AE20 - Associação para a Educação de Segunda Oportunidade

education, working especially with disfavoured young people with low qualifications, unemployed and at risk of social exclusion. Its main activity is to run Escola de Segunda Oportunidade de Matosinhos, a pilot project that started in 2008, the only second chance school in the country, member of the European network of second chance schools (E2C-Europe). The school targets 15 to 25 year olds who have left school without finishing their basic education due to social and emotional difficulties that impeded their continuing engagement in formal learning. Often the circumstances behind this related to the negative view of their families with respect to their experiences of education, due to difficult family experiences related to unemployment, poverty, alcohol and drug misuse, etc. All the young people in the school are themselves vulnerable as a result of the unfortunate cycle of their poor educational standing impacting on their aspirations for their futures. They have been prey to teenage pregnancies and substance abuse and continue to live in poor conditions. In summary their situation is due to many social, economical, personal and educational reasons that constitute the context of these vulnerable young people’s lives. Many students are referred through “court support teams” for young offenders, and others come through social services, mainstream schools and in general word of mouth peer-to-peer information. The school has 70 student places lasting one year, which can begin at any point in the year. Building up a portfolio of work leads to certification equivalent to the sixth or ninth year of school. The school’s follows an holistic pedagogical approach through a “dynamic connection and combination between subjects”. The students develop their own Individual Training Plans, combining vocational, artistic, school and personal and social skills. Personal and social education is taught in a cross cutting way through different media, in response to issues that arise within a group, individual or family setting. Parental education is provided also for parents asking for help with different issues such as benefits, food and jobs. The school offers a positive environment and an arts based curriculum which attracts the attendance of these young people and encourages their learning, engaging with the realities of their lives accepting them as human beings with a potential to be developped. AE2O develops also other activities of training, exchange and spreading of experiences and is certified by national agency DGERT as accredited training provider.