Schools Program

"School" is a program that has the main purpose to promote the welfare, the good treatment and the healthy school life of children and young people through the development of life skills through activities sociodeportivas in their school communities.

Depending on the context, you can engage with the surrounding community to the educational establishment. This means, that, if the infrastructure is not enough, the sessions can be conducted in a space adjacent to the school, where in addition to involving the boys and girls of the neighborhood that does not necessarily attending that school. Another possible scenario is that the program is fully developed inside of the school, but by inviting the children of the neighborhood to participate, but inside the place. Finally, it can be done only and exclusively within the school and to the community in specific.

Atendiendo las particularidades anteriormente mencionadas, suele desarrollarse dentro de los establecimientos educacionales y está dirigido, fundamentalmente, a los y las estudiantes. Sin embargo, en ese espíritu, también se trabaja con los otros integrantes de la comunidad escolar: el cuerpo docente, los apoderados y las apoderadas, los y las auxiliares, en general todos aquellos que califican en el concepto de adulto/a significativo/a para los NNA.

Además de velar por el bienestar, el buen trato y la sana convivencia, «Escuelas» se ocupa de la sostenibilidad del cuidado socioemocional de los NNA, a través de la facilitación de herramientas a líderes y lideresas de la comunidad escolar. En este sentido, hay una relación interpersonal con los beneficiarios mucho más directa, que valida aún más la imagen y el rol del docente.

Within the "Schools" there are certain decisions that are taken in conjunction with the authorities of the colleges, and aim to whether the activities are performed within the hours JEC (Full School Day) or are part of the variety of extracurricular activities; the same if it is channeled through the physical education class, or are made from another pathway, such as sports workshops. Even, in certain interventions, considering that schools are sometimes perceived as entities rather closed, it has been sought to open the program linked with the communities that surround it. This usually happens when the program is run on a schedule extraprogramático, in such cases, the call is much more extensive that if the program is to develop within hours JEC.

Sessions sociodeportivas

In comparative terms, the reality of a session sociodeportiva of "School" is very similar to the "Quarters". Are performed in tandem and keep the same structure. The big differences spend by the fact that in the case of "Schools" the program conforms to the rules and requirements of the establishment in which he says relationship with schedules and with certain emphasis theme that depend on the guidelines of the educational project.
On the other hand, the participation of boys and girls is secured and, in addition, there is usually a balance between the number of men and women who are part of the activities. Finally, if in "Barrios" the fundamental concept is community cohesion, in "Schools" everything revolves around the school life.

La Liga también es parte fundamental. En este caso, aunque sea obvio decirlo, la experiencia se da entre escuelas. La liga interescolar puede realizarse en la modalidad de ida y vuelta, vale decir, una escuela visita a la otra y luego se invierten los papeles; o bien, los equipos de las escuelas se reúnen en un recinto, donde participan de manera conjunta.
The age range of those who are added to the program ranges from six to fifteen years, and very much in the logic of the Schools are divided by courses or levels.

History

«Escuelas» no fue un programa pensado en el sentido estricto del término. La realidad fue la que impuso su lógica y obligó a «Fútbol Más» a adecuar la metodología que se aplicaba en «Barrios». Coincidió con la etapa de internacionalización. La Fundación ya estaba instalada en Ecuador cuando surgió la posibilidad de trabajar en Haití. Fue unos años después del terremoto que azotó a la isla en 2010 y que dejó 316 mil muertos y un millón y medio de casas destruidas. Un equipo de «Fútbol Más» desembarcó en la isla en 2014 para trabajar en el asentamiento de Canaán, un espacio que fue ocupado tras el terremoto y que para ese año congregaba a 400 mil habitantes. La intención era volcar ahí el programa «Barrios» que se había estrenado en Chile y que se había ejecutado, con algunos ajustes, en Ecuador. Sin embargo, aquello era más difícil en Haití. No tanto por los estragos ocasionados por el terremoto, sino porque en la lógica organizacional del país era más prudente trabajar desde las escuelas.

The reality required flexibility. Then came the schools as the place around which the boys and girls were agglutinated, and also appeared in the policies of proxies and empowerment, and the professors and the teachers. Suddenly, in an almost organic way, the adaptation of the program "Neighborhoods" had morphed into "Schools". And almost in the same way, the new program went into the schools of Canaan, and won a space in the school schedule. Without that there would be a planning a rigid and pre-established, "Schools" was finding its way in a natural way. They began to form bridges between the schools, and the Green Card became an instrument occupied by teachers, and validated by the boys and girls.

The experience with the teaching staff in Haiti was very special. In the beginning, it was not easy because the team of Futbol Mas arrived to change the way of doing things and, in fact, that was not the idea. Quickly, in the middle of a country with a cultural reality that is very different to the rest of Latin America, there was that to consider a different way of interacting with the faculty. Had to give them tools and help them to handle stress. Thus was born the "Place of Education".

"Place of Education" in an instance in which the objective is the body of male and female teachers. It is a space in which to leave aside their role as educators, to afford the game, to retrieve the part of the child or the child that you were. It is a flagship initiative of the Schools "program" and one of the most valued and well received by the faculty. Somehow, the Foundation contributes to the educational project, ensuring the mental health of the teachers.

La historia del «Camarín Educativo» está muy relacionada a la pandemia y a la necesidad de trabajar la salud mental de los y las docentes y asistentes. La carga era alta y el estrés gatillado por el contexto de emergencia sanitaria tensionó mucho el clima entre profesores y profesoras. El «Camarín Educativo» se dedicó a trabajar desde el vínculo significativo, el trabajo en equipo y el reconocimiento y la expresión de emociones para atender ese difícil momento. Hoy, es una de las líneas de acción estelares de «Escuelas», gracias al positivo feedback que entregan las y los docentes.

It is necessary to say that this initiative is not the only way of relationship with the teachers and professors. There is a line of training in running a methodological transfer so that they can implement strategies and tools of Futbol Mas in the classroom. There is also a training to perform activities outside of the classroom, in which the monitors of the Foundation carried out an accompaniment. There were even times in which we worked in groups or individually with some of them. In each of these cases, the objective was addressed to boys and girls.
In all countries in which it has been implemented in the Schools "program", one of the great legacies has been the incorporation of the gaming experience as a complement to the learning, and not just for the physical education class. The methodology of Futbol Mas has shown that the game can be a great ally for both classes of history, math, chemistry, strictly to the teaching of any subject.  

In Canaan (Haiti), not only joined the gaming experience, it also created schools, in such a way that each school was left with 70 table games, and the team of Futbol Mas was held to train teachers to channel the raw materials of various subjects through these games.
In this sense, the methodology of Futbol Mas incorporated into the teaching has enabled us to expand the range of possibilities of the faculty with respect to innovate in the classroom, offering to channel the learning from the logic of boys and girls or, at least, from an approach that protects their rights, especially the right to play and, from there, to manage the teaching from a status much more motivating.

On the other hand, the participation of the children in the program Futbol Mas has allowed us to obtain more information on each one of the students from a different relationship, which has provided the possibility to teachers and specialists of the schools to perform work much more personalized with each one of the students, in order to generate changes and transformations in their path of learning and development.

The tour of the Schools "program" has only been possible with the support of different public and private stakeholders who have allowed their development. In all countries, the program works much from the co-teaching and conforms to the guidelines of the Ministries of Education and their curriculum, including the sport for the development of the educational project from the Physical Education.

En Chile, por ejemplo, el programa se desarrolla en once establecimientos de la Región de O’Higgins. En 2023 cumplió su tercer año de trabajo continuo bajo el nombre de «Educando desde el Juego y el Deporte». Más allá de profundizar lo que plantea la metodología de «Fútbol Más» llevada al aula, la intención es seguir sumando escuelas en el mediano plazo para así generar un impacto aún mayor. Al mismo tiempo, uno de los focos hacia donde se dirigen los esfuerzos es al robustecimiento de la liga escolar entre establecimientos.

«Educando desde el Juego y el Deporte» se ha validado de manera unánime entre las y los docentes, no solo a partir de lo que ocurre en la cancha. Por ejemplo, en las clases de arte se trabaja en el diseño de elementos que puedan ser usados por las barras de estudiantes que alientan a su equipo durante los encuentros con otras escuelas.

La articulación e implementación de este programa ha contado con un agente clave: la empresa Agrosuper. Dentro de su estrategia de vinculación con la comunidad, Agrosuper ha centralizado su quehacer en «Fútbol Más», entendiendo que a través de esta alianza puede aportar de manera significativa al proceso escolar de las niñas y niños de las ocho comunas donde se desarrolla el programa en la región. Los resultados avalan que la combinación entre la actividad física y el juego, impactan positivamente en la sana convivencia escolar, y que es posible seguir invirtiendo en un proyecto que es tan ambicioso como sustantivo para las infancias. Desde el 2014, Agrosuper ha apoyado tanto «Escuelas» como el programa «Barrios», contribuyendo al desarrollo de las comunidades en general y de las infancias en particular.

The entirety of the program, which includes not only teachers, but the entire school community, is something that the actors stand out in all the countries where it takes place. 

Monitoring and evaluation

One of the interesting aspects of the evaluation of the "Schools" is the measurement of the climate of school life which is performed using a tool validated by us universities known as CSCI, which is a questionnaire developed by the National School Climate Center (NSCC), which measures the school climate on the basis of five dimensions. This instrument has shown very significant changes in the relationship between peer and security warned in stores on different executions of the program.

The most emblematic case is that of the schools of the region of O'higgins (Chile). When Futbol Mas began his speech, at the beginning of 2021, the relationship between pairs was weighted in 14%; at the end of the year, this indicator had risen to 28%. The data is storyteller and shows the work towards improving the school life that is of "Schools".

Más allá del positivo indicador, para 2023 la Fundación ha trabajado en las evaluaciones para hacerlas más rigurosas a partir de emplear grupos de control que permitirán tener una información mucho más valiosa del comportamiento del estudiantado, que no solo servirá a los niños y a las niñas y a sus respectivas escuelas, también a las municipalidades, corporaciones de educación y SLEP (Servicios Locales de Educación Públicas), ya que esos insumos les ayudarán a tomar decisiones en torno a cómo llevar a cabo su desarrollo educativo o cómo modificar sus programas de enseñanza. 

Being consistent with the methodology of Futbol Mas, the assessment is also crossed by the game. An example of this is what is done in the training of teachers. With the understanding that they usually have an overload of work, when the evaluation is done this is done on the pitch. It divides the faculty into two teams, they passed plates, and instructs them to find a treasure from a series of clues that are associated to the concepts that you want to measure. With all the tracks/concepts to build a phrase and that phrase continues to work in the room, making a final closure which can be defined as a theoretical/practical/playful. Thus, the initial resistance of the faculty to add a new assessment, which for them means more work, it ends up being an experience that is appreciated not only by returning to the game, to be children again, but also because they end up getting to know their colleagues in another facet.

In this same line, in the schools, it is performed an intervention that is marked by the line of training. In addition to training teachers, and the teachers regarding the importance of the game and the methodology of Sport for Development, they are trained in the use of the Green Card. This is very relevant to the progress of the program in the establishments and mark the most important advances in the relationship they have with the students.

The positive link acquires greater significance and power of the proximity with the teacher or tutor, from the stimuli favorable than those delivered to the students, reclaiming the role of the teacher as to become tutors of resilience. Both the Green Card as the Blue Card —it is used when looking to correct or change some attitudes— challenge the learning process, making it a dynamic in constant growth that seeks to open new spaces for the formation of the student.

Noteworthy is the case of a group of teachers in the north of Chile, he decided to create a card holder, which ended up incorporating into their classes. Every time there was a positive behavior, they/them recognized with this instrument, in such a way that, throughout the year, the boys and girls were adding green cards, which resulted in a change of attitude on the part of them. In the same way, the teachers valued the possibility of incorporating an instrument that does not put emphasis on the bad news —as it happens with the blade of negative entries, but in the recognition of the good actions or behaviors.