good mark is often not enough to engage them
• all of them can get to the competences, but along different
pathways
• …all of them can get to the biscuit, but some of them need extra
chocolate
Add some chocolate to your teaching 

13. Still curious?
• Strategic framework – Education & Training 2020
• Expert Groups 2011-2013
• Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy support -
Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School
Leaving - November 2013
• POSSO, VOGLIO… RIESCO
• The Book Lovers eTwinning project and blog
• Eat Pray Love eTwinning Project and blog
Why don’t you read…
laura_maffei@yahoo.com