Reports from Eurotck 2010

Children in crisis situations

Report to follow.

Speakers - Annemie Grosshauser & Yolanda Jerrard

Safeguarding children and Vulnerable adults

Report to follow.

Speaker - Martin Lee

Good Practice in european tCK support

Following on from the success of this theme at Eurotck 2007, representatives from each country and from various support groups will highlight what is happening across Europe to support TCKs and their families both in the passport country and in those where they serve.

Speakers - from across Europe

Caring For carers

Marjory Foyle opened the conference with a devotional talk based on Psalm 147 v 1-20, under the headings

Handling the feelings of not belonging
We can never know all that God knows
What sort of things does God like in me?
He is so great - why is He interested in us?

Marjory drew on many years of experience working in India and Nepal among both nationals and expatriates.
Speaker - Marjory Foyle

2010 Seminar and Workshop Reports

Welfare Issues

Care From the word go (Double)

TCK care starts with early contact between a family and the agency they plan to work with. Asking questions and helping couples ask themselves questions need to keep happening throughout the family's time with the agency and possibly beyond into adulthood. Agencies, Bible colleges, local churches, books and TCK specialists can all play their part in the preparation, orientation and on-field ministry stages. Great value is attached to having TCK dedicated staff on home and field sides. They can act as resource people on educational and welfare matters. Networking among parents can also be most helpful.

Kezia reported on her survey of mission personnel experience of TCK care. While increasing attention is being paid to this area, recommendations for more information and training include:

Maintaining the first language (mother tongue).

Multilingualism and supporting those who struggle with language.

Identifying emotional responses to transition in children.

Helping under 5s with transitions.

Balancing family and ministry.

Raising girls in male-dominated societies.

Nurturing spiritual growth in children.

Equipping young adult TCKs to return to their passport countries for further education and work.

Educating home churches about TCK matters.

Supporting adult TCKs into and beyond their 20s.

Presenter - Kezia Schoonveld (WEC & MK Focus Netherlands)

Preparing Children to Live Cross-culturally (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenters - Janet Chapman (OMF UK & Re-Konnect), Yolanda Jerrard (NTM Europe)

The Next Chapter, including Organising Re-entry events (Double)

Change is external, but transition is an internal process with a characteristic shape. TCKs face multiple changes that bring many times of transition. Emerging out of this are common issues for TCKs such as identity, home, relationships, mobility, choice and control, continuity and the whole re-entry experience. TCKs very often find their sense of belonging in relationships with other TCKs.
Agencies and other TCK specialists need to find ways of helping them to connect, but also giving them a place to belong.

Drawing on the experience of leading seven ReKonnect camps in the UK for TCKs aged 6-12, Janet Chapman helped the group identify 14 aspects to consider when planning re-entry events for younger TCKs. These are

Choosing a location
Getting the right timing
Advertising
Building an intergenerational team
What Bible content to include and how
What ice-breaker activities to use
Integrating worship into the programme
Working on time lines with the children
Recognising the challenges they face
Building in a "window on the world".
What outings to include
Money matters - costs and possible subsidies
Including craft activities
Encouraging children to say good goodbyes

Recommendations

Plan separate events for younger TCKs or have a separate younger track.

Have a high ratio of leaders to TCKs so that there is opportunity for lots of listening.
Include time for TCKs to ask each other questions about their countries and time overseas. They ask very good questions!

Aim for TCKs or others with overseas experience as leaders.

Operate under a full safeguarding children policy.

Use creative, as well as spoken, means to encourage TCKs to share their unique stories

Build up a library of Christian and secular books about TCK life, travel, the passport country, making friends and handling change.

Provide information about teen TCK events for those who value belonging to a group that meets up annually

Have fun!!

A 5 day camp is a year of planning, but such a blessing

Invest in people who will be your advocates - personal recommendation works best.

For information about the UK's annual ReKonnect camps for 6-12s and teens visit www.globalconnections.org.uk
Presenters - Marion Knell (UK Global Connections), David & Janet Kronbach (Barnabas International), Janet Chapman (OMF UK and Re-Konnect re-entry camps)

Debriefing (Single)

Debriefing is giving the opportunity for a child to xpress himself about his joys and concerns about things that happened in his life." Käthi explained that it is important because children are valuable to us yet vulnerable. By helping them work out their feelings and tell their story they can turn the page and move on. The characteristics of agood debriefer were outlined, as were age-appropriate ways of making a room welcoming and conducive to talking and listening. It is important to explain to children and parents the purpose of debriefing and the limits of confidentiality.

Recommendations

Train more people in debriefing skills

Equip people to work with under 8s who think concretely, 8-12s who are beginning to think abstractly and with teens who are becoming independent in their thinking.

Have creative materials available and become competent in using them - consider toys, drawing, puppets shows etc for 4-7s; drawings, stories, poems, timelines etc for 8-12s

Consider significant actions such as laying down stones on which a burden is written that may help older children

Work within the limits of your expertise and learn to recognise when to refer on to another professional. Become familiar with that route.

Presenters Debbie Hawker (Interhealth), Käthi Schmid (OMF Switzerland)

Bi-Cultural Marriage (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenters - Wania Honman (WEC Brasil & UK), Claudio Muzzi (Argentina & UK)

Cross-cultural Families (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenters - Claudio Muzzi (Argentina & UK), Wania Honman (WEC Brasil & UK)

Psychologically Healthy Children (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenters - Marjory Foyle (Psychiatrist), Rachel Cason (Keele University researcher)

Theories of Attachment (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenters - Bjoern & Solveig Lande (Member Care Norway)

Support for TCKs in the Host Country (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenter - Guillermo (Bill) Eddy (Operacion Bernabe)

Education Issues

Long Term Planning for Success (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenter - a UK based education consultant with many years experience in planning for long-term success

English Language Learning for TCKs (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenter - Gill Bryant (WEC International & Wiltshire College ESOL teacher)

Non-traditional Education Options (Single)

Report to follow

Presenter - Moira Smith (OMF International)

Europeans in International Schools (Double)

The Bologna Process to create a European Higher Education Area is generally a positive development for TCKs studying in other education systems. The process has standardised the recognition of all of the European school leaving and university qualifications and created officially recognised levels of equivalence. For example a student in Russian language education can know what the university entrance requirement is in that system for Germany, or from French education for the UK. The European universities have also standardised the recognition of non-European systems. This includes the USA where the Advanced Placement (AP) is a recognised university entrance exam across Europe. In the UK the AP is now built into the UCAS points system in the same way as A levels or the IB.

Agencies, families and prospective university students need to be aware of this official recognition when applying. This is an ongoing process and individual university officials may be unaware of equivalency and recognition.

Results from a survey sent out to TCK schools under the EIMESC banner were presented. Most schools recognise the need to actively plan for their non-English speaking children by providing English as an Additional Language (EAL) and first language teaching. A small minority of schools don't offer EAL, although even here a number would like to. The shortage of EAL teachers is one of the main blocks. Very few schools offer first language teaching other than in English. A few schools are now offering Korean learning alongside English given that they have large numbers of Korean children studying there.
About half of the schools surveyed have sent delegates to conferences and about ¾ regularly receive magazines and e-bulletins that consider international issues.
Few schools have an internationalisation policy that consider all of the various internationalisation concerns.

The conference recommended that the EIMESC survey be followed up by sending results back to the schools concerned. All schools need a cohesive internationalisation policy that includes all of the relevant issues - EAL, first language learning, re-entry outside of North America, staff training through advance courses, followed by conferences and reading when at the schools.

The model of internationalisation developed over the past 20 years at Bourofaye Christian School in Senegal involves an English language core curriculum leading to the Cambridge International GCSE followed by all students. This is supplemented by an extensive EAL programme and first language (mother tongue) teaching for non native English speakers. The largest groups there at the moment are the Brazilians and Koreans, but the programme extends to cover all language groups, using distance education materials if required. The ongoing need for first language teachers was highlighted as one of the biggest challenges faced in consistently implementing this policy. Other schools run by SIL were noted as examples of similar innovative good practice in this area.

The conference group commend these good examples to other MK & international schools given that first language skills are essential to the long-term well-being and re-entry prospects of our non-Anglophone students.

Presenters - Christine Bryant & Alison Caligari (Bourofaye Christian School), Ann Christian (SIM), Carola Keil (MK Care Germany)

Multilingualism (Single)

There were personal contributions from different presenters on their own experiences of multilingualism. The need to learn the first language (mother tongue) was highlighted as crucial for a person's sense of identity and for long-term re-entry prospects. There is a danger of semi-lingualism where a person has a working knowledge of more than one language for everyday conversation, but does not have sufficient skills in any one language for further academic study. This danger is exaggerated when there are multiple changes of educational language during childhood. The goal is to study in a way that allows additive bilingualism, where the skills learned in each language enhance knowledge of the other as well as the ability to master new languagesand improve general learning skills.

The recommendations of Eurotck 2007 were reiterated. Agencies, families and international schools need to work together to ensure that children master the first language as well as the main educational language of the schools they attend. Agency staff need to provide guidance and good resources to help parents and their children achieve this goal. An important facet of this is good long-term planning that avoids mutiple moves that require a shift in the language of education, especially beyond the age of 11/12.

Presenters - Gill Cheffy (SIL), Angelika Jentzsch (MK Care Germany), Mirjam McWhinnie (WEC Switzerland), Belinda Ng (SIM International)

TCK Research & Its application (Single)

Report to follow.

Presenters - Aslaug Austbo & Kari Margrethe Solvang

Special Educational Needs (Single)

Report to follow

Presenter - Alison Caligari (WEC International Associate)

Other Sessions

Country Specific Groups

We plan to have a session where delegates from each country can meet with compatriots to discuss the issues specific to them, exchange ideas and respond to what they have heard in plenary talks and workshop discussions. Often it can be difficult to get everyone together on a regular basis, so we want to provide the format for good discussion without time pressure given that so many are there already.

Teachers' and educational consultants' discussion group

Three main questions were considered
1. How can more teachers for our TCK schools and family tutors be recruited?
Teacher recruitment from Europe is very low and has declined over the past 10 - 15 years.
A decision was made to explore relaunching the "Make the World Your Classroom" events that had taken place in the UK up to 6 years ago, with a first in Reading with its university and teacher training department, plus a number of larger mission-minded churches.

2. Given that a number of our schools have teaching assistants, newly qualified teachers and graduates without teacher training in the classroom, what can be done to enhance their teaching skills and allow on the job learning?
The group agreed to consult with the Senior Volunteers' Network and any other organisation or individuals willing to offer continuing professional development to our schools. The aim is to support in-school programmes already in place and to promote ongoing training.

3. What is recognised as good practice in assessing children's academic and welafre progress overseas?
Most agencies have made, or are making, policies in this area. The need for a policy as part of our duty of care as an organisation was stressed and that a laissez-faire approach does not seriously accept that responsibility. Such an approach can mean that some children lag behind their national peers academically or face a difficult welfare situation while the agency does nothing to intervene because of a planned or default "non-interference" policy. The dangers of forming policies which leave the way open for heavy-handed surveillance-style interpretation were recognised.
The group agreed with the best practice recommendations of the Global connections TCK Forum and other similar bodies that there should be regular and consistent assessment of children's academic and welfare progress. This should be no less frequent than every 2 years, preferably every year. These assessments could be done by organisations such as SHARE or by the agency's own staff.

Group discussion leader - Steve Bryant (WEC International)