«It's not just about being there»

"Being a teacher is my vocation, which I acquired in a roundabout way as a trained carpenter. I'm currently training to become a secondary school teacher and teach a third class with secondary and intermediate school pupils, having previously worked at the same school at primary level. A colleague with 40 years of professional experience once gave me some advice: have the courage to fill the gaps. I have that.

Not everyone has to be able to do the same thing. It is more important that every child can make progress and realise this. I therefore invest a lot of time in supporting individual learning processes . My pupils often work on their own personal dossier - with content that they themselves help to determine, individual learning goals and tests.

For me, the limit is where I can no longer support a child because I don't know what to do.

The fact that I can teach like this is also due to the circumstances: My class has 13 youngsters. This would not have been possible in the canton of Zurich, where I had my first job - 19 children, 17 of whom spoke a foreign language. The small classes offer good conditions for supporting children with special educational needs.

I don't currently teach any pupils with special school status, but two have a diagnosis that requires targeted special educational support. The special needs teacher works in my class for four lessons a week.

We are a small school and organise our resources flexibly: if one of the nine teachers would be happy to have more curative education support, while things are going quietly for another, we give the other a bit of a break. «My» special needs teacher is a professional, and I'm grateful for that. As a primary school teacher, I often had to make do with untrained temporary staff.

But if, for example, a child has autism spectrum disorders or severe cognitive impairments, as a teacher you will face challenges for which you are not prepared and for which you lack the expertise. If you then lack the expertise, it is frustrating.

It was always important to me that integrated children take part in class lessons, that they can work on similar content to the others, simply at an appropriate level. But it's true: The more severe the impairment, the more difficult it becomes in the long term.

For me personally, the limit is where I can no longer support a child because I don't know what to do professionally. If it's just about being there, the child's right to education is jeopardised - as a teacher, I have to be transparent."