School social workers support young people in dealing with life. They work with children, young people, parents, teachers, educational staff and school administrators. They advise, inform and initiate prevention projects at individual schools and across schools. They work together with municipal departments and various institutions.
German, math, foreign languages - schools should impart knowledge. However, the skills that are often referred to as "soft skills" are at least as important: respectful cooperation, the ability to deal with conflict, social skills. The demands on schools are high. Added to this are the very individual requirements and personal situations of the pupils. A school system that is primarily intended to teach subject and professional skills and assess performance can reach its limits despite all the commitment. This is where the school social work of the city of Bonn comes into play to provide support.
Strengthen self-confidence and discover skills
The specialists are there for the children and young people, think about their needs and support them in learning to deal with life. In addition to the challenges they face at school, young people also have to deal with other issues for which they may need help. Be it tensions in the classroom, learning difficulties, bullying, problems in connection with flight and war experiences, family stress or economic hardship. The school social workers support children and young people in strengthening their self-confidence and discovering their abilities. School social workers use a variety of methods to do this, including counseling, support and referrals for pupils, parents and teachers, prevention and intervention through group work and projects or vacation activities.
In addition to providing individual support for children and young people, school social workers also help the class community in a very concrete way. Promoting democracy is an important area of their work. For example, the staff provide advice and support when setting up a class council and show children and young people how they can stand up for their interests. There are also projects on the topics of political or religious extremism, cyberbullying and, most recently, the burden of anxiety on young people.
The field of activity of school social work staff is diverse, and the focus of school social work is constantly changing. For example, cyberbullying was not as controversial more than ten years ago as it is today. This has changed with access to smartphones and social media. Employees are also observing that the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic are having a massive impact on children and young people. And the war in Ukraine has not left the pupils untouched either. Here, school social work is trying to provide stabilizing services.
Social space-oriented work
School social work in Bonn is fundamentally social space-oriented. This means that the school social workers act as holistically as possible and involve other partners in addition to the children and young people, their families and the school, such as independent providers or youth welfare services, in order to be able to use as many resources as possible. For this reason, school social work is also represented in local working groups and networks.
