I work in a decile 3 girls' school. The ethnic makeup of the school is 73% Maori,15% European, 5% Pasifika, and 7% other. Many of these girls come from low socio-economic backgrounds. This background brings with it issues such as poverty, domestic violence, gang-related situations and criminal activity, not to mention unsettled family and living situations, low academic achievement and low expectations. There are students who regularly come to school without any breakfast or lunch, and kids who cannot afford to go on school trips, pay for replacement of books or uniform items. Along with these socio-economic factors have come behavioural issues, which, for some time, led to a negative public perception of the school, a falling roll, poor NCEA results and the image of a 'failing school'. Teachers and higher-achieving students were scrambling to escape, and there was a feeling of 'last one out, turn off the lights'.
A new principal four years ago, though, led to new initiatives to change the school culture in a concerted effort to address all these issues. On a practical level the school runs a breakfast club through the Wellness Centre, offering weetbix, toast and milo for those who need it. In winter, soup and toasted sandwiches are often provided for hungry students. The food supply is dependent on donations. The school does what it can to help with uniform and stationery issues. Our girls can choose to attend trades academies and gateway placements, they are offered individual learning programmes to meet their needs, and literacy and numeracy is tracked through twice-yearly e-asttle tests. As a school we are also several steps ahead of other schools in our area in terms of BYOD and e-learning initiatives.
A new principal four years ago, though, led to new initiatives to change the school culture in a concerted effort to address all these issues. On a practical level the school runs a breakfast club through the Wellness Centre, offering weetbix, toast and milo for those who need it. In winter, soup and toasted sandwiches are often provided for hungry students. The food supply is dependent on donations. The school does what it can to help with uniform and stationery issues. Our girls can choose to attend trades academies and gateway placements, they are offered individual learning programmes to meet their needs, and literacy and numeracy is tracked through twice-yearly e-asttle tests. As a school we are also several steps ahead of other schools in our area in terms of BYOD and e-learning initiatives.
The new principal's vision for the school was that we needed a culture change that would lead to an improvement in academic results which would, in turn, lead to an improvement in public perception and, hopefully, lead to an increased roll. Her vision was in line with Mark Wilson's statement (TEdEd.(2013, Jun 21) that "if you want a successful school, start with culture...culture is the beliefs and priorities that drive the thoughts and actions of the people at the school."
When the new principal arrived she inherited a school that had reached the 'Maturity and stagnation and decline' point (Stoll, 1998), where the internal and external contexts of the school had changed, but the school had not responded adequately to those changes. Elements of the teaching and learning had become dysfunctional. Four years later, the roll is increasing and NCEA results have improved to now be above both national standards and decile 3 girls' school standards, with Level 2 and 3 provisional pass rates at 97% and 93% respectively (as at February 2017). To get to this point we have experienced a time of rapid change. Like Mark Wilson's school we had to have a vision, had to ask 'what is it we are seeking a do as a school', 'who are we?', 'what do we wish to be and why?', and 'how do we become what we wish to be?' (TEdEd.(2013, Jun 21).
T - the willingness to learn
E - engaging to achieve
A - always shows respect
O - offers to serve
These values are promoted around the school in our signage and discussed in assemblies and classrooms. Students are encouraged to exhibit the Te Ao values in everything they do, and they can earn points for doing so; many now proudly wear badges that show their commitment to Te Ao. These values, which I know many of us were sceptical about at first, have proved to be a unifying concept within the school. Even the teachers are celebrated in the staff room at the end of every term for showing Te Ao, and this is a nice 'feel-good' recognition of our efforts throughout the year.
Another element of building this culture of success is an emphasis on relationships. For many years our form classes have been called Whanaus, and whanau teachers are now playing a much greater role in nurturing relationships with students and their whanau. We spend lots of time getting to know the students on a personal level, and are encouraged to create whanau blogs to share and celebrate what we do as whanaus and as Houses. House spirit has always been strong at the school, but to build this new culture, we created new Houses based on strong women from our area with whom many of our students have family connections. As Salvatore Gargiulo pointed out (Principal Sabbatical Report, 2014) building relationships is essential with students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Students from these backgrounds value relationships over achievement, but if you can build a strong relationship first, if you understand what makes the student tick, then you can work on their academic achievements. The student's family is an important part of this, so we are welcoming parents into the school more. We now have two academic planning days a year, where parents/caregivers come in to meet the whanau teacher to discuss student goals, attendance, behaviour, literacy and numeracy and anything else of concern. It is a great way for the whanau teacher and the student's whanau to get to know each other and to create lines of communication.
After four years of building this new culture, our school can now be said to be exhibiting most of the norms of improving schools as identified by Stoll & Fink (cited in Stoll, 1998). In particular, I believe we have a sense of shared goals, responsibility for success, continuous improvement and lifelong learning. Risk taking has proved trickier for some, the 'laggards' who were slow to adopt new ideas and new technology, but they are in the minority now. And I believe we still have issues to work out around collegiality, openness, respect, celebration and humour. But the positives for the school as a whole, and for the students and their achievements are a strong indicator of a school on the rise.
References:
Gargiulo, S. (2014). Principal sabbatical report. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Professional-information/Principals-sabbatical-reports/Report-archives-for-2007-2014/Secondary-award-recipients-2014/Gargiulo-Salvatore
TEdEd.(2013, Jun 21). Building a culture of success- Mark Wilson.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8Bjz-OCD8
Stoll. (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture
Hi Jo,
ReplyDeleteAnother very well written and engaging read. I am really enjoying your blogs. This experience gives us an opportunity to really do some good quality professional readings and engage in honest, reflecting, as opposed to some of the contrived excuses for a reflection I've done in the past on Interlead.
One of the readings I really liked on this topic was the Gargiulo one - I especially thought the table he created identifying the different priorities of each class so that teachers (middle class) could see the kinds of things that were most important to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. For example, how those from lower SES will prioritise relationships over achievement. Makes sense to me that if you are insecure in your own home, that you prioritise keeping friends at school - it would be about survival. This perspective made me reflect about why good kids sometimes share their assessment work with others, or choose to hang with mates instead of attend a tutorial.