City Hall prepares pre-teens for the pressures of jumping to high school
The Department of Addiction Prevention, through the UPCCA (Unit for Community Prevention in Addictive Behaviors) and with the collaboration of the Associated Center of the UNED of Dénia, has organized a new edition of the Social Skills workshop with 6th grade students. The first part of the workshop takes place from November 9 to 18, with a total of 486 schoolchildren from 10 educational centers in Dénia, La Xara and Jesús Pobre participating.
Last Monday, the Councilor for Addiction Prevention, Melani Ivars, attended one of the sessions, given at the Cervantes public school, to see the dynamics of this activity and how they permeate student learning.
The objective of the workshop is for students to acquire, develop and improve skills related to social skills, providing them with tools that allow them to have an adequate interaction in different social contexts and facilitate behavior control in different situations in which they may find themselves. throughout life.
The students, through play, visualization, analysis and reflection of real situations, work on social skills to improve them in their relationships and interactions, both with equals and with other people; as well as the best handling and management of conflictive situations. In this workshop, self-esteem, empathy, decision-making, group influence and pressure, and assertiveness are worked on.
In the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, and unlike in other years, the activities of each session are carried out in the classroom, without mobility of the chair or physical contact between the students.
At the end of the session, the students write anonymously the conflicts that affect them, which will be worked on in the second part of the Social Skills workshop scheduled for March 1 to 10, 2021.
Likewise, once each session is over, the teachers complete a questionnaire in order to assess the incidence of the activity and its practical utility. In the opinions collected, the teachers emphasize that working on social skills is essential to help students in their development and in fact, some have already been working on these concepts in their own classroom throughout the course.
The intervention is carried out at this age because they are in pre-adolescence and subject to an important life change, and about to start in secondary education, joining the institute where they will meet new friends, influences and pressures.