Various authorities in the educational system of the German-speaking Community perform the task of providing support systems. The pedagogical advisory services (Fachberatungen) for primary and secondary schools, the school development counselling service (Schulentwicklungsberatung), the school advisory service for inclusion and integration (Schulberatung für Inklusion und Integration), the Competency Centre (ZFP Kompetenzzentrum), the Centre for Special Needs Pedagogy (Zentrum für Förderpädagogik), the special needs teachers, the Centre for the Healthy Development of Children and Teenagers (Kaleido East Belgium) and the Time-Out facility are described below in more detail.

Pedagogical advisory services

In the long term, the work of the pedagogical advisory services should contribute to the improvement of school and teaching quality. They are intended as support for primary school teachers and pre-primary school teachers. First and foremost, - pedagogical advisory services respond to specific questions from schools, teacher groups or individual teachers. Thus, the focus is always on competences and -core curricula. The pedagogical advisory services also work out targeted offers for schools and continuing education days.  A distinction is made between pedagogical advisory services for primary and secondary schools. 

Pedagogical advisory services for primary schools

In September 2009, t the pedagogical advisory service for primary schools was set up for the core subjects German, mathematics and French. In September 2012, five further advisory services were launched: one of them to supportpre-primary education teachers and the other four for the subjects of history, geography, music and art.

Pedagogical advisory services for secondary schools

The pedagogical advisory services for secondary schools are currently still being developed.  Advisory services are planned for the subjects German, French first foreign language (FLE), mathematics and sciences. French first foreign language and science advisory has already been introduced in 2019. Since September 2023, the pedagogical advisory service for German has also been active.

School development counselling service

Tasks

The school development counselling deals with quality assurance and development of schools and, at the request of the school headmaster or the school authority (Official Subsidised Education System, Free Subsidised Education System, Community Education System), takes on numerous tasks concerning primary and secondary education and continuing education:

• It concretizes the development needs of the school on the basis of the quality assurance and development goals that the school has worked out on its own responsibility;
• It supports the establishment of internal structures for school development;
• It carries out quality school development measures;
• It promotes the school's internal teamwork and communication;
• It establishes the internal coherence of organisational development, personnel development and teaching development;
• It regularly documents the results of the development process and provides feedback to the schools;
• It informs the schools about further support possibilities if required;
• It can participate in the oral feedback of the external evaluation at schools.

In addition, the school development advisory service supports the school inspection in:

• performing tasks in the pedagogical field, which are carried out on behalf of the government;
• writing reports for the government;
• carrying out all other tasks provided for in the law or decree or in the regulations for the implementation of the law or decree.

Implementation of the tasks

The school development counselling service has the right: to attend classes in consultation with the headmaster or, in his absence, with his substitute, and to engage a broad dialogue with the members of the school community; to inspect all documents relevant to the performance of the tasks.

Legal basis

The legal basis is the Decree of 25 June 2012 on school inspection, school development counselling and School Counselling for Inclusion and Integration.

School Counselling for Inclusion and Integration

Tasks

The School Counselling for Inclusion and Integration deals with the quality assurance and development of special needs education in the teaching system and, at the request of the school headmaster or the school authority (Official Subsidised Education System, Free Subsidised Education System, Community Education System), performs the following tasks:

• It prepares expert opinions for the government in the field of special needs education, in particular concerning measures applied for in the field of integration and inclusion;
• It prepares, processes and evaluates special needs education concepts and projects in cooperation with school authorities, schools and other institutions concerned;
• It prepares pedagogical expert reports;
• It advises in questions of special needs education;
• It supports the integration and inclusion of pupils in the educational system through case management in complex case problems;
• It supports school development counselling in carrying out tasks in the field of inclusive school development;
• It assists the school inspection in carrying out tasks in the area of mediation in the field of remedial education.

Implementation of the tasks

The School Counselling for Inclusion and Integration has the right: to attend classes in consultation with the headmaster or, in his absence, with his substitute, and to maintain a broad dialogue with the members of the school community; to inspect all documents that are relevant, relevant and useful for the performance of the tasks.

Professional secrecy

School counselling for inclusion and integration is bound by professional secrecy in the performance of its activities.

Legal basis

The legal basis is the Decree of 25 June 2012 on school inspection, school development advice and school advice for inclusion and integration.

Competence Center

The competence centre supports schools in their work in areas such as language, reading and writing, German as a second language/teaching for first-year pupils, autism spectrum disorders, social-emotional development (secondary schools), mathematical learning and the promotion of gifted children.

Pedagogical diagnostic procedures are an integral part of the services provided by the Competence Centre of the Centre for Special Needs Education (ZFP). They cannot be requested or published in isolation, but are always used as part of the competence center's holistic consulting and support services.

A competence-oriented diagnosis aims to continuously assess the level of knowledge, learning progress and performance challenges of individual students.

This includes assessing the specific difficulties of different learning tasks in class.

The didactic action can thus be adjusted accordingly on the basis of these "diagnostic" insights.

Appropriate differentiation and individualisation of teaching is based on the integration of competence-oriented diagnosis into everyday teaching. By recording the individual ideas and existing competencies of all students, the heterogeneity of the learning group, which is always present anyway, becomes more apparent. The adaptation of learning offers to this heterogeneity can already be implemented with self-differentiating tasks and does not necessarily have to take place through different learning arrangements for individual pupils. Differentiation within a task is thus an essential criterion for suitable diagnostic tasks.

The Competence Center of the ZFP includes the use of and introduction to various competence-oriented diagnostic procedures in its services for the teaching system in the German-speaking community.

Support teachers

Low-threshold special needs teachers are part of the primary school teaching team on which they work. They do not belong to a special school or the Centre for Special Needs Education.

Special needs teachers support their colleagues. They plan support measures for children and implement them. The measures are varied: they range from preparing teaching material to carrying out activities with an entire class, a group of pupils or an individual pupil. The interventions also vary in length. Sometimes a short meeting is enough, for example to work through a chapter in arithmetic. Sometimes an intervention lasts several months.

In essence, the tasks of a remedial teacher in the low-threshold area are as follows:

• observe a lesson, individual students and groups of students;
• advise and support teachers in the execution of lessons or targeted measures for individual pupils (groups of pupils);
• introduce or prepare special materials or procedures that teachers and/or pupils can subsequently use independently;
• work with children (ideally up to 70% of working time);
• keeping individual progress records of the students;
• participate in regular meetings between Kaleido and the school; guarantee that Kaleido is involved in every development process;
• coordinate internal and external support (teachers, therapists, etc.) and parent contacts;
• review materials and create a catalog;
• Participate in team meetings and conference days, supervision under the direction of the ZFP Competence Center, continuing education.

Centre for the Healthy Development of Children and Teenagers (Kaleido East Belgium)

 Organisation

The Centre for the Healthy Development of Children and Teenagers is divided into a central management office and local branches.

• The central management office is the headquarters of the centre's management. The Directorate involves the staff of the local branches in the form it deems appropriate in questions of content.
• The Centre comprises four local branches, which are headed by branch managers who report to the Directorate. The staff members working in the local branches are the direct contacts for the target audience. They ensure that the content-strategic guidelines of the Board of Directors or the Directorate are implemented in practice. They regularly exchange information on the further development of the Centre with the Directorate and other staff working in the central management office. The staff of the four service units work in interdisciplinary small teams - in close cooperation with various partners.

Objectives

The Centre has the following general objectives:

• promoting optimal physical and mental health of children and adolescents, including pregnancy counselling;
• supporting the optimal development of the educational potential and inclusion in education and training of children and young people;
• promoting a safe environment for children and young people to protect them from accidents and intentional harm;
• promoting economic security and an adequate standard of living for children and young people as a basis for healthy development;
• promoting children and young people as part of a development-supporting network of family, friends, neighbours and community;
• promoting the inclusion of children and young people in the community;
• promoting the conditions for children and young people to make a positive contribution to society.

Assignment

The centre offers various forms of work:

• Outreach" work: The aim is to promote fruitful working contacts with the respective partner on site and thus to enable the exchange of observations and questions at a very early stage and to activate resources;
• Counselling: on questions of psychological health and social development and on questions of education;
• The accompaniment of staff members in special situations (e.g. when they are oriented to another service);
• Health check-ups and preventive measures in the health sector.

Professional secrecy

The staff of the Centre shall be bound by professional secrecy in the performance of their duties.

The staff of the schools, the ZAWM, other administrations or other legal persons concerned who cooperate directly with the Centre in the implementation of this Decree shall also be bound by professional secrecy in the context of that cooperation.

Legal basis

The legal basis is the Decree of 31 March 2014 on the Centre for the Healthy Development of Children and Young People.

Time-Out facility

Objective

On the one hand, the TimeOut facility enables young people who have lost their place in school or in the middle-class training due to social-emotional behavioural problems and who are permanently restricted in their participation in the school community to take a temporary break, during which they can work on their school and professional projects anew in order to develop lasting motivation and skills with a view to realising their personal learning, professional and life perspectives. On the other hand, the Time Out facility enables school drop-outs to be counteracted prematurely by offering school staff support in the form of counselling to extend their ability to act in dealing with social-emotional behavioural disorders at school.

Assignment

The Time Out facility performs the following tasks:

• schooling young people in the Time Out facility, which includes the following tasks:
  • reintegration in the origin school or in the origin ZAWM;  
  • integration into a new school or into a new ZAWM;
  • preparation for the exams of the external examination boards or for the exams at schools or ZAWM;
• linking theory and practice by enabling practical training;
• preparation for vocational training with a view to providing comprehensive support for:
  • placement in teaching,
  • preparation for an entrance examination,
  • early case-related cooperation with the ZAWM;
• temporary socio-pedagogical individual support to cushion particularly difficult crisis situations.
• support of schools and ZAWM, legal guardians, young people and related specialist services in an advisory capacity with the aim of developing alternative courses of action with regard to young people who are threatened with exclusion from school or dropping out of school or who are no longer tied to a school. The counselling includes the following tasks in the area of social-emotional conspicuousness:
  • preventive information, sensitisation and counselling of the staff members of the school or the ZAWM;
  • consultations on individual case analyses;
  • advice on individual development plans and teaching arrangements
  • monitoring the reintegration processes of time-out pupils;
  • offering social-emotional counselling, which:
    • advises and supports affected staff members of the school and the ZAWM onsite with the aim of preventing school or apprenticeship drop-outs and creating on-site solutions;
    • accompanies the young people and the affected staff members of the school or the ZAWM after completion of the time-out intervention in the context of re- and integration processes.

Professional secrecy

The staff members of the Time Out facility are bound by professional secrecy in the performance of their duties.

Legal basis

The legal basis is the Decree of 31 August 1998 on the mandate to the school authorities and school staff and on the general pedagogical and organisational provisions for mainstream and special needs schools.