Safety tutors promote peace and safety in schools - Tampere uses a unique procedure model
Matilda Sorsa from Hatanpää School, a Guidance Counselor and Security Tutor, presents an A4-size form entitled I have something to say. It is a reporting channel developed by Sorsa to allow students to anonymously report safety deficiencies in the school.
Sorsa has acted as a Security Tutor since its inception. She has been a Guidance Counselor at her school for eleven years, so she knows the students and they know her. In addition to being a Safety Tutor, she is a member of the school's Management Team, the Safety Team and the Pedagogical Support Team.
The school Safety Team meets every three weeks and discusses safety issues in general and the safety experienced by pupils. It has also organised safety walks and other safety training.
- As a Safety Tutor, I aim to improve pupils' overall sense of safety. It may not always be about the big issues. I started to think about how I could serve students in this area. They are pretty good at reporting problems to the staff, but there is always something that can go unnoticed, says Sorsa.
As a solution, she came up with the "I need to talk to you" channel. Notification forms are placed around the school and you can use the QR code on them to report problems. Sorsa was helped by the school's Student Council and other staff to create the channel. The channel has been used, for example, to report broken locks in the toilet, which the janitor came to fix.
- We have not received a single prank report, tells Sorsa.
The safety situation in Tampere schools is good
Security tutoring is paid on a monthly basis, and takes 1-2 hours a week from Sorsa. She thinks it is important to invest in safety issues. Sorsa praises the safety planners in Tampere's primary schools, who went around the schools and got to know the situations on the ground.
- Communication with parents is also very important, Sorsa stresses.
One of the visitors to Hatanpää school was Henri Rikander, Head of Security at the Education Services. He explains that schools are at slightly different levels when it comes to security, and this, together with the size of the school, affects the task of the Security Tutors. However, safety walks, first aid training and evacuation drills are on the agenda of all tutors.
- It must be remembered that, in addition to the Safety Tutors, everyone in the school is a safety actor, including the pupils, according to their level of development. For example, the obligation not to bully is already in the Basic Education Act, Rikander points out.
Rikander says that the safety situation in Tampere schools is generally good. Parents can let their children go to school with confidence.
- The city has invested a lot in school safety, and over the last ten years it has come to be seen as a value in itself. Well-being and safety go hand in hand, and every child must be guaranteed a safe learning environment in which to pursue their dreams. That is the best way to fight crime, acknowledges Rikander.
Rikander says the foundations are also in place.
- We have committed principals and functioning structures, he assures.
No single crisis behind the security tutors
Kristiina Järvelä, Director of Primary Education in Tampere, says that there is a pay settlement with the Security Tutors, which means that together with the union, they have been raised as a solution to the problem of the organisational batch. It was developed by the city's Development Teachers, so the invention is purely made and specified to Tampere.
- No single event or crisis has triggered the need for Safety Tutors, but we wanted to further develop and concrete the various safety measures at school level. Of course, for example, the nationwide public debate on the maltreatment of children and young people, bullying at school and during leisure time, especially in social media, the idealization of a culture of violence and other social phenomena have been the impetus to come up with different models for developing school safety, Järvelä explains.
- The implementation and development of the measures proposed by Rikander through the Safety Tutors has already borne fruit, she continues.
Other cities also interested in the Tampere's model
Senior specialist Riikka Nopanen from the Risk Management, Safety and Preparedness Unit of the City of Tampere says that Safety Tutors have the opportunity to influence the whole school culture by raising and reminding students about safety issues.
- Tutors can have expertise on the subject, which benefits the whole school community. During the spring, the tutors will be trained on issues such as bullying and conflict among children and young people, how to deal with these situations and how to resolve them, says Nopanen.
- In the past, the principal may have been alone in dealing with safety issues. Now the aim is to support this work and enable them to work together. Other cities have been interested and even a little jealous of Tampere's security model, she reveals.
