They talk about ‘the big four’ in banking parlance. There were the four friends of Bremen who thwarted the robbers and the “oarsome foursome” who were among the best of Australian Olympic rowers.

In modern times, we have the four pillars of modern society, elements of life and living without which communities seem to wither.

They are:

Alcohol

Tourism

Take away food

Entertainment.

Take away these four ingredients of modern times and people cannot cope. Without these supports they are hopeless and helpless.

People cannot survive without alcohol, seemingly the more the better because of dependence.

People cannot stay home, wanting to be unceasing movers and travellers. If travelling embargoes limit particular areas, they take on increasing appeal.

Cooking and food preparation are beyond the skills and abilities of most people. Huge amounts are spent on food prepared other than in the home; without this service, people would starve to death.

Entertainment to enable escape from real life is an absolute must.

This all begs the $64 question. Who are we and what have we become?

Is there really anywhere left to go with changes to leadership band management of organisations? Over time, there have been big changes in organisational operation. There have been countless management theories, many leading from the consideration of institutional happenings where people were an adjunct to outcomes, to a point where prime consideration is much more toward people providing the service.

With the passing of grime, change continues but the dimension of refocus is ever more minuscule because big changes have been completed. They realm of management and leadership change is more about tweaking than major paradigm shifts. Change has gone from macro, to minuscule to micro.

I suspect that a great deal of movement taking place within organisations is more about changing the name of the practice, rather than changing the practice itself. That’s a case of the same function with a different title.

Titular change really means little, other than the same function being covered by a different naming blanket. Mind you, that allows for someone coming up with the new name on the particular theory, to stalk about it with newfound authority. Multi experts finish up laying claim to what is more or less the same operational thesis.

Fun for all and experts in abundance.

Recent commentary has discussed shortfalls in the accomplishments of Australian students. Our students compared poorly with their Asian peers and other overseas counterparts. More money and material resources are directed towards Australian education than in many of the countries to whom we are compared, yet our results continue to be inferior.

An issue that impacts on outcomes is that of student attitude. Googling ‘student discipline’ online brings up countless reports confirming this to be the case. The latest PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) survey found that “…Australia ranked 63rd out of 68 OECD countries for classroom discipline.” (Classroom behaviour the key to future pay, Weekend Australian 19 – 20 May 2018). Dr Sue Thompson from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) confirmed that “… the environment is challenging for teachers.” (ABC Australian Kids behaving badly in classrooms, 16.3.17)

The ABC Report by Alice Martin goes into the level and degree of student offending. “ Things you would find in a classroom: an entire class deciding to ignore the teacher in silent protest, chairs thrown, threats and overturned desks.

(Australian) Teachers came forward to tell the ABC about the biggest classroom disruptions they experienced. It did not stop there. One teacher had three Year 9 boys skip her class and smear their poo all over the school gymnasium walls, while others had been cursed with the full spectrum of profanities. The list went on…and on.”

While the level and degree of ill-disciplined behaviour varies, the issue is one that has a deleterious impact upon learning opportunities and academic outcomes.

Classroom behaviour (or misbehaviour) has a negative impact on what can be achieved. Although not talked about openly, the behaviour of many students at both primary and secondary levels, leaves a lot to be desired. Teachers spend as much, if not more time, on classroom management and discipline as they do on teaching. This is not fair on those who are keen to learn.

Classrooms and students in many of our Territory schools are not quarantined from this sad reality.

The issue is one that has its genesis in the bringing up of children. Parents as primary caregivers are responsible for the initial shaping of the values and attitudes of their offspring. Proverbs 22.6 suggests “Teach your children right from wrong and when they are grown they will still do right.” (Bible, Contemporary English Version)

If Australian students are to attain the levels achieved by their overseas counterparts, this issue needs to be recognised and corrected.

The policy of three-year-old children attending preschool full time should fill people with concern. The notion is one of which children of very tender years, having only “just“ arrived in the world, being rushed into formal education. Colin Wicking’s cartoon (Northern Territory News 24/6/18) encapsulates the situation. Two toddlers are heading off to preschool and one says to the other “it only seems like yesterday that I was a fetus“!

If that’s the way preschool education is going, we have a grossly misaligned education system.

Educational justification for early entry into preschool is to get children academically ready for literacy and numeracy competence at increasingly younger ages. This is totally at odds with common sense. Young children need the nurture, empathy and love of parents in developing life skills. Their initial listening and speaking abilities along with the love of life should grow from family interactions.

The modern tendency of children at younger and younger ages spending more time in ‘formal’ preschool education is beyond comprehension.

In 2009 the Melbourne Declaration agreed by all education ministers stated that social, emotional and moral/spiritual development of children are essential. In years since, the need for rounded development has been largely disregarded. The focus seems to be academic competency alone. New policy suggests the sooner this education begins after birth, the better.

Parents wanting their 3-year-olds permanently in preschool is based on misplaced logic. However, costs associated with childcare are continuing to escalate and helps explain why they are plumping for the preschool option. A recent survey of parents (Our kids pushed to school too early, Sunday Territorian 24/6/18) confirms their motivation. “Aussie kids are being pushed into school early because their parents are desperate to escape the rising costs of childcare. … More than 65 per cent of parents are paying between $200 and $799 out of pocket (after government rebate) on childcare each week. … This compares to 44 per cent who pay between $1 and $199 once their child is in preschool.”

Whether children are socially, emotionally and sufficiently mature for entry into preschool, appears to be unimportant. “More than 52 per cent of parents ranked (their children) being toilet trained and feeding themselves as their lowest considerations when deciding when to send their kids to preschool.” (Op cit) While a barrage of educational reasons might be given, the primary reason is one of financial consideration.

It seems the new and innovative three year olds at preschool. is more about cheap childcare than education.

Aboriginal (these days Indigenous) Education has been examined from so many angles over so many years and in so many ways, that there is really nothing left to examine that hasn’t been examined before. Educationists have developed plans built in plans that have grown from plans.

If it only took plans, Indigenous Education would be the most enriched and most successful elements of all branches of Education bar none.

It is what happens to plans after the research is done and the reports are written. Educators make whoopee about the research and its findings for two days. Then the report is shelved and any planning is archived, generally before it is trialled.

It’s juxtapositional that for all the attention paid to Indigenous Education, everyone seems happy to skirt the major issue and key impediment to student progress. The over-arching deficit is that school attendance has always been treated as optional. Unless and until school attendance becomes obligatory in action and not just a stated need, student outcomes will not improve.

Below is the text of a letter I sent to the NT News. The letter was published on January 23 2020.

Rarely are acknowledgments and appreciations offered in the way Mr Adams spoke.

Incoming Baniyala Garrangali School Principal Cameron Adam’s wise words should be taken on board by all leaders, both new and ongoing (“Newest pending leadership role, Mr Adams said “… there’s been a lot of work done by previous principals … its … about maintaining it and listening to the community to ensure we’re on the right path.”

One of the drawbacks to educational furtherance in the NT and particularly in our more remote schools, has been a failure to follow this behavioural pattern. There has been a tendency for incoming staff to disregard what has gone before. ‘Starting all over’ every time new school leaders and staff members commence their tenure is a poor option.

To be forever ‘in the beginning’ sets aside previous accomplishments, disregarding progress and frustrating students and their communities. Endless repetition and unnecessary recycling is discouraging for students and parents. It is a contributing factor to disinterest in school and poor attendance patterns.

I hope Mr Adam’s intentions are taken on board by other school leaders and staff members. Continuity and building on what has gone before is a superior approach to school leadership and teaching.

I have been a member of LinkedIn for quite a few years. Having a LinkedIn site is something I’ve appreciated because it enables me to communicate and to learn from others in a professional form. Linking my blog and LinkedIn accounts has been wise.

Facebook, Twitter and other social accounts don’t do anything for me and I’m not interested in joining. I regard LinkedIn as being a forum with a professional orientation and for the most part I think that holds up.

I would welcome the opportunity to become a premium member; however being a retired person does not lend itself to premium costs so my site remains as it is.

From time to time, I have enquired about whether or not a premium subscription could be available at reduced cost for retirees and others who do not have income earning capacity. I have never received any response to this query, so can only assume that the administrators of LinkedIn are not interested.

Linking my blog (henry Gray blog.wordpress.com) to my LinkedIn account has been a strategy I have found useful.

I am glad to have the opportunity to be a member of LinkedIn and have learnt many lessons from my membership

and participation.

Your story “Bulk of principal posts go to locals” (NT News 14/1) offers good news to Territory educators with school leadership aspirations. It also indicates the bucking of what has been a system trend. For far too long, principal vacancies in Territory schools have been filled by people appointed from interstate. This has denied NT educators, many with years of leadership experience, the opportunity to fill top level positions in our schools.

The input of school leaders appointed from interstate can infuse new ideas while broadening leadership methodologies. However, for too long the depth and breadth of experience gained from years of educational service by Territory educators has been discounted, with local applicants for positions being overlooked

Forty seven (47) of the nine ((49) 2021 principal vacancies in our schools are being taken up by Territory applicants and that is good news. Many have years of relevant experience. They have completed professional development programs that hone their leadership and management skills.

I hope that 2021 is a watershed year, establishing the worth and building ongoing respect for our homegrown school principals. Our system and its schools should be enhanced if local appointments to principal positions becomes the new norm.

Sincerely

Henry Gray

Life Member

NT Principals Association

Leanyer NT

January 15 2021

I am a believer in and supporter of Euthanasia. I wrote the following letter to Kevin Andrews some time ago and share the text.

Dear Mr Andrews

For a long time I have been distressed by the fact that you saw fit to introduce a private member’s bill into the Federal Parliament during the Howard years, which went to the overturning of the Northern Territory Euthanasia Bill. This is a matter about which I have harboured resentment for many years.

The NT Euthanasia Laws were well shaped and carefully structured by our then Chief Minister Marshall Perron. It was a day of relief rather than rejoicement when those laws were enacted into legislation.

In opposite vein, it was a day of rather astounded and disbelieving sadness, yet inevitability, when your private member’s bill got its overriding guernsey in Federal Parliament. I do not know if this bill was your own initiative or whether you were prevailed upon to move it to the parliament by other members of the Coalition. In any case, the rescinding of our most reasonable NT Act did our Territory and Northern Territorians a great disservice.

It is interesting that, by degree, the world is starting to catch up with Mr Perron’s ‘Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill’, which became part of our law over 20 years ago.

I have just turned 70. In my time, members of my family have passed in sad circumstances during which their rationality and their humanity was progressively dismantled by creeping loss of body and mind. I have seen that happen for many people and my awareness grows with advancing age.

For mine, I am desirous of incorporating into the provisions of my hastening old age, a provision that should I become totally incapable or demented, to the point of my reliance on life becoming the full responsibility of others, that I be allowed to decline my mortality: That I be allowed this as a legitimate right to determine, while still of sound body and mind.

Your bill stripped me of a basic human right and the possibility of action that should be an entitlement. I was deeply disappointed in what you did then. That disappointment remains until this day.

Sincerely

Henry Gray

11 March 2016

Mr Andrews eventually replied in a nondescript manner. Just to tell me in broad brush terms that the Federal Parliament acting on its operational principles, scuttled one of the wisest, most decent and empathetic pieces of legislation ever introduced into any Australian Parliament.

I still seethe about Mr Andrews and the Federal Parliament for mechanically and unreasonably brushing aside the Marshall Perron Euthanasia Bill. Few things in my life have been unforgivable. This matter is an exception

A number of remote communities in East Arnhem are losing their funding for the provision of after school hours care programs.

Some disappointment has been expressed at the curtailment of services, but the change is totally understandable. These programs are only relevant if children attend school. Chronic non- attendance and truancy make the provision of such services totally farcical.

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Denise Cahill ( A lesson on how not to be a leader, Sun. Territorian 25/10/20) makes some salient points on what elevates and deflates leaders in the eyes of beholders.

The power of personal example is ever so important bin determined respect held for leaders. Good leaders are also people who learn about how to lead, by learning (often from observation) about what not to do as a leader. Leadership based on respect cannot be transcended.

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Parents need to be on guard and absolutely aware of the online sites their children visit and the online games that can be so absorbing.

Schools play their part, but awareness, education and the shaping of young attitudes has to start in the home. Parents discount this issue at their peril, for it is one of clear and distinct danger to children.

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Technology has introduced cyberspace to young people in a way that both helps and hinders. It offers advantages and benefits that support and assist in their studies. However, there are downsides that can have a deleterious effect on their minds and lives.

One of the major digital age drawbacks is the savage impact social media has on lives through cyber bullying. Another downside is the temptation to complete assignments through cutting, pasting and plagiarising from online sources.

One of the more sinister impacts of the online age, is its ability to disrupt and change the behaviour of users. Young people can be influenced to alter their thinking about things important to their future life. Some of these changes are little short of bizarre.

“Australian children as young as seven … are launching aggressive attacks on their parents, lying to get out of school and avoiding family holidays to play Fortnite marathons, as the video game recruits a new generation of underage players.” (Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, Kids in video game crisis, Sunday Territorian, 26 May 2019)

The author adds “Education and neuroscience experts warn excessive and premature use of (video games) is leading to a ballooning crisis for Australian families, … now checking their children into dedicated rehabilitation centres to wean them off screens and reintegrate them into social, family and school life.” (Op.cit)

This is an issue that has been looming for some time. Experts have cautioned against children of tender years being allowed uncontrolled access to gaming applications. However it seems their advice has largely been ignored.

There are others claiming to be experts who maintain that ‘games are just games’ and do not alter the perceptions of young people about the realities of life.

If a significant number of children and adolescents are so preoccupied with gaming that nothing else matters, then addiction is a real issue. Fortnite, one of the major online games is not recommended for player under 13 years of age.

It is influencing far younger children. The article quotes neuroscience communicator Jill Sweatmen who is concerned that this particular game is attracting children who at 7 or 8 years of age are too young and mentally unprepared to handle its content. “There are short term consequences and significant long term consequences to this.” (Op cit)

Parents need to be on guard and absolutely aware of the sites their children visit and the online games that can be so absorbing. Schools play their part, but awareness, education and the shaping of young attitudes has to start in the home. This issue cannot be ignored.

The consequences of bullying behaviour have played out in the saddest possible way. The passing of Amy Everett, a 14 year old girl from Katherine, again highlighted an issue that continues to press upon modern society. In Australia, suicide is the major cause of death for children between the ages of 5 and 14. While there may be a number of factors contributing to this sad loss of young lives, bullying and harassment, has without doubt, become the number one contributor.

The online access people have can encourage bullying. While face-to-face bullying has been a traditional tactic of harassment, the coming of cyberspace communication has added an exponential element to the problem. Bullying, much of it sharp, vicious and aiming for maximum hurt, has become a 24/7 occupation. Keyboard bullies can get at anyone, anywhere and at any time.

Amy Everitt’s passing is the most recent case of a phenomenon that is ending the life from far too many people, especially young people. And it is happening all too often.

The ‘Courier Mail’, in covering the Amy Everett story (January 11) intimated that online bullying can be taking place without parents having a real understanding of what might be happening. Clearly there is a need for children and young people to be protected from online savagery. The following sound advice was offered to parents and those responsible for children.

“ 1. Regularly talk with them (children) about technology and their online activity.

2. Put filters in place and set security levels to high restrictions.

3. Make sure their passwords are changed regularly and kept private even from friends.

4. Many children don’t want to talk about online bullying for fear they will have their social media access taken away. Assure them this won’t happen.” (Courier Mail April 11, 2018)

Many very young children have access to social media platforms and can be reached by unscrupulous persons. Michael Carr-Gregg an eminent child psychologist, believes that 60% to 70% of primary school aged children are on social media and this should be discouraged.

It is suggested that social media companies should not allow children under the age of 12 to use their platforms and this should be enforced.

Children, along with everyone else, can and should be encouraged to eliminate vicious and hurtful online bullying. Young people should be taught to bar access to their accounts by those seeking to harm them through vicious words and vile statements.

Thank you to all NT school principals retiring at the end of 2020 for your school managenent and leadership.

And at last the NT News (14/1) reveals some good news on the recruitment front. Of the 49 principal vacancies, 47 are being filled from within the Territory, with only two people appointed from interstate.

Finally, home grown leaders are being recognised, appreciated and promoted into top level leadership positions. This long overdue move deserves applause.

——

I hope that as children and students begin returning to school within the next fortnight, they will not be confronted with the same challenges that distorted the 2020 academic year.

How schools, staff and students deserve plaudits for the way they coped with last year. But they don’t need to repeat in 2021.

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The one good thing about education in 2020 was the “disappearance” from the school agenda of NAPLAN tests. I can only hope that they will stay gone this year and forever. I am no fan of this testing regime. It needs to stay gone.

Media stories that highlight student mediocrity, are brought to the attention of the Australian public with predictable regularity. ‘The Australian’ has run front page stories that bagged Australian students accomplishments. Our best were described as being on par with Singapore’s least accomplished students.

According to International Student Assessment (PISA) results released in December 2016, students tested in Singapore ranked first in science, reading and maths results for OECD countries. Among these countries, Australian students ranked 14th in science, 16th in reading and a lowly 25th in mathematics.

Comparing Australian with Singaporean students is fallacious. Singapore is an island state of 5.6 million, and the country’s prime focus is on commerce and finance. It is a country that controls the civil and political rights of people and is governed by a semi authoritarian regime.

Australia’s vastness, the fact that education is largely state and territory controlled and our multicultural nature are factors that make us different to Singapore. Singapore’s republic has a centrally administered and tightly controlled educational system. The focus on education is influenced by expectations that graduates will continue to build and expand the industrial, commercial and financial focus of the country. Personal choice and career options are more directly influenced by government and the education system than in Australia.

There are many more occupational choices on offer to Australian students than is the case in Singapore and many other OECD countries. Vocational opportunities within the agricultural and pastoral industry are not options for many in small, densely populated overseas countries, so competence in these occupations is not measured.

The fact that our students are encouraged to think freely and make decisions about their occupational futures is also a plus.

There are weaknesses in every educational system. Australian parents and teachers encourage children to make the most of education and school, but career decisions ultimately belong to students. And study aside, there is a focus on personal and social development and recreational opportunities.

Students in Singapore and other OECD countries are academically focussed on what seems to be a full time, whole of life basis. And all for a few extra PISA points. That is not the developmental balance we need for Australian students. By and large, Australian education meets the holistic needs of our students and generally does it well.

For many years, schools have been supported by Government in the acquisition of technological equipment. For many years the NT Government has provided hardware equipment and software programs supporting schools, teachers and students. In the NT, one of the most notable programs has been the allocation of laptop computers for teachers. Units are signed out to teachers and retained by them on transfer from one school to another.

Computers remain the property of the Department, with resigning or retiring staff having to return units to their school. Units are then re-issued to new staff members appointed to the school. Laptops have been maintained by the Department under leasing warranty and replaced by upgraded models after a period of years.

Computers issued to schools for student use have been allocated under a similar program. When hardware has been replaced, schools have had the option of keeping redundant equipment and also assuming future maintenance costs.

Costs of school computerisation has been a number one outlay for both the government and schools themselves. Included for schools have been outlays for licensing agreements and network establishment. Increasingly, school council fundraising has also been directed toward supporting technology in schools. It seems that budgetary requirements for technology and technological support can never be satisfied.

Rapid change

The pace of technological change means that equipment purchased for schools is outdated almost as soon as it is installed. Update needs are constant, impacting significantly on budgets. At the same time, government funding of computer needs is becoming less generous. This is placing funding onus more squarely on schools. Without doubt, technology is the most significant item impacting on educational costs. The question of affordability and the need to balance income and expenditure is pressing schools into the ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) era.

BYOD

Bring your own device is a requirement in a growing number of schools, both public and private in southern states. The approach is also creeping into Northern Territory schools. “The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program works like this: Kids in all year levels are free to bring in their own iPads to use in the classroom. … Parents buy the devices, kids take them to and from school, and everyone hopes like hell they end the day with screens intact.” (Kate Hunter ‘When a free education costs $650’ from Mummamia.com.au)

William Cohen a Sydney Secondary Education Teacher says this new approach is challenging. “Unfortunately, the switch to student-owned technology is not going to be a simple one. Leaving aside the equity issues that underlie a BYOD model … the options are so varied that some schools are now creating documents that give minimum device specifications.” (William Cohen ‘BYOD … Buyers Guide To Schools’, abc.net.au)

Whether we like it or not, BYOD is becoming the new way forward. Painful budget cuts and the need to carefully prioritise expenditure, will make this the only option available for many schools. BYOD may only be the start. As funding becomes even more scarce, parents and families may be increasingly called upon to make up the difference.

In our increasingly cashless society there is a distinct danger that children will grow up without understanding the value and worth on money. It was recently reported that 81% of business transactions are now completed online or by card. Only 19% of transactions involve hard currency. With coins and notes disappearing from purses and wallets, the value of money is becoming abstract and without real meaning.

Writing in the Sunday Territorian (August 19 2018) Sophie Elsworth warned that children are losing ‘the sense of cash’. Our card focussed culture is eroding their understanding of money and finances.

Elseworth’s column cites a recent Financial Planning Association report. “The report … quizzed 1000 Australian parents with children aged between 4 and 18. … A majority of parents (66%) concede electronic transactions are a massive barrier for children grasping the true value of money. It … showed 68% of parents were reluctant to speak to their kids about cash.”

Parents have an important part to play in helping their children overcome ignorance about money. The article suggests that giving children pocket money “… makes it a lot easier for parents to discuss and teach their kids about money. … The truly important thing is to teach kids about the ‘value’ of money.”

Giving children pocket money and encouraging them to save some of it, initially in money boxes and then by banking into a savings account can help. With that should come conversations about the reason for saving. There is a paradox to parental responsibility in this matter. Elseworth wrote the FPA report “ … showed 38% of parents admitted to borrowing money from their child’s piggy bank or bank account to pay for urgent expenses.” That does not set a good example on money management.

Although children should have been introduced to money at home, schools have a part to play in extending their awareness about the value of money.

Educators often state that children learn best when their initial experiences involve the use of concrete objects.Their understanding is reinforced if they can use and handle the materials being discussed. The Australian Curriculum requires that “ … students learn about the nature … and value of money.” (ACARA Mathematics overview). Children start with simple experiences which include them handling money and understanding it in a very basic way. More complex matters are presented as students move up the grades through their schooling years.

Elseworth advises of caution offered to parents (and teachers) by Tribeca Financials Chief Executive Officer Ryan Watson. He urged that young people be taught that “credit cards are the devil”. This may be a little extreme but cards need to be managed carefully and sensibly.

Maybe I am a simpleton or just not able to understand understandable issues. Can someone please help me understand the matters I find so confusing. They are not in any particular order of confusion but all are hard for me to understand.

I need educating.

. Why is it that the more and more Australians repatriated from overseas, the more abd more there are on waiting lists wanting to return? Australian families – airlines estimate close to 100,000 people may be waiting to return. How come when so many are already back?

. Why have more than 16,000 Australians been granted exemptions to go overseas since the government embargoed overseas travel in March/April 2020?

. Why are repatriated Australians being quarantined in hotels in the centre of cities in all places but the NT?

. Why are deterrent Covid behaviours suggested rather than being mandated?

. Why do authorities act in a way that makes them beholden to fixing up the issues that people have gotten themselves into through their own behaviour and actions – often indulged counter to the advice of authorities?

. Why are people so frenetic about travel and holidays when this flies in the face of the common sense we should all be exercising?



On November 28 2014, one of the best ever conferences on Indigenous Education was held at the Darwin Convention Centre. It had to do with Indigenous Leadership in schools and the contribution being made to education by Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Staff.

Over 200 people, the majority being Indigenous Australians attended the conference. Fifty organisations, mostly school representatives from government and private schools were involved. While those attending were from all over Australia, there was a strong focus on Northern Territory schools and NT educational outcomes.

The conference was organised by the Centre for School Leadership at Charles Darwin University and the Australian Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Education. Conference highlights included demonstrations of indigenous cultural learning by students from Wagaman Primary and Sanderson Middle Schools. The conference put to bed some myths that have been part of societal thinking for a long time.

The commonly held belief is that nothing happens and no progress is being made in rural and remote schools. Indigenous education is equated with truancy issues and programs constantly thwarted by chronic teacher turnover.

There are over 100 remote schools in the NT and by no means do they all deserve the ‘too hard’ tag. For instance, Elliot School 750 kilometres south of Darwin has close to 90% school attendance. The principal has been at the school for 4 years and all classroom teachers from this year will be staying on in 2015. The conference confirmed that other remote schools are improving in these areas.

Several presenters attested that Indigenous educational success and progress in our remote and urban schools depends on relationships between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal staff. If they work ‘together as one’ students respond positively to learning opportunities. Of course care and empathy needs to be inclusive of students. Successful schools also engage with community.

Those successful and progressive schools identified during the conference have high standards and expectations. They engage with and support students toward positive personal attainment. Importantly, there is no disconnection between staff and students.

More than NAP

Our educational system tends to accept that the National Assessment Program (NAP) is the only yardstick by which educational success can be measured. That is because the Federal Government says so. Friday’s conference confirmed that there is much more to building student confidence and competence than NAP alone. Care and commitment go far deeper than preparing students for formal testing. Had senior departmental people and politicans attended the conference, they would have found this to be the case.

In the NT, 44% of our students are indigenous. More and more of them attend urban schools and they are the backbone of rural and remote schools. The conference confirmed Indigenous education is working and delivering outcomes, largely because of relationships building between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous staff. Relations between staff, students and community are also helping to build positive educational results. The conference was one of substance and uplift.

Time has moved on but key issues remain. We ought to watch with interest for further growth, development and educational fulfilment in this area.

Schools are perhaps the most scrutinised of all institutions. Teachers and staff are always under a magnifying glass held by parents, members of the community, employers, social welfare groups and government departments. Examination of schools and teachers by registration boards and performance management units is constant. Processes by which schools and staff administer education are being constantly updated and applied. Curriculum priorities are forever being altered. ‘Compliance’ and ‘accountability’ seem to be the most important key words within school action and teacher performance plans.

Government demands are poured upon educators. Expectations, many of them constantly changing, cascade upon schools like torrential rain. These pressures can become quite destabilising.

This is especially the case in situations where principals and leadership teams feel that everything demanded of schools by the system (and of the system in turn by Government), has to be instantly grasped and wedged into practice. Knee jerk reactions cause inner disquiet for staff who are often reluctant to change practices without justification, but are pressured to make and justify those changes anyway.

Before change is put into place, school staff, council and community members should have the chance to fully understand new policy and direction. ‘Making haste slowly’ is wise but difficult when government gives little time for response.

Constant change in educational direction does little to positively enhance the way those working within schools feel about what they are doing. Staff become ‘focussed by worry’. Is what they are doing, good enough? Teachers may maintain brave faces but beneath the surface suffer from self doubt. This in turn leads to discontent and unhappiness.

Positive Atmosphere A Must

It is essential that school principals and leadership teams offer reassurance and build confidence within their teaching and support staff groups. This does not mean lowering standards, but acknowledging and appreciating staff effort. Making that appreciation public can help through sharing the efforts of teachers with the wider community.

Well-being cannot be bought as a material resource. Neither can it be lassoed, harnessed or tied down. The ‘feel’ of a school is an intangible quality that generates from within. It is a product of the professional relationships developed by those within the organisation. School atmosphere, which grows from the tone and harmony within is precious. That feeling can also be lost if positive recognition and appreciation of staff is discounted or not considered important.

It is up to Principals and leadership teams to ensure that positive atmosphere, precious yet fragile, is built and maintained. It is easy to lose the feeling of positivism, so necessary if an organisation is to grow and thrive on the basis of its human spirit.

I recommend the wisdom of building spirit within our schools. It will add to feelings of staff satisfaction and well-being. Stability and happiness within school workplaces, embracing staff, students and community, will be the end result.

Clearly, there needs to be a stringent examination of the financial accounting processes that have operated at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE).

It may be wise to draw a line under tenuous operational processes and start afresh. What has happened historically seems to have muddied the waters, making it hard for the Institute to get a firm grip on future directions. Going forward, there MUST be full financial accountability based on clear accounting processes.

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Matters surrounding the Remote Aboriginal Teacher Education (RATE) program (NT News 4/1) are somewhat unclear. The program described as ‘groundbreaking’ ran in the 1980’s and 90’s, helping qualify Indigenous staff to work as teachers in classrooms.

If the program was so successful, why was it then dropped for the best part of 25 years and is only now being reinstated? This is a question that deserves a response from the NT Education Department.

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It’s time for Australian Universities to put off the crawl to overseas students for the sake of dollars.

To regard students as cash cows and to count them as money bags rather than considering them as people is so wrong. Nor are our domestic students second class citizens.

With the onset of global budgeting for NT schools from 2015, (NDA that has happened with all systems) money or lack of it seems to have become the number one preoccupation for school principals and administrators. This is somewhat paradoxical. In the final week of term four, school leaders should be rejoicing in the accomplishment of students and celebrating the year that has been. Instead, many seem to be focussed on coming to terms with the impact of global budgeting.

This new funding model has created a lot of angst and uncertainty among some school principals and councils. They are having difficulty reconciling the rhetoric about global budgeting with what seems to be the way it will actually impact upon school operations. Everything from program curtailment to staffing cuts seem to be looming.

On the face of it, global budgeting should be straightforward. A simple change of one allocation method to another should not create the negative reaction being generated. The concern seems to be that schools are being asked to maintain and even grow programs from a shrinking financial base. This is raising many questions and creating problems.

Training and understanding

I believe one of the issues is the change to budget accountability that has taken place within the education system. This began with devolution of management responsibility to schools in the late 1980’s and has continued since that time. In the beginning the school’s business was managed for the school, These days schools have become businesses. What used to be centralised functions have been outsourced to schools.

This has to do in part with accountability handed to schools and in part with the desires of principals and councils to take responsibility for decision making and money management. Global budgeting extends an outsourcing process that has been transitioning to schools for many years.

Managing money has become a complex and time consuming occupation. Schools have become businesses and this occupies the principal’s time. Matters of educational leadership are increasingly delegated to senior staff members. Principals and School Finance Managers are often under-trained for work in this field and battle to keep up with changing funding models. School leaders who trained to be educators are finding that bookkeeping is their major function. Many school finance managers have minimal training in this operational field. However, financial planning and full economic management is absorbing the time of both principal and finance manager. I suspect too, that the Department’s finance officers and those in schools are ‘learning together’, meaning that system help is evolving rather than being offered with full confidence. There may well be more confusion before clarity prevails because advisory staff have to learn about the new system.

Maybe it is worth looking at a model practised in Indonesia. Some schools have administrative as well as professional staffing streams. Issues of financial and budgetary management are separated from curriculum and teaching. The finance administrator and principal roles are separated, enabling both to concentrate of their specific areas of responsibility. This sharing of leadership and management may have drawbacks but it means that the principal’s focus is not totally consumed by monetary concerns.

Our system is now placing huge emphasis on business acumen and financial accountability. That has the potential to distract from educational leadership and classroom attention. Maybe the time will come when the business of schools dictates that those in charge are number crunching administrators rather than educational leaders.

Matters relating to the appeal of education and schooling are often misunderstood. We also underestimate the challenges confronting today’s young people. Distractions on offer can and do take focus away from education and school.

Young people growing up today, do so in an increasingly complex world. We are constantly looking assailed with stories confirming the social challenges they face. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, SMS and other social media contexts engage them in a way that has many addicted for hours on end to ‘small screen’ sending and receiving text and picture messages. It seems few young people are seen without electronic gadgets to hand. Addiction to electronic devices disengages them from the real world.

Historically, school was often looked forward to by many children – indeed for some it was a real highlight. Social and recreational opportunities were not available as they are today. In 2020, invitations to young people that they concentrate on school and educational betterment can be seen as an offer of monotony and boredom.

Schools and staff are often criticised for the fact that schooling is not sufficiently effervescent and bubbling with excitement. The inference is that teachers have to be 100% responsible for motivating students. However the desire for deep learning has to come from within students themselves. While learning needs to be stimulating, there is more to education than tinsel and glitter. Unfortunately, the attractions of these modern times offer diversionary activities that have greater appeal than schooling routines.

Social pressures

Increasingly we read of social pressures placed on young people. Years ago smoking a cigarette behind the school shed or toilet was considered an act of bravado. Drugs as they confront today’s youth were a future issue. So too, the more liberal attitudes existing these days toward alcohol. While tobacco has become taboo, attitudes to an array of drugs and alcohol are liberal by comparison. While use of drugs within school environments is a ‘no, no’, that concern is not apparent within the wider community. I respect awareness programs offered at school. However, it seems that young people in social contexts, are ignoring educational advice and warnings.

Dunlevy’s findings

Sue Dunlevy a national health reporter, highlights the issue. She reported:

* One in three teens aged 12-17 are consuming alcohol even though illegal.

* In many cases parents were purchasing alcohol for their children.

* Principals are concerned about this major social problem ” … that could harm their children’s future and … developing brains.”

* Unsupervised parties lead to teenage drunkenness and drug use.

* The Australian Council on Drugs found this behaviour was often a fallout from cyber bullying.

* The survey found a significant amount of time is spent by teachers in the classroom trying to help students who drank on weekends catch up on their work or in dealing with disruptive behaviour while other students look on and wait.

* Students who drank alcohol and used other drugs came to school late, tired and often with a poor attitude. They were also in danger of developing a pattern of non-attendance.

* Three out of four schools run drug and alcohol education programs, so the effort to create awareness is significant.

(Dunlevy, ‘Drunk and confused: Weekend drinking is hitting the performance of our teenagers in schools’, Australian March 5, 2014)

Where to

There is much on offer educationally for young people. However, if students fail to see the importance of education, preferring to overly indulge in social and recreational pursuits, educational outcomes will suffer. Decisions young people make today have implications that will last a lifetime.

CELEBRATE SPECIAL DAYS

With so much going on within schools, it is easy to

discount the need for special events and activities.

Teaching and learning strategies, together with data collection and analysis, are constant and almost totally preoccupying. The need for academic pursuits to be a key activity is unquestioned. It often seems that schools are so wired to testing, measurement and assessment that there is little time for anything else.

Schools become so busy responding to systemically imposed requirements and the academic imperative, that the fun part of education can be overlooked. Schools should be happy places. There is a danger that the overloaded curriculum will impose a ‘nose to the grindstone’ mentality on teachers and students alike. This is not helped by principals and school leaders feeling the need to everlastingly oversight the school academic tasks at hand.

Including special days and celebratory opportunities into school calendars is important. These activities help to build school spirit. They draw students, staff and community members together. There are many special events from which to choose. They might include the following.

* School discos. One held toward the end of each term is a way to socially celebrate school and students.

* An annual or biennial school fete brings people together and offers special fundraising opportunities.

* Celebrating anniversaries is a way of remembering school history and looking forward to the future.

* Organising events to celebrate the opening of new school facilities.

* Organising open classrooms and celebrating learning themes is positively focussing for parents and the community.

* Highlighting book week including a costume parade of students dressed in the costumes of book characters.

* Special days celebrating science, maths and the cultures of children who are members of the student community.

* Highlighting student accomplishment during school assemblies. This might include class items, celebrating success in competitions and acknowledging sporting results.

* Taking part in the Tournament of Minds, ‘Lock up Your Boss’, Principal for a Day and so on.

This is not an exhaustible list. Many more activities could be included.

A question of balance

Not for a minute would I downplay the academic priority of education. However, there is need for fun, enjoyment, camaraderie and days of relaxation to be mixed with more formal teaching and learning pursuits.

These are the things upon which happy and memorable school days are based. They should not be forgotten.

A lot has been said and written about the need for teachers to be professionals who meet an expanding raft of the developmental needs of students. Educational expectations held for teachers seem to be constantly expanding.

Teaching is more minutely inspected by the community than any other profession. It seems greater responsibility for the bringing up and development of children is placed on teachers and schools rather than on parents and homes. It has become the done thing for some parents and primary caregivers when things go wrong for children, to vent their displeasure on teachers.

The bullying of teachers by a cohort of parents is an issue of growing concern. The Sunday Territorian (Teachers’ bullying crisis, January 27 2019) confirmed that the Australian Education Union (NT) is worried about this trend and its impact on teaching staff. Union secretary Adam Lampe said he was aware of incidents “ … where parents scream and harass teachers constantly in person and online … that can really take a toll … teachers leave their jobs, transfer and even fall into depression – it pushes people to a breaking point.”

Stories from media outlets within the Territory and around Australia are increasingly reporting on matters of teacher abuse. The way in which the personality and character of teachers can be misrepresented and maligned is extremely alarming.

Expectations held of teachers from selection and training through to their delivery of educational outcomes in the classroom, are subject to increasing scrutiny. However, respect for them in personal and professional terms seems to be diminishing.

The Department of Education is on the record as upholding the fact that “ … wellbeing and safety of all … staff is paramount. … The department takes all incidents seriously and does not condone bullying, harassment and violence of any form in schools.” (Op cit)

I believe that teachers are at times reluctant to report matters of bullying behaviour to school leaders because they may be considered as not able to manage unpleasant situations. Contract, limited tenure and relief staff particularly, may feel that raising the issue will adversely affect their future employment opportunities.

It may well be that some school principals, who are on end-dated contracts, feel the same way about reporting these matters to the department. The Teachers Union maintains that a significant number of teacher bullying incidents go unreported.

Most parents are people who develop respectful relationships with their children’s teachers. However, the actions of the minority referred to in recent reports, negatively misrepresent that majority. Bullying and abusive behaviour should be consigned to history.

Make no mistake. We are (still) well and truly in the grip of the coronavirus. There can be no let up in our vigilance simply buy turning a corner into the new year. It often seems that Australia is not on song with the message of caution.

We are having virus breakouts and clusters forming and consolidating (3/1/2021) in NSW and Victoria. Cross border infection has been an issue. Borders are closing and people and rushing hither and thither like headless chooks. (One has to ask why they left home in the first place.) The add on cases of those with the virus and those in isolation because of contact, are adding up.

It seems that we could be on the cusp of a new Covid emergence for cases of community infection are certainly ramping up. With the repatriation programs and the numbers of people coming down with Covid while in quarantine all around Australia, you have to wonder.

How long until the virus escapes quarantine and gets out into the community – as has already happened in NSW. Vaccines are still a way off and we will soon be emerging into autumn and then the prime virus strike time of winter. We are by no means out of the woods.

Thank you for the 2020 educational highlights package in the NT News (28/12). The resilience, resourcefulness, creativity and coping strategies developed and practised by school staff and students in countering this most challenging of years deserves high praise. That has been the way management has occurred all around Australia.

The 2020 year in education has been an Australian and indeed a worldwide educational year with significant difference to those of the past two or three decades. Students, staff, schools and their communities have had to cope with forced change like never before.

Some have coped better than others, but fir all there was a significance that made this year one that stood out. For the most part, the standing out was for all

the wrong environmental reasons.

And in terms of 2021, we need to consider the upcoming school year – now just three weeks into the future – in cautionary terms. COVID-19 is still a part and parcel of the Australian way of life.

The impacts it has had will continue to have an influence on our institutions, including schools.

We will need to proceed with caution; there can be no throwing our hands in the air, declaring there is no longer a need to worry. To act with a false sense of security would indeed be foolish. It would also send the wrong message to students.

AND OTHER HEALTH ISSUES

Invasion by head-lice is a perennial problem for children at school, with re-infection occurring regularly. There is a significant cost for the purchase of products used in treatment. That is particularly the case where two, three or more children in each family have to be treated every time an infestation breaks out.

Until the 1980s, the impact of headlice was felt less than is now the case. Community health sisters used to come into schools, inspect heads for infestation and treat infected children. However, that practice was discontinued because the powers that be decided the head-lice issue was a “social” rather than a “medical” problem. The onus for treatment came back onto schools and parents.

Teachers and administrative staff used to check children if head-lice were suspected, notifying parents of the need for treatment. In more recent years it has been deemed inappropriate for school staff members to touch the heads of children and inspect for lice. In part that was to avoid embarrassing children. It was also felt that physical inspection of heads could be deemed a form of assault.

If head-lice are suspected, staff telephone parents, asking that children be taken home and treated, before returning to school. This may mean time off work for parents and lost learning time for children.

Head-lice continue to be the number one scourge for schools and students. It takes the inattention of only one family represented in a class of children to cause an breakout affecting them all. Schools urge parents regularly inspect children’s heads for lice or eggs, carrying out treatment if necessary. The problem however continues to manifest itself within our schools.

Illness

In a similar manner, health problems affecting one or two children can have an impact upon whole school classes. During the cold and flu season classes are quite often decimated because of children who are sick and away. Teachers are also susceptible and many become quite ill. The non-treatment or non-exclusion of one or two children in the first instance can have serious health impacts upon whole school communities.

The Demands Of Work

Parental work commitments can mean unwell children are sent to school, even though they may spend the day in the sick bay. It is not uncommon for primary school sickbays to resemble a scene from crowded house! Support staff (when signed parental permissions forms are completed) can administer prescribed medication. They also handle reluctant parental responses when ringing and requesting sick children be picked up from school.

A good deal of the contagion that spreads through school classes happens because children in poor health are at school and spreading infection.

Notification

A growing amount of administrative time is spent in notifying parents about health issues. Letters from schools to parents about head lice are sent home with monotonous regularity. With a growing percentage of parents declining immunisation for children, notification about measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, new strains of flu and other outbreaks have to be made.

Student health and well-being matters are major school issues

A prime focus of education is planning towards meeting the future needs of children. Preparing children and young people to become tomorrow’s adults and leaders is a key educational commission. This should be a shared responsibility involving parents on the home front and teachers in our schools. Taking advantage of learning opportunities is also a responsibility resting on the shoulders of students. Parents and teachers offer development and educational opportunities for children but cannot do the learning for them.

In a world of educational pressures and global confusion, it is important to be careful and responsible in planning learning opportunities. Part of this is to offer a stable and understandable environment. The opportunity to ‘grow through play’ and the way in which children learn to understand the wider world are both important.

Play

The importance of play and social interaction children have with each other is sometimes discounted. Abundant research confirms that children learn about the world through play. This along with other stimuli supports their social, emotional and moral/spiritual growth. Young people can be and often are exposed to the pressures of academics too early in life. Making haste slowly and ensuring these other elements are taken into account, supports the stable development of young people. Pressuring children academically might produce ‘high fliers’. However, confidence and maturity come from socialising and play, without which children can be left in isolation. Playing together is one way children begin to understand one another and the world into which they are growing.

Unease

In these troubled times children’s self confidence needs to be supported by parents and teachers. Distressing events, particularly terrorist attacks, climatic catastrophes and other disasters have an unsettling effect on everyone. This is particularly the case for children who can and do become distressed by such events. Trying to shield young people from these events or attempting to brush them off, will only heighten their anxieties. Awareness of terrifying events creates distress which “… may be shown in all sorts of ways. This can include aches and pains, sleeplessness, nightmares, bed wetting, becoming … snappy or withdrawn or not wanting to be separated from their parents.” (Parry and Oldfield, ‘How to talk to children about terrorism’ The Conversation, 27/5/17)

Children need the confidence and understanding that grows from play and they need reassurance about the good things in a world into which they are growing. It’s up to adults to see that both these needs are met.

A planeload of repatriated persons from Chennai in India arrived in Darwin on January 1 2021. The flight had over 150 passengers on board.

On January 2 2021, the online edition of the NT News reported that five adults and an infant had tested positive at the Howard Springs Quarantine Centre for COVID-19. The story was posted online at 3:16 pm on January 2.

We are constantly told that repatriated persons are tested before boarding flights and that if they show signs of COVID-19 positiveness, are excluded from the flight.

The people from Chennai in my opinion were NOT, repeat NOT tested before boarding their flight. In my opinion, authorities are pretending that testing prior to embarkation takes place. IT DOES NOT!

Less than a day after touchdown in Darwin, this high level of infection shows up. It has to be these people were flying infected on the plane. How many more have been infected by these six during the flight? And authorities at Howard Springs have to cope with this rash of infections, protecting others and keeping COVID-19 out of the community.

Stop with the half truths on the repatriation issue. Be open and honest with the community at large on this subject.