"Time-in" project to be set up to help pupils with challenging behaviour

The education authorities in Baar are to launch a project entitled “Time-in” to help pupils whose behaviour in class can be challenging.

Rarely are there classes which can be referred to as homogenous these days, bearing in mind pupils come from all sorts of cultural backgrounds, have differing levels of concentration, with some demonstrating difficult behaviour, all of which presents a great challenge to teachers and affects other children in the class, too. While schools in Baar have been given professional support in this area, the effects have not been quite as desired, often because the time needed is just not there.

Hence pupils with challenging behaviour will be given a period away from the classroom. They are then taught separately over a four-to-six-week period before they are allowed to return.

Among those who have helped in developing this project over the past three years are Urban Bossard, Philippe Lau, Raphael Arnet, Sylvia Binzegger, Cornelia Simmen (who heads the project) and Peter Waser, who can be seen from left to right in the photograph).

Bossard, who is responsible for schools in the municipality, said how this course of action had been the subject of much discussion including specialist educationalists, the “Time-in” period providing pupils who need it with time to think how they might change their behaviour while still giving them a feeling of belonging, all very much a pioneering project.

Philippe Lau, the head of the school in Inwil and also a project leader, mentioned how the combined input from the child itself, the class, the teacher and the parents were all important in bringing about the desired change in behaviour and went onto explain how the project involved various stages. “First, we find out if the pupil is accepted in the class and has friends, then steps are taken to work out what concrete measures can be undertaken by the teaching staff to provide support. It is if all measures undertaken in the class and the individual school do not lead to the desired effect that the “Time-in” project will be implemented, the aim being to boost the pupil’s self-esteem over a six-week period, the pupil also taught on his or her own.

All parents of school-age children in Baar have been sent a 40-page brochure about the scheme, contact with parents, as mentioned, considered particularly important in all this. In addition to pupils on “Time-in” having a daily routine, they also benefit from a weekly experience in the woods, Waser explaining how a former munitions store amid local woodland had been hired, the pupils able to convert it to a den, the idea being for pupils to spend time together and socialise in a non-school environment, their personalities able to develop.

For her part, Binzegger said she was looking forward to the start of the project next month. Furthermore, she was confident it would be successful, not least as progress would be assessed regularly.