By Ayrton Senna Institute | Ayrton Senna Institute
Maria de Sousa Municipal School is located in Água Branca, a small town in upstate Piauí. There are 215 pupils enrolled between the 2nd and 5th grades of elementary school, attending classes from 7a.m. to 3p.m.
In 2013, school principal Thais Cardoso Siqueira recognized that 30% pupils had obtained grades that were lower than those expected for the school year. On top of this, data collected on a monthly basis showed that there was a high level of absenteeism and many pupils were not doing their homework.
School’s administrators subsequently planned a task-force in order to confront these problems and increase pupils performance. Everyone was invited to take part in the activities involved in this process: secretaries, assistants, teachers, coordinators and the principal. Some activities were:
At the end of the third quarter, the rate of students below expected performance had been reduced to 23%, whilst there was a surprise at the end of the year: a 100% pass rate across all the grades. “This result was a victory achieved by all professionals involved in the teaching-learning process,” said Thais. “In order to obtain the trust and engagement of the staff, I had to show commitment, not swerve from the focus, be a true partner and believe in change.”
The actions developed at Maria de Sousa School are a success example achieved when management tools are implemented and when the watchful eye of the principal is equally focused on each one of the pupils. This is how Ayrton Senna Institute has been working over the past twenty years: believing that any child and any young person can recover and increase their knowledge to successfully move forward at school and in life.
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