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.
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 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
No comments:
Post a Comment