Tag Archives: School issues and system challenges

NAPLAN IN ITS 9TH YEAR

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Published in May 2016

NAPLAN IN ITS NINTH YEAR

This morning, all Northern Territory students in years three, five, seven, and nine, begin three days of NAPLAN testing. Now in it’s ninth year, NAPLAN dominates Australian education during this week of May. The literacy and numeracy tests are held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is a catch up day for those who may have been absent during the week. These four ‘May Day’s’ of testing have become a permanent educational fixture.

For the first time, some children will be completing tests online. This is a pilot program the Australian Government hopes to extend to all schools.

NAPLAN testing is all about compliance. Testing was made compulsory during the Rudd, Gillard years. It overrode and replaced other testing programs.

The stated intention of this compulsory exercise is to capture student performance at a particular point in time every year. In fact, it’s impact goes far deeper. For weeks and months leading to this week, students in many schools sit practice tests or undertake activities slanted toward their readiness for NAPLAN. In some schools this happens on a daily basis.

The regime is one that excellently illustrates compliance at work. The Australian Government has mandated NAPLAN and it’s compulsion underpins system and school responses. School funding and educational futures are determined by data profiles. Test results are taken into account during school reviews, principal assessment and staff evaluation exercises.

At individual school level, NAPLAN results can lead to everything from moments of euphoria to feelings of despair. While it may not be talked about openly, principals, staff members, parents and tested students feel the pressure of waiting for results. When released, statistics for each school are microscopically dissected and studied by system leaders. In like manner the data is cut, sliced and analysed in every conceivable way at school level.

Outcomes for every school in Australia can be scrutinised by the public at large on the ‘My School’ website.

Many teachers believe that Tom Chappel’s ditty on NAPLAN, particularly the line that “your score is my score” carries real weight.

Students sense tensions and feel the underlying vibe created by this program. While some may appear indifferent, others are reduced to nervous anticipation and pre-test stress. Weeks and months of preparation together with countless classroom hours spent working on preparing for this week, adds to their unease.

NAPLAN is seemingly here to stay. But questions about its need, purpose and legitimacy remain.

GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS DESPERATELY NEEDED

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Published in the Suns in April 1976. This for me is the number one need in our schools, especially Primary Schools.
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GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED

There is a desperate need for guidance counsellors to be appointed as staff members in ALL our schools. Mental health and well-being issues confronting young people demand that our system look at this as a number one priority. There are counsellors in some NT secondary schools but their main role is in the area of career guidance and vocational support. Secondary schools also have school nurses to whom students can talk. However, for the most part they are more focussed on physical well-being and social issues rather than mental health matters. No counsellors are appointed as primary school staff members.

With scrutiny of school staffing numbers under constant review, it is hardly likely that the issue is going to be addressed. However ignoring the matter, is overlooking one of the deepest seated issues of student need.

With scrutiny of school staffing numbers under constant review, it is hardly likely that this going to be addressed. However ignoring the matter, is overlooking one of the deepest seated student student needs.

Needs Not Met

The issue is one that has always been problematic. In 2003, a group of principals from around the NT met with s Education Minister Syd Stirling and told him that the need for counselling support was the number one priority confronting Northern Territory schools. That assertion was based on a survey response. The department then advertised for Well Being Teachers (WBT’s) with counselling qualifications. These teachers were engaged to support each region and work with schools on a rotational basis.

Counselling priorities for some schools were partially met while other schools missed out altogether. It soon became apparent that a well being teacher with responsibility for up to 12 schools would simply tinker at the edges of student needs. There was insufficient time for personal counselling.

The well being teacher concept was temporary. Some positions never filled. Others were vacated as incumbents applied for and won other jobs and were not replaced. Within a relatively short period of time, the program became history.

Why Primary Schools?

Issues confronting children become apparentA from a very early age. Yet it is considered that counselling is not really necessary until students reach their secondary years. This position is so wrong. Problems confronting younger children can be deep seated and unsettling. To leave them untreated will impact on developing student behaviours and attitudes. Problems and concerns confronting them, becoming an ingrained part of behaviour and attitude. One in five young people are stressed and depressed and that percentage is growing all the time. It is far better that concerns are addressed and nipped in the bud before they become insurmountable. That will not happen unless and until counsellors are appointed as staff members in our schools. This need is long overdue.

GIVE SCHOOLS A BREAK

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 The most unnerving factor about education is all the tooing, froing argy-barging that goes on about structure and organisation. Education is regulated to the point of inundating schools and teachers with paperwork, administrative and accountability requirements that bury good prctice and a comon sense approach. The whole process is one catatonic mess! 

The joy of teaching and the pleasures of learning have been stripped away by the grim regulatory and expectational fronts throwing up new directions and demanded priorities on an almost daily basis.

TEACHING A JAIL SENTENCE?

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A lot of teachers and principals can and do enjoy their vocation and calling. However
many teachers and those working within our schools feel that being ‘sentenced to teach’ is somehow akin to a jail sentence. A sentence that can last for years and years and from which there is no parole prior to retirement. They are locked in because there is no career alternative. They cannot resign because of financial circumstances. And the profession is like a custodial sentence because of the way education has evolved to become an institution requiring compliance, accountability and justification. The joy has gone and changing parameters leave a bitter taste.

On the day of retirement, their last day, people walk. It’s bitter sweet. They resolve never to look back until they are far away from the years that have been.

How sad.

CAREFULLY CONSIDER E-MAIL USAGE

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In today’s world, emailing has become possibly the most common form of written communication. Most people have email accounts and use emails prolifically. Schools and teachers have email accounts, often displayed on the school’s website.

Communication by email is encouraged, including contact between parents and teachers. Notwithstanding the ease with which email communication can be used, it is important consider a cautionary approach to its use. This is because emails are written documents and can be held against writers for years and years to come.

* If parents seek information about homework assignments and work due,
excursion information or similar, response is fine.

* If parents want information on school policy or are confused about particular
whole school policies or school matters, refer them to a member of the
leadership team and forward email sent and you reply to your senior.

* Under no circumstances offer parent value judgements about a child’s
character by email. Written statements can come back in future times to haunt
the writer.

* Be aware of the fact that emails can be used as documentation supporting
actions in courts, including custody battles between parents. To that end avoid
sending emails that ‘take sides’ or can be interpreted as supporting one parent
viewpoint or the other.

* Never promise by email that a child ‘will’ make certain progress by a particular
time or ‘will’ achieve particular outcomes. ‘Will’ is an absolute and confirms
that a particular attainment will be the result. Use ‘can’ or ‘could’ or similar
non-committing words. The onus is then on the child and not on the teacher to
take prime ownership of possible outcomes.

* It is wise to keep copies of emails sent too parents in a designated folder.
Trashing can be tempting but if a communications issue is raised to the
teacher at some future time, not having a record can be very unhelpful.

The above dot points could be extended and others added. Suffice it to say that the use of emails can be fraught with danger, a situation that all too many people find to their eternal sorrow. Stick to material issues and don’t enter into the realm of value judgements and character comment. Parents may send emails of this nature, asking to you comment on their perceptions. That invitation should be avoided because response means they may quote you and tie you to what is really their position.

Never ever write and send emails in the hear of the moment, while over-tired or while less inhibited than usual because of the use of alcohol. The reasons for this advice should be obvious.

If in doubt on the subject of email correspondence, check with a senior staff member. It is always better to be sure than sorry when dealing with email traffic.

KEEP A CLIPPINGS FILE

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There is deep and abiding interest in matters of an educational nature. Increasingly print, radio, and television coverage refer to educational issues. Some people pay little attention to what is being reported about education because they feel it to be inconsequential. There is also a belief that what is reported, misconstrues facts. That to some extent may be the case; however it is important to be aware of the way education is trending within the community.

Retaining information about education can be useful. There are various ways and means of doing this, but it works best if collation is organised regularly (almost on a daily basis).

Newspaper items can be clipped and pasted in a loose leaf file, indexed book, or similar. Indexation is important as it allows you to quickly refer to things you may need to recall.

Photographing news clippings using an iPhone or iPad, saving them to your pictures file, then creating an album for clippings is another method that works well.

Scanning clippings and saving them onto USB stick is a method that works well. Again, indexing the USB file helps. It may be that you choose categories to index under, rather than an “A” to “Z”approach.

Clippings files can be backed up on iCloud or otherwise saved onto computer or USB.

From experience, the use of newspaper clippings when it comes to social and cultural education, cruising for general knowledge, for stimulating discussion in class, are but three ways in which they can be of use. Clippings can also be used to stimulate the content of debates, the writing of persuasive arguments for older students and so on.

Awareness of issues can stimulate professional discourse including helping to shape the way in which members of staff develop collaborative programming to support teaching in schools.

I believe teachers would find a study of media and the establishment of a clippings file useful and worthwhile.

MAKE 2016 A YEAR OF ‘COMMON SENSE’ EDUCATION

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hope that 2016 can be the ‘Year of Common Sense’ for education. Research is important, so too are new initiatives. We ought also appreciate and continue to develop approaches and strategies that work well.

A worry for me is that too often, things that are working well, are tossed out simply because they have been around for a long time, AND WORKING WELL. I suspect there care times where teachers and school leaders who want something new because what they have is old hat and boring – no matter that what is in place works well and for the betterment of students. Is tossing aside proven my practice, really a common sense approach? Or is there a certain giddiness and excitement about new ideas that causes us to supplant practice without regard for the fact that this may work against the best interests of students?

May ‘common sense’ prevail in educational pursuits during 2016.

SNIPPETS FOR EDUCATORS (14)

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Thoughts to share.

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Doing more with less

Generally speaking, budget stringencies are asking school principals and educational leaders to be like Moses in ancient times. Moses asked Pharaoh for more building supplies so Israelites (system slaves) could go on building good homes and Egyptian infrastructrure. Pharaoh got cross and told Moses to go away. Supplies were cut off. The Israelites had to scrounge, using their wits to come up with construction materials. Similiarly, educators and principals are challenged to do more with less – just like Moses.

Schools and child care

We need to change the thinking paradigm of those who believe the prime purpose of schools to be that of providing child care. The fact that schools are often defined as placeswere cghildfren go to be brought up, being like unto second homes with teachers pseudo parents is a sad indictment on modern life. Often it seems, parents give birth and hand over their children for almlost total institutionalised upbringing.

The Best Leadership

Ascribed leadership is assigned to the position and is a power many choose to use. My preference was for aquired leadership, leadership based on respect earned through the appreciation bestowed by others. 

Respect

I believe the most essential quality to be earned, as a student or as a teacher, is that of RESPECT. Respect has to be earned, for it is a recognition of decency that accrues because of genuine care.

The fragility of youth

We need to realise how fragile and concerned about the future young people are, doing our best as educators to build confidence and a sense of the positive into their thinking and belief patterns.

Hierarchial organisation

Hierarchal organisation is a worry. It stacks people in terms of importance within a pyramidical structure, from less to more important. My preference is concentric management, with one plane for all.

Too old to teach

If people have to work until they are 70, then I pity poor teachers, whose resilience and bounce back capacity reduces with each year of chronological enhancement. There is an age at which teaching becomes too hard. Being a principal or school leader at an older age is much easier and less demanding that requirements of 100% full on teaching of children in classrooms.

Granted, there are exceptions to this rule. However with special students increasing in number (percentage-wise) and behaviour management becoming the number one classroom issue, this concern is true for the majority of those in our classrooms.

Where are the parents?

Educators seem to be more than willing to put their collective hand in the air, volunteering to correct more and more of the ills and challenges confronting society.  Part of this is our seeming willingness to volunteer the bringing up of children and young people in the ways they should go.  If anything is wrong, if things need correcting, the repair and renovating role is placed squarely on the shoulders of schools and teachers.

This begs the question of where do parents fit.  It seems that more and more children get born, to be committed to child-care agencies then schools to manage and look after their total upbringing.  If things go wrong, no responsibility attaches to parents.  It is all down to schools and teachers.

Before school care, preschool, school, after school hours  care, holiday care … Where does itv end and how much time do parents give to the primary care of their children.  Don’t forget the baby sitters and child minders parents employ after hours so they can go out and socialise.

Parents have to work and I understand economic imperatives.  However, there is a question of balance.  It should be behoved upon parents to remember and fulfil their primary care responsibilities toward their children.

I.T. WE ARE YOUR SLAVES

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A decade or more ago, when Information technology was all the rage in our schools, when nothing else mattered, I was moved to write the following. It seems to me that nothing has altered. We remain beholden to I.T.
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I.T.

I.T.,
Idealogue,
To you alter ego,
We sacrifice our educational souls.

BAAL
Of the modern era,
To you all things are beholden.
Servant,
Now master,
Bowing low in supplication,
We are putty in your hands.

Hydra
With seven heads,
Your resource appetite is enormous,
Knowing no bounds.
Barely satisfied,
By the dollars,
The tens of thousands of dollars,
Poured into your thirsty gap.

Venus Flytrap,
Your scent entices,
Your jaws snap shut,
You suck our vitality,
Eschew our energy,
Spitting our dry, skeletal remains.
Quickly forgotten,
We blow away on the winds of change,
While you seek,
Your next victim.

Praying Mantis,
Upon us you prey,
Grabbed!
Our heads serrated by your pincers,
You feast upon our brains,
Injecting numbing belief,
That YOU,
I.T.,
Are ALL that counts.

Prince of Modern Darkness,
You command attention,
We look upon you,
Falling like blind souls,
At your technological feet.
Stunned by your intensity,
We let all things,
Other than YOU,
Slip from peripheral vision,
Plunging,
All considerations BUT I.T.,
Into never-ending darkness.

I.T.,
You are a drug,
Seared into our psyche.
You are an aphrodisiac,
A demigod,
Exciting our desire,
Driving us to worship at your altar,
NOTHING else matters.

Pied Piper,
You have lead your rats to the brink.
Stand smilingly aside,
Witness from your screens,
As we sink,
Further and further,
Into a hopeless abyss,
Of eternal servitude,
From which,
We will NEVER emerge.

POH

HOW THE WORM TURNS

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When students needed to lift their standards, teachers and parents used to work at encouraging students. Now it is a case of non-perfoermance being the teacher’s fault.

How the worm turns.

One of the sad transitions that has occurred over the past forty years has been the gradual turn of student performance issues back onto teachers. It used to be that genuine (real) non-effort on the part of students became a concern shared by teachers with parents. Together then would exhort students toward greater engagement. These days, the minimal outcomes achieved by students with such dispositions is blamed back onto teachers in an almost sole fashion. Teachers are hammered if children don’t achieve, notwithstanding the commitment of the child and the support of home. Teachers are handed few bouquets but are regularly clouted about their heads by figurative brickbats. Small wonder the joy of teaching is so short-lived and so full of dissolution for many classroom educators.

SUNS 84 and 85: ‘GOVERNMENT FUNDING NOT IMPARTIAL’ and ‘NAPLAN LANDS ON 2015’

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SUNS 84 and 85: ‘GOVERNMENT FUNDING NOT IMPARTIAL’ and ‘NAPLAN LANDS ON 2015’

Both columns published in march 2015
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SUNS 84

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT NOT EVEN HANDED

There are many organisations which call on the NT Government for financial support and recognition. Some promote the performing arts and culture. Others are connected with sporting activities. These include motor sports, horse racing, football of all codes, cricket and periodic ‘big time’ sporting fixtures. They are all given government support to bring fixtures to the NT. The latest in a long line is tennis, with the NT Government ready to give big dollars to bring the Australian – Kagiistan exchange to Darwin. The government also provides $200 per school student each year, to offset family costs for their involvement with sport.

It seems that government support is not distributed even handedly. Arts and cultural groups struggle to earn government support. That has been the case during the lives of all Territory Governments. In an almost bipartisan way, sport is enthusiastically sponsored but arts and cultural needs are neglected. Those programs supported, for example ‘Bass In The Grass’ are about spectatorship rather than development for Territorians through participative programs.

The North Australian Eisteddfod has passed into history for lack of any long term budgetary assurance. Government support for this program was from year to year at best. The Eisteddfod’s demise has taken from students the chance to participate in music, dance, instrumental, speaking, reading and choral performance.

The Beat has managed to survive and continue. However, significant changes have been necessary, the major one being venue change from the Darwin Amphitheatre to the Darwin Entertainment Centre. The reduced venue is restrictive for both performers and audience size. The amphitheatre accommodated large audiences. The venue also allowed for many more children to participate for the two nights. DEC meant smaller primary school choir groups who were able to entertain for only one night. The second night involves a different set of primary school choirs.

It is thanks to the Darwin Rotary Club, its major sponsor and underwriter, along with other private support, that the Beat has been able to survive and carry on. The Rotary Club offers scholarships to primary and secondary school Beat participants who have career prospects in the performing arts. The NT School of Music and music teachers in school deserve plaudits for their dedication to the Beat. At least the Beat is still a goer, but for how much longer?

Sport and the arts responsibilities are now vested in the same minister the Hon Gary Higgins. I would like to think the Minister could see the need for a greater level of government recognition for the performing arts. Sportspeople endure for a relatively short period of time before being overtaken by age. Those preferring the arts, if supported, will offer a return to the community that is not end dated by age.
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SUNS 85

NAPLAN: FOUR ‘MAY DAYS’ EACH YEAR

Within a few short weeks, the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2015 will be upon us. At this time each year schools begin to focus with earnestness on the upcoming tests. Four school days in week five of term two are set aside for the administration of these tests. Three of the days enable attending students around Australia to complete the tests, with the fourth being a ‘catch up’ day. On that day, students who have been absent for parts of the testing week, can sit tests they have missed.

Once it’s over, staff and students should be able to relax a little. However, many school leadership teams and staff become anxious as they wait some months for results. It often seems that NAPLAN is the steering wheel that drives education.

Results are released to schools and parents. While the time between tests being taken and these results coming through has reduced, the Australia-wide analysis task means a lapse of many months.

The focus by schools and staff upon results often saturates staff meetings and professional discussions. Tests are taken by Year 3,5,7, and 9 students. However, contribution to NAPLAN testing is the responsibility of all teachers because learning is a continuous process. Principals business days with departmental leaders always have a strong focus on NAPLAN issues of testing, measurement and evaluation.

The efforts of school leaders and staff are regularly appraised and evaluated. NAPLAN Results including NAPLAN trends since 2008 are part of this program.

While NAPLAN is a measuring tool, there is a distinct danger that it can become the major focus of schools. Indeed, in the weeks and months leading up to May each year, children in many schools are taken through past tests, often with monotonous repetition. NAPLAN based text and exercise books have become major items for sale in bookstores and newsagents. This means parents as well as schools get involved with test reinforcement.

In reality , ‘teaching to the test’ has become a priority focus in the classrooms of many schools, both government and private. Some years ago Tom Chappell released a song about NAPLAN with a by-line pointing to teachers. ‘Your score is my score’ was the key lyric.

Chappell went on to sing about the fact that other subjects, including music, the arts and physical education were being sidelined for NAPLAN. He bemoaned the fact that ‘fun’ was being taken out of education.

Some educators and certainly the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA) downplay NAPLAN as being only a small cog in the assessment wheel. The prime focus placed on these tests, including both elation and disappointment at school and system results would indicate otherwise. NAPLAN dominates the educational horizon.

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“SUNS” COLUMNS 29 – 32 ON EDUCATIONAL MATTERS

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These columns were written for the Suns Newspapers (Darwin, Palmerston, Litchfield) in February and March 2014. Readers re welcome to use and quote but i would appreciate acknowledgement of the Suns, in which papers they were published.
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SUNS 29

THE WILSON REPORT -PROPOSING NEW DIRECTIONS

February 7 2014. was a significant day in Northern Territory Educational history. Last Friday the Draft Wilson Report titled ‘Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory’ was released. Importantly, this report is in “draft” form for a month and during that time feedback can be offered. The report maps what might well become the future way for Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory.

Access

The report can be viewed online at education.nt.gov.au the Department of Education website. A link on the left-hand side of the homepage ‘Indigenous Education Review’ goes to the report. A summary is offered along with links enabling the report to be downloaded by chapter or in full.

Many reports on Aboriginal Education have been prepared over the years. In my opinion this is the most significant since the Shimpo Report “A Social Process of Aboriginal Education”in 1976.

Nothing ever happened with the Shimpo Report! It was shelved to gather dust. I sincerely hope that will not be the fate of the Wilson Report, for it is (as Shimpo) a very significant statement.

Three Key Points

Three significant points growing from the report resonate :
* A recommendation for a major make-over in offering secondary education.
* A proposal to extinguish the bilingual approach to literacy teaching.
* A reaffirmation of the critical importance of child development and early years education.

The Indigenous Education Review

The Wilson Report confirms that indigenous children in remote and very remote places in the Territory do a whole lot worse educationally than indigenous children in similar places elsewhere in Australia. Interestingly, non- indigenous children in the remote and very remote areas of the NT are significantly higher level achievers in literacy and numeracy than their counterparts throughout the rest of Australia. (Report, page 33). This may be due in part to the great service offered by the Northern Territory Open Education Centre (NTOEC) and Katherine/ Alice Springs Schools of the Air, coupled with dedicated parental home-tutoring.

Report Elements

There are 37 recommendations for change in the report. Key areas covered by recommendations (lifted from powerpoint presentation text) follow.

1. Treat ‘bush’ and ‘town’ schools differently.
2. Develop a 10-year strategic plan for indigenous education.
3. Strengthen Families as First Teachers and preschools and focus on English.
4. Require bush primary schools to teach the foundations of English literacy.
5. Provide secondary education in towns, with residential accomodation for children.
6. Attendance focus on primary children and those attending three days a week.
7. Whole system approach to behaviour management and student well-being.

Other key points focus on developing community education plans, increasing indigenous teacher numbers and quality, and developing long term funding agreements with government.

The report is 161 pages long. Its thirteen chapters are supported by graphs and tables. Several appendices round out the document.

Draft Status

It is important to note that the report is in draft form. The website shows how the public can respond with comment and suggestion until Sunday March 9.

A series of public meetings have been programmed. Bruce Wilson the report’s creator, along with departmental officers will be at each meeting to discuss the report, field comments and answer questions. The Darwin/Palmerston meeting is scheduled for Wednesday February 26 2014. The venue will be the Brolga Room at the Novotel Atrium Hotel, The Esplanade in Darwin. The meeting will be from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm.

This is a very significant report. I would encourage people to read it, make submissions and attend the advertised meeting. It is especially important in my opinion that Indigenous Australians join in offering responses, attending the meeting and sharing their viewpoints.

This is a report we cannot afford to ignore

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SUNS 30

SWIMMING – A PROGRAM THAT SHOULD NOT BE VEXATIOUS

For reasons somewhat beyond ordinary comprehension, the issue of swimming lessons connected with the school curriculum has always been vexatious. Last week, Mrs Daphne Reed, president of the Darwin Royal Lifesaving Society confirmed this aspect of
swimming and water safely to be part of NT School Curriculum. She also confirmed that the program can be met through children being taken through ‘aquatic skills’ theory without practical lessons at the pool. It seems ludicrous to suggest that an important educational and safety need can be met without children so much as putting a toe in the water of a swimming pool.

In 2012, the Royal Lifesaving Society was reported to be launching an Australia-wide petition aimed toward swimming lessons and aquatic awareness being compulsory for all primary aged children. At that time Royal Lifesaving claimed only 4% of NT primary children could swim 50 metres or more. (David Wood, “Diving in to make kids waterproof”, NT News, October 23, 2012) I doubt there has been much of an improvement on that statistic.

There are many elements to the issue of teaching swimming; I believe from a school viewpoint, the following need to be taken into account.

* There ought to be a pre-supposition that school children are water confident. While many are, some beginning school have an absolute fear of water. That initial confidence should be instilled at home before the commencement of formal learning years and is often not the case.

* The lessons organised by schools have to take into account time of day and year. The Cancer Council recommends that children should not swim during the heat of the day. However terms two and three (the coolest periods of the year) are often considered too cold for water based lessons.

* During the weeks of swimming lessons, schools providing programs have to significantly change their normal school activities. More than the lesson, there is the getting ready (changing before and after), bus movement (to and from the pool) and counselling children about their application of sunscreen.

Horrendous Costs

One school located less than 3 km from the pool had to budget $14,000 in 2011 for transition to year three children to receive eight lessons over a fortnightly period. Bus transportation was a breathtaking cost item. The eight days of lessons involved four trips (two classes per trip) to and from the pool each day, a total of 64 bus movements from school to pool to school over the period. The cost for bus hire for the fortnight was over $5000, the rest related to other costs outlined.

Schools have limited capacity to fund swimming. Parents of children (certainly in the public school sector) generally contribute significantly. There can be issues of affordability. This means in some situations schools sponsor these children.

Permission

A significant number of children are not given parental permission to participate in swimming programs. When the issue is one of financial hardship for parents, schools do assist. When permission is declined by parents for other reasons, schools can do nothing other than make alternative arrangements for these children.

Swimming and water safety skills are necessities in today’s world. All children should have the chance to gain confidence in and enjoyment from water.

Government needs to come to the party in terms of cost contribution. If bussing costs were fully covered by grant, this would alleviate a significant portion of the program’s cost. This is not an issue schools can ‘fix’ by being hand-balled the problem. To be fully effective the program needs to involve all children. Providing swimming development is more than a school consideration. It is a system matter and should be a government priority.

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SUNS 31

THE BRINGING UP OF CHILDREN

The upbringing of children starts the day they are born. It has been stated that the first seven years of a child’s life are the most important. It is during this prime time that formation of attitudes and the shaping of children toward their ultimate destiny takes place. The Bible states “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). That is very true and often overlooked.

Recently there was an interview on radio involving a parent and her three-year-old child. The journalist asked the child certain questions, to which he responded by making “farting” noises. When re-questioned, the child persisted with that response. Both parent and reporter laughed at what the child was doing. At the end of the interview the reporter made comment which indicated that the child’s response was somehow cute and quite alright.

If the same reporter and parent had been involved with the child when he was nine or 10, and if the child gave that response, it would have been greatly frowned upon as inappropriate and rude, not cute and becoming.

There is a tendency to overlook the needs young children have, when it comes to their upbringing. Telling children to use words “please” and “thank you” becomes constant and repetitious – so often it’s not done! Similarly, “excuse me” is not insisted upon, with young and older children simply pushing in to gain attention. If something doesn’t suit a child he or she will cry, throw tantrums, hit the adult, or react in a negative manner. Often this behaviour is not corrected and the child is allowed to persist with such reaction. Sometimes the child’s tantrums are responded to by the parent or adult giving in, letting the child have what he or she wants.

These allowances or indulgences simply concrete into young children the idea that demanding, selfish and intolerant behaviour is fine. As the child grows older and transitions toward young adulthood, those negative traits of character condoned during formative years, persist. Small wonder that young people grow up to feel comfortable as members of the ‘me’ generation, with self-centredness to the fore.

‘One Punch’ Attitudes

In recent times we have come to hear a great deal about “one punch” and “coward punch” incidents occurring within our community. Certainly alcohol and drugs Impact upon behaviour and cause people to act in an untoward and offensive manner . However, I wonder how many of these “one punch” protagonists were not corrected when very young children for exhibiting this kind of behaviour. Attitudes toward the use of alcohol and drugs are also formulated in the thinking of children as part of awareness they are offered during their formative years. Part of this comes from within schools but the social attitudes and values becoming a part of children’s make-up should largely be developed on the home front.

Partnerships

A great deal is talked about the partnership that exists between school and home when it comes to the upbringing of children. Children need to be part of that partnership from a very young age. They need to contribute to their own upbringing responding to the support and the advice given by parents and teachers. However, if adults don’t provide advice, they are not supporting children. Guidance is important. Children cannot be brought up by osmosis!

Precepts, principles and practices of good living need to be imparted by advice and modelling to children. If this support is not forthcoming, children are left to drift toward adulthood. Left to drift, children will become wayward and lost adults.

Key Task

The preparation of today’s children is of critical importance. We need to feel satisfaction and joy in the development of our youth. A great deal of breast-beating takes place when things go wrong for children, adolescents and young adults. How much of that happens because they have ‘switched off’ to growing up responsibly. And how much of their non caring attitudes grow from lack of empathy and care from adults who should support them? Home, school and young people themselves need to share the upbringing challenge.

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SUNS 32

SCHOOL CANTEENS – DELIVERING THE BEST FOR STUDENTS

A great deal is made of the need for children to be brought up on healthy, body building foods. The need for canteens to offer nutritious and balanced food and drink alternatives came to the fore in the late 1990’s. Until that point in time, very little was imposed by the Department. Neither it seems, was there a sustained interest in canteen food and nutrition by the community.

Historically, school canteens have operated in one of two ways:

* School councils have supplied premises on a leased basis to private operators, who look after day-to-day management. This includes the stocking of product and service to students. The lease is generally for a fixed period at an agreed lease price. School councils may charge extra for power and water used, or this may be built into the main lease agreement.

* School councils operate their canteens as small business enterprises, employing staff to carry out supply and service. They are responsible for canteen staff salaries and on-costs. Any profit from sales is returned to the school council as revenue raised.

With a growing awareness of lifestyle and health issues associated with food and drink, came changes to school canteen policies in the NT. Fears of children and adolescents expanding into overweight and unfit adults prompted the department to issue guidelines about what could be sold to students. Outlawed were soft drinks (high sugar content) and artificially flavoured milk products. Full milk was discouraged because of high fat content. Certain foods, including pies, were banned from sale for at least one day per week.

Action and Reaction

Initially, some schools were resentful that the department was getting into the issue of survelliance through the eyes of ‘food police’, departmental personnel with a background in health awareness. Some already doing the right thing by monitoring of the products sold, felt affronted. Others were concerned that profits, generally modest, would take a tumble. There was a great deal of angst and concern about the department shoehorning into the schools’ domain.

To their credit, the department’s health education officers offered guidance and support in a positive and non-confrontational manner. A great deal of research translated into guidelines showing schools how best they might meet requirements without compromising the business side of canteen operations. Support included regional meetings with principals, school council representatives and canteen managers. Visits to schools helped with understanding and interpretive requirements.

In 2014, the healthy food and drink policy for school canteens has become ingrained. Support can be sought by way of advisory visits. Additionally, there are suggestions on the Department of Education’s website under ‘food’ (search engine) that outline canteen, nutrition and healthy eating policies. Ideas for recipes are included together with suggestions on using school canteens for fundraising purposes.

Food policies in action have worked well for many school communities through revamped canteen programs. There is obviously appeal to young people about the attractiveness of fast foods through normal retail outlets. When the healthy foods policy for schools was first introduced, there was a fear canteen support would plummet. It was felt the appeal of retail fast food compared with tasteless canteen fare would negatively impact the latter. While it took a little time to adjust, school canteens for the most part are doing a great job, part of that being care about nutritional values and food understanding for students. They also continue to be operationally viable.

School canteens, in sync with health education programs, are doing their part when it comes to promoting fitter, healthier, food and drink conscious young Territorians.

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