Burgas council held a seminar yesterday on how to stop children dropping out of school, the council says. The event took place at the Youth International Centre in Burgas, under the title "A Chance for the Future – Good Practices and Building Lasting Partnerships".

Heads of partner schools and kindergartens, teachers, education mediators, psychologists and career advisers took part. The day was split into three lecture sessions, group discussions and work on real cases.

Speakers covered how to spot early signs that a child may be about to drop out, how to work with families from vulnerable communities on the ground, and how to get parents more involved in school life. Participants then split into small groups to go through cases from the system used to track school attendance, and worked out steps for schools, council staff and social services to take together.

Elena Zhekova, a school counsellor at Elin Pelin secondary school in the village of Ruen, said home visits are a conversation, not an inspection. The aim, she said, is to find out why a child is missing school and work out the right solution, not just note down the problem. "Sometimes the hardest step toward school isn't the pupil's to take — it's ours," she said.

Tatyana Stoyanova, a primary-level after-school teacher at Vasil Levski municipal school in the Gorno Ezerovo district of Burgas, said staff don't start with "why aren't you coming to school?" Instead they ask how the child is doing, what's going on, what they need and how staff can help. She said every child has a story behind them, and before staff can keep a child in class, they first have to earn that child's trust.

Nina Kutsarova, a senior teacher at the Temenuga kindergarten in the village of Ravnets, gave an example from her own kindergarten. "A child only starts learning once they feel emotionally safe and their basic needs are met," she said.

The seminar falls under sub-activity 1.4, "Building lasting institutional partnerships and close-knit school communities", part of the project "A Chance for the Future" (BG05SFPR001-1.002-0008-C01), under the "Access to Education for Every Child" scheme (BG05SFPR001-1.002) of the 2021-2027 Education Programme, co-funded by the EU. The project aims to stop children of pre-school and school age dropping out and keep them in class.

The project is led by the Burgas regional education department, with Burgas and Sredets councils and nine schools and kindergartens as partners: Hristo Botev primary school in the Pobeda district of Burgas, Vasil Levski municipal school in Gorno Ezerovo, Sts Cyril and Methodius primary school in Ravnets, the Vocational Technical High School in the Akatsiite district, Temenuga kindergarten in Ravnets, Sinchets kindergarten with its branch in Gorno Ezerovo, Elin Pelin secondary school in Ruen, Dr Petar Beron primary school in Vresovo, and Sts Cyril and Methodius secondary school in Sredets.

The council will gather the practices presented and the conclusions from the discussions into an electronic document and send it to all partner schools. The aim is for approaches that work to be taken up by other schools and kindergartens across the Burgas region too.