Linköpings kommun

After the hospital school in Linköping successfully used AV1, the municipality decided to purchase its own school robots. They didn't want to buy in too many at once, but were keen to have a large enough base to be able to offer broad usage from the start. The compromise was 15 AV1, which was primarily intended to be offered as support to physically ill students. The municipality soon realised that the potential was great and after only one semester they bought in another 10 robots.

Erik Helmersson works as an ICT coordinator at the education administration in Linköping municipality. He says that the municipality today lends AV1 to students with various types of problems.

"At first, we saw the target groups as students with a physical illness, students with problematically high school absences and students with special talents. The majority of the interventions carried out in the first semester were in these groups and approximately the same number of each category. Pupils with special talents have been able to borrow AV1 to, for example, follow a course or subject at a higher stage, but can otherwise remain in their socially secure class,

Erik also says that the municipality has identified other possible target groups that could use a school robot. Amongst them:

• Students in a small teaching group who can participate in briefings in the classroom and then work individually in the small group.
• Teachers who need to teach from home (in Linköping's case a pregnant teacher who works from home due to Covid regulations)
• Students who must participate in unfamiliar environments, for example SIP meeting or soc meeting, but cannot be present in the room with all the adults, but can sit in an adjacent room (or at home).

‍

This is how the collaboration between municipality and school works

Erik says that when someone at the school identifies that a student may be in need of an AV1, they contact the AV1 team in the municipality and get help and make a good plan. Depending on the student's needs, the team can support with, for example, child psychiatrists as a sounding board.

"Someone from the team then goes out to the school and meets a representative from school management and student health, as well as those who work closest to the student. After that, the student can start using his AV1.Experience shows that the earlier an effort with AV1 can start - the more likely it is that there will be a positive result."

The school also fills in an application so that the municipality can document the effort. Erik points out that they have not yet had to prioritize between different applications, but that they have prepared to be able to do so.

Erik believes that a key factor for the work with AV1 being so positive is that the central AV1 team consists of a cross-professional group from both the operational side and central student health. The team includes ICT coordinators, child and adolescent psychiatry and coordinators for the project for students with special talents.

The team decides independently which applications are to be approved and jointly decides on difficult cases, as well as any prioritization issues between applications.

The fact that the team comes from different parts of the business also means wider contacts via different networks, which has benefited the spread of knowledge about AV1 and that several professions at the schools can take the initiative and support efforts with AV1.

‍

Positive effect on both well-being and school attendance

In Linköping, several of the students who had an increasing absence from school have been able to be motivated to stay in school and participate in the classroom through AV1.

Erik explains that students who participated via the school robot have been able to sit in a group room or in a smaller group and listen to briefings, get better study time, participate in school work and that the negative absenteeism trend has been broken.

"An infection-sensitive primary school student who is forced to stay at home as soon as someone sick appears in class has previously missed up to a third of the school time. Now it is no longer a problem because the student can continue to participate in the classroom and at breaks with his friends - just as usual.

With AV1's help, a student turned 100% school absence in the fall in grade 2 into almost 100% school attendance in the spring. As a step towards the classroom, the student works in a group room and a parent is with most of the day - but the student is in school!In the municipality's evaluations, both students and guardians have highlighted that the student's well-being (regardless of the reason why the student had AV1) was positively affected. The students have had less anxiety and been less stressed, instead they have felt happier and less lonely."

During the spring term 2022, 18 interventions were carried out with AV1 in Linköping. Of these, 11 interventions were successful, while six were terminated prematurely, for example when the student moved or the school found other solutions. Only one effort was canceled, which was because the student changed his mind after trying a few times.

"The experiences from the spring semester meant that we have now expanded from 15 to 25 AV1 robots to be able to offer even more students the opportunity to continue participating in, or return to, their classroom, concludes Erik."