këtu - Qendra për Arsim e Kosovës

E.3. Cooperation with parents in the framework of the inclusiveeducational model(Ljiljana Radovanović Tošić)“Desanka Maksimović“school from Čokot is the biggest suburban school inNiš. The school has 970 students, and the lessons are provided in the mainschool in Čokot and another 8 classrooms located in surrounding villages.The school employs 103 persons, out of which 77 are teachers.This is a school with a long tradition and it started working in 1920. Theschool is open to changes and innovations. Six projects are beingimplemented in the current school year.The teaching staff is constantly involved in professional developmentprocesses and all the school employees have participated in many differenttrainings. Such professional development of teachers has enabledindividualized teaching and produced willingness to respond to differenteducational needs of children in an appropriate manner.The parents are actively involved in school life and work, and cooperationhas been established on all levels – from individual contacts, throughparticipation in school teams and bodies to the creation of an NGO (Centerfor promotion of parent-student-teacher cooperation) working in the school.The school has been involved in projects supporting the inclusive educationmodel development for several years. During this school year, 53 studentswere included in this education model. Twenty two of them are Romachildren. In the goal of implementation of these activities and theadvancement of individualized teaching the school pays special attention tocooperation with parents and their inclusion in the teaching process. Thistype of cooperation is not usual practice in our schools.The inclusion of parents in the teaching process is gradual and implementedon several levels: through informing of parents and communication withthem, parent education and inclusion in teams working on formulation ofindividual approaches and producing of individual education plans whennecessary.Communication between the school and parents is realized in differentmanners, through a school bulletin board, school website and parent-teacherconferences.The school has introduced a special aspect of cooperation with parents.Special parent-teacher conferences attended by the teacher directly involved78