The first meeting of the SOS-Attendance project took place in Alicante (Spain) from July 19th to 21st. It gave the opportunity to enjoy 6 Round Table Discussion (RTDs). In this collaborative environment, representatives of high schools and researchers could expose their points of views about the development of the project. Moreover, they were able to learn and discuss with their peers different opinions. Even though, it is complicated to summarize all the interesting ideas, personal experiences and exceptional contributions that were made, you can know about the most important detected needs and future directions of the project.
Regarding future steps “it is crucial to follow a work plan and commit to times and tasks” was the most important agreement achieved during the RTD called Analysis of the project plan: strengths and limitations. Also, participants pointed out that being in contact despite the distance is important. Another RTD was Future research on school absenteeism: opportunities and challenges in which researchers achieved an unanimous agreement. These were regarding the development of intervention program grounded in the ecological perspective, while considering all distant and prospective factors that affect youth’s attendance problems. In this way, during the RTD focused on School absenteeism in Spanish high schools: needs and proposals, participants emphasized that “high schools need more parents’ collaboration, and tools to increase their knowledge about the negative consequences of their children’s absenteeism”.
About the dissemination of the project, there were 3 different RTDs. Participants discussed about its website. They thought that “it is the cover letter of the project” and, for this reason, it must be updated constantly with all activities that the observatory is doing. In the same way, the idea of broadcasting through social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook) was also mentioned. Also, they pointed out their efforts to disseminate the concession of the project and its objectives. Moreover, as they declared “nowadays we must continue with the broadcasting of our founds through different media” to get to as much population as possible. In addition, high schools are considered an essential tool to disseminate the project to the education community (teachers, families, students…).
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Location: Alicante