Semester 1 2016 draws to a close

I guess you are somewhat weary and needing a break.  I am sure this is true of your teachers.

I hope that your staff members can take time to refresh ready for semester 2.  A vital part of this is for them to spend prime time with their close loved ones and their friends.  These relationships are far more important than any job.  I have a sense of hypocrisy in saying this as I was a workaholic. Reflections about my working life contain painful regrets of how on many occasions I let work commitments dominate.  Fortunately my family were more than patient.  Every day I am grateful for a long suffering wife and we are now enjoying the lesser pace of retirement.

I am concerned about mounting reports of school staff, including principals, being attacked by students and parents.  My entreaty to view the work done by Kambrya College is worth following up.  Kambrya College processes provide insights into how to deal with this unfortunate problem through a vibrant student wellbeing program.

Note also how Kambrya teachers were willing to put their classroom approaches to the test and make significant changes to improve student learning.  Very brave and very professional of these teachers.

Good luck for semester 2.

Enough already!


GD

Kambrya College

To my principal colleagues, if you have not already done so, go to 'abc iview' and watch the three episodes about Kambrya College.  It is inspiring.

Kambrya set out to lift its rating across Victorian schools from very low to whatever it could achieve. The changes were made in three main areas:  teaching skills, a focus on student wellbeing and a lift in academic performance outcomes.  They worked in conjunction with the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education guided by Professor John Hattie.  The improvements astounded me.  My deep love for my profession was bolstered by what I saw.

This College loved its students even through periods of misbehaviour by some.

All hail Kambrya College.

Enough already!


GD

Student wellbeing : part 2

Hullo to my fellow principals.  I'm still posting away.  Hope it helps.  If not let me know if it is a lot of garbage and I might desist.  I have a thick skin.

What follows is information on student wellbeing from my small treatise on effective schooling.  The treatise is meant to be an easy read and offering practical suggestions.  It would probably cause academics some concern as it is not referenced to a plethora of academic papers.  The story is being told by Tom, an eminent educator,  to a writer who is to put it all together, so please bear with me.  SDP refers to School Development Plan. Tom and his writer are on Tom's boat moored in a quiet estuary.  In Student Wellbeing part 1 I and already posted the top priority school effectiveness criterion:

Criterion #1 My School Respects Me Every Day  (Aligns with SDP element  

                                                                                                    #10)

Considering the work for each syllabus prescribed for a particular year, as in the Australian National Curriculum, Tom in his treatise on school effectiveness identifies within each age cohort the Panthers who will complete the work for their year level in less than the academic year and require extension.  Then there are the Jaguars who will need the whole academic year to complete the work for their year level.  Finally there are the Leopards who will not complete the required work for their year level within the academic year.  Tom mentions the Leopards below.

                                                                         *** 

Tom reassured himself that his explanations of each of the school effectiveness criteria provided hints as to the content of the documents each school has to show how things are expected to happen within that school : school policy statements if you will.

Tom's second criterion for school effectiveness is:

Criterion #2  My School Helps Me To Be Fit And Healthy And To Feel Good

                           About Myself (Aligns with SDP element #10)

Tom was convinced that what the school did in nurturing the physical and social growth of its students was vital.   The curriculum learning areas of physical and health education and the performing arts provided considerable opportunities to achieve such nurturing.  This is not to decry the value of the arts of drawing and design but Tom believed these to be more specialised and dependent in the areas of painting and drawing on innate talent.  He had taken some criticism over the years for this view and felt somewhat hypocritical when he admired a painting or a sculpture.

Tom had observed during his time working in schools the swelling of pride and joy of students who had just been part of a school play or performance. He well remembered the primary school that each year put on a major performance for the parents and the wider community and the  large number of students who were involved.  He saw the beaming on their faces when the audience cheered and clapped their performance.  He marvelled at the annual School Spectacular screened each year by the ABC network and could see the efforts and extensive student involvement numbers within each contributing school.  He knew of Leopards who just blossomed as performers with a great boost to their self esteem.  Here was a curriculum area made for developing a sense in students that they were respected within their school community.

Tom dreamed of a vision in physical and health education whereby innovative physical education teachers established programs based on general physical fitness leading to good health for each student.  He was sure such programs were out there.  He visualised at primary school level daily physical education aimed at improving general fitness taking into account the physical attributes of each student.  As soon as possible in primary school and leading into secondary school, each student would be skilled to participate in regularly measuring and documenting (a mathematics and computer data management opportunity) their height, weight, core, arm and leg strength and aerobic fitness.  They would be shown how to calculate the optimum weight for height for themselves.  All of this was to be handled very carefully so as not to embarrass anyone.  The fitness programs would be interesting and varied and take into account the sort of impact exercises that might be suited to girls as a hedge against the later scourge of osteoporosis.

The personal fitness data bases designed to be built up over the student’s whole school life were to be secure and known only to the teacher(s) and the individual student.  At secondary school level this whole program could become very sophisticated and extend to developing attitudes of preventative measures/medicine to ensure good health rather than the reach for a tablet approach.

Part of the learning was about a healthy diet.  A caution was the area of obesity and how to assist such students without creating conflict with the family.  An ideal would be to involve the family if this were possible.  All parents would be briefed through various school communication channels about this program. The sensitive area of the school’s dietary recommendations would need to be handled with care so as not to offend families.   Tom knew that some schools would not go for this but he was stubborn in his resolve.  He did not want parents to be told what to do but wanted to be up front about how the school’s Physical and Health Education program dealt with dietary issues and physical good health.  Tom knew that there was nothing new in schools teaching about a healthy diet.  The five food groups had received a regular hammering over the years and parents were used to this occurring. This program was also to embrace the issues of body abuse such as drugs of all sorts.

It would also cover sex education according to the developmental needs of the students and facets about relating to other persons at a sexual level.  Built in here would be warnings about being trapped into abusive situations, especially the dangers that lurked on the internet.  At its very best it could also include education on gender matters such as homosexuality.  Overall the program was to be about developing a positive self- image in each student by giving them the chance to explore these matters openly and positively.  There would need to be a seeking of parental permission in respect of many of the areas that might be covered.

The health and fitness program coordinators would also be responsible for ascertaining the level of bullying across the student population and for developing programs to counter this negative activity.  The physical education staff would have an added responsibility to educate the rest of the staff so that they could support the bullying counter measures.

Thus for Tom a measure of the effectiveness of any school was to create and measure the success of such self-image developing programs.  It was a big responsibility for the physical education teachers.  They might need to coopt other relevant staff members such as the counselling staff.  Of course the physical education staff would have responsibility for sport, and student participation in such could be part of their data gathering as to how this assists them as developing individuals. Above all there would be no students fearing that their slowness or their general physical prowess would see them floundering at the tail of the field in any sporting event. It would be about personal fitness goals.  Having indicated this Tom was not one to shy away from competitive sport situations where there is a loser and a winner.  The participating students would need to be educated to deal with this reality.

Above all it was to create an environment where the young felt safe and cared for as they learned more in their journey towards being able to look after themselves as adults who had a positive self-image and sense of who they were.  This meant that the young had a sense each day that all was well emotionally and physically and that they had some control over this. Tom knew that part of feeling comfortable at school had to do with performances of various sorts from academic to physical and artistic, but more about that later.

Tom had observed effective teachers over the years making sure they interacted positively with each student each week.  Of particular concern to a teacher were the quiet students.  Some Leopards often worked hard at being inconspicuous because they found the learning tough going.  They may even have experienced what they perceived as a snub in the hurly burly of the classroom.  Tom well remembered a year 12 Leopard telling him how way back in year 4 he asked a question and received what he perceived as ridicule from some of his classmates.  This compounded his dwindling confidence in his ability to learn and he told Tom that from that day he had deliberately remained as quiet as he could and that he never asked another question. As a precaution Tom included in his thinking the next criterion of an effective school.

Criterion #3  My Teacher(s) Talk To Me Personally Each Week (Aligns with SDP element #10)

Tom firmly believed that each student deserved each week a reasonable amount of the teacher’s one to one contact in a positive manner.  He wanted teachers to weekly or fortnightly, depending on how many students they contacted each week, to have a quiet introspective time to reflect on the frequency and quality of the contact they had made with each student.  This way no student should fall through the cracks unnoticed. For secondary teachers who had weekly contact with large student numbers fortnightly was more realistic.  Another alternative was for them to review weekly their contacts for half the number of students with whom they had contact each week.

A teacher could easily have a photo of each student on their computer and date the introspective time and type in a comment or two about the student.  It is always assumed that the computer is as protected as it can be against outside intruders.  Student privacy is vital.  In the past this process was based on teachers having a card for each student and Tom mused that maybe this was still a safer way to go in terms of student privacy.

More later!

GD

Student Wellbeing : part 1

I am overjoyed that student wellbeing is becoming a priority focus for many schools.  Of course it could be claimed that we have all been concerned about this in the years gone by.  We undoubtedly have, but I think it is fair to say not to the degree and sophistication as in contemporary schools.

I have recently viewed a TV program on an Aussie secondary school, Kambrya College.  I recommend an 'abc iview' look at this series.  This school has a strong new focus on student wellbeing as reflected in the appointment of a Head of Student Wellbeing and a coupling with the Melbourne University Graduate School of Education to tap into their expertise on student wellbeing.  In this school the students are surveyed in class time to ascertain how they are feeling about a range of things including themselves.

Kambrya College has markedly reduced school exclusions and lifted its academic performance.  It is a school I can relate to as it has students ranging from top academics to those struggling with the expectations of being at school.  Kambrya College loves all its students as you can see via 'abc iview'

What follows is information on student wellbeing from my small treatise on effective schooling.  The treatise is meant to be an easy read and offering practical suggestions.  It would probably cause academics some concern as it is not referenced to a plethora of academic papers.  The story is being told by Tom, an eminent educator,  to a writer who is to put it all together, so please bear with me.  SDP refers to School Development Plan. Tom and his writer are on Tom's boat moored in a quiet estuary.

                                                                         *** 

Tom reassured himself that his explanations of each of the school effectiveness criteria provided hints as to the content of the documents each school has to show how things are expected to happen within that school : school policy statements if you will.

Tom needed a break and we sat back and relaxed.   He went off to make a cuppa and bring us a snack.  Refreshed Tom moved his chair and table to a new position on the deck as he followed the shade.  We were soon hard at it again, Tom talking quietly and me tapping away.

As a believer in schools being a part of educating the whole child, Tom’s number one school effectiveness criterion was about the wellbeing of the students.

Criterion #1 My School Respects Me Every Day  (Aligns with SDP element  

                                                                                                    #10)

Tom firmly believed that each student had the right to expect that as they entered the school gate each day they would be safe, respected and yes even loved for who they were.  This meant an inclusive teacher attitude to the physical attributes, gender and cultural nuances that were part of each individual student's makeup.  Tom knew that some students would not have these expectations as they came from home environments where such safety and respect were in short order.  He believed that in such cases it was the school’s responsibility to demonstrate to these students that within the school environment they were safe, respected and loved.  He was reminded of a saying oft used by a famous Western Australian educator “that life was not meant to be short, brutish and ugly”.  

Realist Tom knew that it was a subtle business to help these concerned students to know that there were other ways to live.  This had to be done with a sensitivity so as not to offend the family members of each student. As a simple example even offering the view that smoking is harmful to health and is to be avoided at all costs could be offensive to a smoking mother and father. Even more difficult and subtle is the school trying to convince a student of the value of a formal education when the prevailing attitude at home suggests to that student that school is a waste of time and a place to put up with rather than enjoy.  No matter how difficult the task Tom was convinced that wellbeing had to be the first and most important criterion of an effective school.  In broader terms students had the right to be treated in a context of the UN Charter of Human Rights.

It was one thing to be respected by the teachers but if a student did not have this respect from their student peers the school had failed to meet the requirement of the student feeling safe, respected, yes even loved within the school.  Tom knew that the opportunities for students to be bullied had become even greater with the advent of devices such as mobile phones and computers and the messaging, Facebook, Twitter and instagram opportunities that such technology provided.  Bullying anonymously was available and was used with considerable and devastating effect.  A school had to work hard to educate all students to have respect for their peers just as the teachers had respect for them.  Yet these technologies Tom knew could also be the very means to get the students onside about respect for one another.  He contemplated the constant texting that occurred across groups of students inside and mostly outside school and how this could be used as a support network for the positive attitudes that contributed to students feeling safe and respected amongst their peers.  This could be in the form of messages to ascertain how a peer was feeling and messages of support if they were down for whatever reason.

Tom contemplated the complex issue of bullying for LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Intersexed) students.  Tom had sampled the testimonials of students and teachers who had experienced this controversial program and was impressed by its positive effect. He had also sampled the nine elements of the National Safe Schools Framework in the Safe Schools Toolkit and could see how it would guide schools in how to go about attaining safety for all students.   He had watched with interest the federal government’s inquiry into the Safe Schools program no doubt sparked by concerns from various sources including politicians and the Australian Christian Lobby.  As a result of the inquiry findings, the coalition government decided to ban the program for primary schools, to require some adjustments to content, to prohibit links to websites other than those funded by Federal and State governments, and to ensure parental permission and support.

As part of the school's best practice tenets of effective teaching Tom wanted teachers to be sure of the limits in their interactions with students.  This should include the use of social media.

Also there had to be a policy for managing disruptive students so that the main student body could get on with their learning and feel safe in the school environment.

It was also most important that the parents were part of the school's wellbeing program.  They needed to be thoroughly briefed.

Tom knew that if a school could create this environment of safety and respect that an optimum environment for academic learning had been established.  Also established would be attention to the education of the whole student.  Later he would turn his thoughts as to how to make the academic learning work positively for each student.  In itself academic success would also contribute to students feeling comfortable at school.

Tom was not ignoring the OHS processes across a school such that buildings and other plant were safe for students.  The school would have disaster plans including a buildings evacuation policy.

Tom was adamant that schools needed to purposefully ascertain that each student did feel safe and respected each day at school.  Within its School Development Plan (SDP) a timetable for finding out how each student felt was needed. He was convinced that somehow each student needed to be asked regularly how they felt and the means for doing so needed to be woven into the fabric of normal classroom environments.  He mused that one or two attempts per year to tap this information could be the undoing of some students who might be very troubled about school.

He imagined each student having a folder maybe formally titled Personal Wellbeing.  For the student Tom felt a title like My School Loves Me would be even more appropriate.  With modern technology a folder could be on the computer, however a hard copy might be more appropriate as will be seen below.  It would be commenced as early as possible in Pre- and primary schooling and carried through to the end of secondary school.

At Pre-and Primary school level where classes have one main teacher the responsibility for collecting the information, analysing it and acting upon it would be up to that main class teacher.  At Secondary school level the Form or Tutorial class teacher could have these responsibilities.

Each school would need to work out how regularly it could tap into the wellbeing of each student within its resourcefulness to do so.  A little bit tongue in cheek Tom suggested weekly frequencies in some cases however he conceded that monthly would suffice.  In doing so he was keen to emphasise that long gaps in finding out should not be the case.  To purposefully seek hard evidence on student wellbeing could be new ground for some if not many schools and they would just have to try out how often and how best to do this.

He felt that the relevant information could be collected monthly at Pre-and Primary and secondary school levels.

At Pre-and Primary school level the questions should seek answers about:

Whether the student is happy at school?

Whether the student feels safe at school?

Whether the student feels that their class teacher likes them?

Whether the student feels that the students like them?

Whether the student is being bullied at school?

For the pre-and junior primary students the instrument could be one single A4 sheet containing the questions with maybe some use being made of faces of various levels of happiness so that the appropriate one could be coloured in.  For these age groups the teacher could use an overhead projector to aid administering the test using oral instructions and guiding the little ones in how to answer.  The questions would of course need to be structured in the second person in the form: Are you happy at school?...and so on.  There could be several variations to ensure a valid instrument and Tom was of the view that the imagination of professional teachers would enable them to come up with the relevant question sets or the school could couple with say a relevant university research team to design and administer the wellbeing surveys.

At mid-and upper primary level each student should be able to manage to answer the questions with less guidance from the class teacher.

The instrument could be administered each month in a context of “I want to see how you are feeling about school, because it is important that you be happy and safe and loved by me and the other teachers”.  “I know we do it every month, but we do this because you are very important to us”.

At Secondary school level the questions should seek answers about:

Whether the student is happy at school?

Whether the student feels safe at school?

Whether the student feels that their teacher(s) like them?

Whether the student feels that the students like them?

Whether the student feels respected at school by the teacher(s)?

Whether the student feels respected at school by the students(s)?

Whether the student is being bullied at school?

Whether the student feels good about themselves?

For the secondary students the Form/Tutorial teacher would need to provide a convincing motivational context to encourage students about how important they are to the school.  Tom stressed this to offset the sometimes blasé attitude of many adolescents as they felt and began to manifest their independence.

There had to be follow up with a student if it was discovered that any aspect of their healthy sense of wellbeing was affected.  Tom was well aware that the matter of a student feeling disliked by a teacher was tricky ground.  It would require a degree of largesse for a teacher to face up to such a revelation and do something about it.  Students were unlikely to be truthful if they felt they would be attacking the credibility of a teacher.  If a student revealed a sense that teachers did not like them it could probably be dealt with through general staff discussion and a strategy to mend things if they seemed broken.  There could be many complex reasons for a student perceiving that teachers did not like them with academic difficulties probably being high on the list.

Tom’s sensitivity to overloading teachers caused him to speculate that there might be some resistance to what he proposed, even some sceptics who might claim that they know how the children feel and formalising finding out is a waste of time.  Nonetheless he would not waver except to acknowledge that small schools might find it a bit difficult and unnecessary.  They could adjust but needed to be able to satisfy themselves and others that they had a caring school based on hard evidence not just feelings.

This was an evaluation area where outside experts could be funded to establish the evaluation protocols.  It could be a suitable project for a mature PHD student from the Education faculty of a local university.  This would be money well spent from one line budgets if it eventually ensured that all students felt safe, respected and yes, even loved at school by staff and peers.  Tom also knew that schools could find help in creating surveys on the National School Survey website and that this might be the most reassuring avenue for each school to follow.  Coupled with this were the sets of ACRA published National Opinion Survey items one set for Students and one set for Parents.  There was plenty of advice available. Schools were obliged to report on student well-being for the Myschool requirements

Tom believed that these school efforts about concern for student wellbeing should be made known to the parents in a wider context of other parent/school cooperative efforts.  One such area Tom desired was to guide parents about the latest research information about the potential for bullying and in general the effects of the frequency of use by students of computers, iPhones and TV viewing outside school. Tom did not want the school to instruct parents about what to do and hedged at the school surveying such use of these technologies.  Rather it was to be a setting out of the research facts and encouraging parents to act accordingly if they so desired.

Still continuing on his theme of student wellbeing Tom moved on to his next most important criterion of school effectiveness.  He thought that maybe an apology in advance to Physical Education teachers might be a good thing in the light of the vital and demanding roles he had in mind for them.

More later.

GD