The University of Liège supports the LGBTQIA+ community
The University of Liège reaffirms its support for the LGBTQIA+ community and is committed to combating all forms of discrimination and violence based on gender or sexual preference.
As a public university open to the world and is anchored in the scientific, cultural and economic development of its region, the University of Liège relies on its three pillars: teaching, research and civic engagement.
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The University of Liège, through its Service of Analysis and Intervention in the fields of Dropout and Exclusion (AIDE - Education Department of the Faculty of Psychology, Speech and Language therapy, and Education) directed by Pr Ariane Baye, is setting up a school program of Support to positive behaviours in five pilot schools in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
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hrough a holistic approach involving the principal, the educational team and students, this program aims to improve the general climate and respect for rules within the school. It defines the positive behaviours expected to reduce behaviour problems and absenteeism. Indirectly, it must also make it possible to improve learning, academic achievements and thus also student success.
The Collège Saint-Martin to Seraing is the first pilot school to implement this program. On Monday 8 January 2018, the first 170 pupils in the first and second years of secondary school were brought together by the school management in the presence of all teachers and the Minister of Education, Marie-Martine Schyns, who is supporting this programme within the framework of the Pact of Excellence.
During the last three months, the management and educational team of the Collège Saint-Martin to Seraing have been trained by the ULiège team (Pr Ariane Baye, Caroline Deltour and Aurore Michel). The school's values were defined and then translated into the behaviour expected of students. These behaviours were presented to them on 8 January, 2018. When they arrived at the school, the students discovered a specific signage in the courtyard and in the buildings. Each teacher then presented "lessons" on expected behaviour in classrooms. The program lasts several months. Positive behaviours are valued by a system of symbolic rewards that each student can either keep for themselves or put into a common pot, giving them small "privileges" within the school.
The Positive Behavior Support Program (SCP) is a program currently implemented in more than 20,000 schools in the United States and in countries with an Anglo-Saxon tradition (Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom), but also in European countries such as Spain, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.
This is a program based on the Response to Intervention model (Fusch et al, 2003): it is organised into three levels, with level 1 being a prevention programme for all pupils, which should be effective for 80-90% of pupils, level 2 being more targeted interventions in schools for at-risk pupils, which should be effective for an additional 5-10% of pupils, and level 3 for the most extreme cases (between 1% and 5% of pupils) which require more intensive intervention, such as the use of external expertise at school.
The Positive Behaviour Support programme is part of the Evidence-based policy promoted by the Pact of Excellence: the project has proven its effectiveness in other educational contexts. It has been adapted to the specificities of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation by the AIDE team of the University of Liège (Dir. Pr. Ariane Baye, Researchers: Caroline Deltour and Aurore Michel). The effectiveness of the scheme will be measured through the participation of mirror schools (comparable schools that do not benefit from the scheme).
This project is consistent with the Decree aimed at "promoting the well-being of young people in school, school clashes, in particular by preventing early school leaving, absenteeism and exclusion, preventing violence at school and supporting school guidance" (Belgian Monitor, 2014, Article 3).
The University of Liège reaffirms its support for the LGBTQIA+ community and is committed to combating all forms of discrimination and violence based on gender or sexual preference.
As part of the Welbio Investigator Program call for projects, two FARAH projects and one GIGA project were selected for funding at the Université de Liège.
The Conseil Genre et Égalité de l'Université de Liège has developed a violentometer: a simple and effective tool to raise awareness of sexist and gender-based violence and harassment within our institution.