TIDINESS STANDARDS ARE IMPORTANT

School days are busy days. There are few spare moments available to consider and attend to matters not directly focused on teaching and learning. Tight timetabling means that teachers and their classes have very little time that is not devoted to predetermined activities.

Because of teaching and learning pressures, it can be easy to overlook fundamentals that contribute to character development and the establishment of good habits. Teaching and learning outcomes are important. However attention needs to be paid to appearance, tidiness and general order of classroom and school. Without these considerations poor work, study habits and civic attitudes can develop. Important priorities and personal habits can be discounted. Among the things that should be considered are the following.

• Desk tidiness should be encouraged. This includes desk surfaces and storage area for books and other items. Setting aside a few minutes every day or two to make sure students desks meet a standard pays dividends. It also ensures that children are quickly able to find things they need for upcoming lessons.
• Student lockers and bag recesses need periodic checking. All sorts of things from discarded clothing to rejected food items can finish up in these places.
• Many students eat lunch inside or just outside classrooms. If duty teachers check before lunch boxes are returned to bags or refrigerators, paper, plastic wrappers and fruit peel will go into the bin where it belongs. This may not seem like much, but it reinforces hygienic practices.
• Organising a “monitor roster” of students to take responsibility for keeping areas of classrooms and learning spaces tidy can work. This might include benches, ledges, library book displays, the floor, wet areas and so on. It’s not a case of cleaning up after others but reminding everyone of their need to contribute to classroom care.
• Spending a minute or so at the beginning of each break to make sure everything is off the floor and that desktops are tidy, establishes a good cleanliness habit for all children. Reminders may be necessary but with time and consistency good habits will develop.
• Common areas including toilets and the schoolyard, verandahs and the school library deserve care from everyone. Duty teachers, the school leadership team and indeed all staff should be part of this effort. General tidiness is also an area that might involve the Student Representative Council.

For tidy school programs to work well, all members of staff need to contribute. For instance, teachers’ tables and personal storage areas in classrooms and elsewhere should be kept in the way that sets an example to all students,

Tidiness is an attribute we all need. With it, generally comes personal organisation which helps the way in which school facilities are used and shared. Tidiness is a habit that will be useful throughout life.

CHILDREN NEED MORE PLAY AT SCHOOL AND HOME

The way in which school children play at recess and lunch time has changed significantly over the years. Some of those changes are in the interest of common sense. Others have come about because of concerns that accidents at school might result in costly medical and litigation outlays.

Unduly rough play is discouraged when children are playing ball games, chasing games, and similar energy releasing activities. Climbing trees is out and there are rules about genteel behaviour when children are using playground equipment. Duty teachers are on hand to remind children of these and other rules.

School playgrounds have to conform to Occupational Health and Safety codes. Some playground equipment has been outlawed, including popular roller slides which were all the rage in the 1980’s and 1990’s. These have been replaced by standard plastic slides which have far less excitement and appeal to children. There are many other construction requirements which add costs for schools wanting to develop playground stations.
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A Real Need

Students need the opportunity to run around, let off steam and return to class reinvigorated, refreshed and ready for learning. However, if they find school yards too uninviting and games allowed too restrictive, they may choose sedentary playtime activities. The school library with its computers may offer new appeal. Or children may choose to sit, talk, play with hand-held toys or build their card sets rather than being physically active. Rather than returning to class in a re-energised way, they may feel let down and switched-off when confronting the afternoon’s class program.

There are some opportunities for children to join in weekend sporting activities, but many have little chance for physical play when away from school. Rather than being outside playing, they are inside with X-Boxes and computer games.

Outdoor play is necessary to help children build stamina and endurance. Being outdoors and playing in the fresh air has to be part of building healthy minds in healthy bodies. Many children live in apartments and have little outdoor opportunity. Others are domiciled in our newer suburbs with large houses and small often unenclosed yards. There are parks but these are often sun drenched. Parents also have security worries about children playing in these public parks independently and without supervision.

We are confronting a situation in which play and games opportunities for children are often too scarce. A lifestyle altogether too sedentary is emerging This is an area of childhood development and opportunity that needs correction.

This was published in the Suns Newspapers (NT) in May 2015

CHILDREN NEED MORE PLAY AT SCHOOL AND HOME

The way in which school children play at recess and lunch time has changed significantly over the years. Some of those changes are in the interest of common sense. Others have come about because of concerns that accidents at school might result in costly medical and litigation outlays.

Unduly rough play is discouraged when children are playing ball games, chasing games, and similar energy releasing activities. Climbing trees is out and there are rules about genteel behaviour when children are using playground equipment. Duty teachers are on hand to remind children of these and other rules.

School playgrounds have to conform to Occupational Health and Safety codes. Some playground equipment has been outlawed, including popular roller slides which were all the rage in the 1980’s and 1990’s. These have been replaced by standard plastic slides which have far less excitement and appeal to children. There are many other construction requirements which add costs for schools wanting to develop playground stations.
.
A Real Need

Students need the opportunity to run around, let off steam and return to class reinvigorated, refreshed and ready for learning. However, if they find school yards too uninviting and games allowed too restrictive, they may choose sedentary playtime activities. The school library with its computers may offer new appeal. Or children may choose to sit, talk, play with hand-held toys or build their card sets rather than being physically active. Rather than returning to class in a re-energised way, they may feel let down and switched-off when confronting the afternoon’s class program.

There are some opportunities for children to join in weekend sporting activities, but many have little chance for physical play when away from school. Rather than being outside playing, they are inside with X-Boxes and computer games.

Outdoor play is necessary to help children build stamina and endurance. Being outdoors and playing in the fresh air has to be part of building healthy minds in healthy bodies. Many children live in apartments and have little outdoor opportunity. Others are domiciled in our newer suburbs with large houses and small often unenclosed yards. There are parks but these are often sun drenched. Parents also have security worries about children playing in these public parks independently and without supervision.

We are confronting a situation in which play and games opportunities for children are often too scarce. A lifestyle altogether too sedentary is emerging This is an area of childhood development and opportunity that needs correction.

Violence in Schools: A Perspective

The issue of violent threats in their various forms is one I believe needing careful address. It’s the matter of “issue” rather than “individual incident” that needs careful consideration. The matter is not new – but rather has been ongoing over time.

From time to time the system and various support professional organisations  have looked at the matter and considered process that might be taken into account when reacting to matters of threat. That to me is part of the problem; our system is “reactive” rather than taking a proactive role in engaging the matter.

Threat in its various forms is not new. However, responding to the matter seems to be one that causes embarrassment. Often Principals and staff members feel that to air issues occurring within the school organisations is tantamount to a profession of weakness. There seems to be a preference to manage within, making sure that word about problems does not get out. Over time there have been assaults levied against Principals and staff members where it seems that departmental management is to mute the issue almost in some sort of “we are guilty because it happened” fashion.

I think that issues of this nature have to be put right out into the public domain and addressed with responsible but justified professional aggression. “How dare they” ought to apply. The response being developed needs to have full system support and it ought not to be that recommendations on process point and direct the whole matter back to schools at the individual level to manage.

Members of student and parent communities do not have the right to inflict themselves upon teachers and other staff members in a violent, threatening or intimidating manner. Staff and principals deserve full departmental support against this sort of behaviour all the way to action through court processes. An “under the carpet” response is not acceptable.

Maybe during my time as a school educator I was lucky in not having these sorts of things thrust against me personally. I can promise that assaults directed toward my staff or myself would have been most vigorously pursued through courts.

No, I would not have felt weak all guilty about taking these actions because staff members and school principals deserve to be respected and protected.

I would hope that the issue going forward is addressed in an appropriate responsive and responsible manner.

It’s Time to Stop the Breast Beating

In terms of educators meeting learner needs, it is time for us to stop the self-flagellation and breast-beating that accompanies educational accountability. “Are schools and teachers meeting the needs of children and students” is a question that needs repositioning.

Rather than schools and educators being dumped with loads of accountability for educational inputs and outcomes, it’s time for quizzing to turn to children and their parents. Self responsibility on the part of students and their parents should be the challenge. Are we meeting the needs of learners needs to be looked at in terms of “are children and their primary caregivers doing their bit toward the development of our next generation”.

I once had a conversation with a Principal colleague who told me of a meeting with parents over their child who was particularly and negatively challenging his schools’ culture and ethos. The parents upbraided the Principal for his lack of care and concern. They demanded he and the school do more for the child. The principal offered a conditional response. He and the school would do better for the child for the eighth of the year the child spent at school, if the parents would commit a greater effort for the remaining seven eights of the year – the time he was in their care.

This story goes to the nub of the issue. Schools have a role to play in child and student development, a matter educators have never shirked. However, parents are the primary caregivers and over time the gradual off-loading and dumping of rearing responsibilities onto schools is misplaced and alarming.

The notion of school being a place where fizz has to be applied to every learning situation in an effort to engage learners is equally as galling. Schools need to bUUNTe fun places and learning needs underpinning with enjoyable experiences. However, there are vital aspects of learning that are repetitious, mundane and focussed toward cognitive appeal. Not everything can be bubble and froth because learning is not about fizz but about substance.

Metaphorically, schools add the yeast added to the bread to make learning rise in the minds and souls of young people. That means biting onto key issues and chewing on the meat of learning opportunities.

The thought ‘best’ education has to be about froth and bubble in order to appeal to young people is a sad commentary on modernity. It also suggest that deep learning is unimportant.

Motivation and Inclination

There seems to be a belief held within society and certainly implied by Governments that all students are inclined learners. Nothing could be further from the truth. Deliberate disinclination is an ingrained element within the psyche of many children and students. Non-respondents may reject learning opportunities by passive resistance or by more belligerent defiance. All rejection is negative, confirming that while you can lead a horse to water you can’t make it drink.

If children come to school with attitudes of deliberate disinclination and defiance, it is hard to move them from negative to more positive attitudes without parental awareness and support. That is not always forthcoming and in fact parents often take the side of children, being in no way prepared to support the efforts of school staff.

It is behoven on children and students to recognise and accept responsibility for their actions. Educators are often too quick to excuse children and parents and too slow to recognise that the onus for change and development should be vested on the home as much as on the school front.

Sadly in this day and age, with parents compulsorily committed to work and earning, the upbringing and development of children, in almost total terms, is thrown at schools.  I mean this quite literally because the social/government and system imperative plants this responsibility on and into schools. Many school educators feel they are being ‘commanded’ to bring children up. When societal failings become apparent, schools and their staff members are held up as being the major contributors to that failure. parents, prime carers and students themselves are home free.

That is totally wrong.  The wrong people and institutions are being blamed for shortcomings, when the responsibility belongs to those who are excused.

SUNS 90 IMMUNISATION A ‘MUST FIX’ ISSUE

Published in the Suns newspapers in May, 2015
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Vaccination is a vexed issue.

Keeping students healthy and being aware of their vaccination status is a responsibility assumed by all schools. Parents enrolling children are asked to complete quite detailed enrolment procedures. This includes providing information and verification about children’s immunisation histories.

School leaders are very aware of their duty of care responsibilities. Should there be an outbreak of measles, chicken pox or other communicable disease, they immediately let parents know. That is all the more imperative, because it is not uncommon to have children in the school who have not been immunised.

In order to facilitate this communication, support staff need to have information to hand about children who haven’t been immunised. Careful management is important in order to avoid children who have not had their jabs being known to their peers and classmates. If other children become aware of the situation, that can become a point for teasing. Avoiding embarrassment for these children, who have had no say in whether they should or shouldn’t be immunised, is important.

Without doubt, the lives of children who have not been immunised can be affected if they catch a disease. For this reason together with easing schools administrative problems, most principals and school councils will welcome the Australian Government’s ‘no jabs no money’ initiative.

Impacts

The Australian Government’s ‘no jab, no money’ policy will cause people to think again about their attitude. It will take extraordinary conviction for families with entitlements to risk losing $15,000 in child care and welfare benefits.

This change in government attitude is important to counter what has been a growing trend. Several years ago, 15,000 Australian children had not been immunised against communicable diseases. That number has now blown out to 39,000. This in part may be due to parents simply overlooking the obligation but that is not the case for all. The government’s proposition to allow exemption on medical grounds alone may cause some angst, but is wise policy. Exclusion on the basis of religious affiliation, personal belief and philosophical preference as a base for exclusion, was far too wide.

Schools at present

In Northern Territory schools there is no specific requirement for children to be immunised before they are enrolled. If they become aware that children have not been immunised, school leaders and administrative staff may encourage rectification, but that is where their intervention capacities stop.

The Department of Education’s policy on this matter is quite clear. Placed on the web in November 2011 it states as follows: . “It is recommended that parents/staff report these conditions to the school to ensure proper care of students/staff and to detect situations where there is potential for transmission. Confidentiality or privacy of medical information about an infected person should be observed at all times and in all situations.”

The issues surrounding immunisation have had a growing impact upon schools. Anxiety is felt for non-immunised children by the Department and school staff. It may be suggested to parents that they re-consider injections for their children but parental prerogative prevails.

The ‘no jab, no money’ policy will lessen school management and notification requirements.

SUNS 89 : RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS

Published in the Suns in April 2015
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RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION: PRO’S AND CON’S

The issue of religious instruction (RI) in government schools is one that comes up from time to time. That has especially been the case in the Territory since the introduction of the Howard Government’s chaplaincy program in 2004. Our Department of Education maintains the following position on RI.

“Religious instruction is a means of delivering spiritual, ethical and pastoral needs to students whose parents choose for their children to participate in such a program.
Religious instruction is not part of the curriculum for Territory schools and provision for religious instruction is therefore a matter for each school to determine in accordance with the department’s Religious Instruction Policy and guidelines.” This position was written in January 2011. The policy allows for five hours of RI each term.

Methodologically, schools supporting RI may elect for the program to operate in each class for 30 minutes each week. Some schools have an RI block for an hour each day during one week of term. Some schools 2900 schools engage the services of a school chaplain. Others have laypeople from various churches or denominations who volunteer their time to undertake RI programs in schools.

Isssues

RI can raise issues for schools.
* The matter of ‘indoctrination’ comes up from time to time, especially in relation to the chaplaincy issue. People worry about the promotion of a specific religion when the one chaplain is appointed to look after the whole school.
* Should RI offer students a comparative understanding of the various faiths or should it reinforce a particular belief.
* Given the heavy curriculum load confronting schools, a need for five hours each term for RI becomes the question. Can the time be afforded.
* Increasing numbers of parents are electing for their children not to attend religious instruction lessons. These children have to be provided with other activities while the sessions are in progress.
* Duty of care requires a teacher to sit in a supervisory capacity with each class while volunteers are conducting RI lessons. They can be required to step on at times because of control and behavioural issues.
* Religious instruction can become problematic if children begin to tease each other over principles of faith and belief.

Values Education

An alternative to RI might be devotion of that time to values education. The National Framework for values to be promoted in schools was agreed to and endorsed by all the state and territory Ministers of Education in February 2005.

The Framework recognises the importance of values education. It also recognises that values education in schools draws on a range of philosophies, beliefs and traditions. Espoused values include care and compassion, personal best effort, the need for a fair go and the right too freedom. Other values recognised include honesty and trustworthiness, integrity, respect, responsibility, tolerance and inclusion.

While these characteristics are covered in broad terms, treatment is often incidental. Devoting programmed time to discussion and understanding core community values might be a character developing alternative to religious instruction.