Sadler Methods text and general ideas for improving ATAR results

I've been a proponent of Sadler texts in low SES schools as they are relatively cheap, ramp slowly, have reasonable worked examples and I really like the built in study through the Miscellaneous exercises.  Some teachers really dislike them and prefer the Nelson texts instead and for some students the Nelson text is better.  By doing the Sadler Unit 3 Methods text again to reacquaint myself with the course, it has reminded me of a few pitfalls I have encountered along the way.

There are some tricks to using the Saddler text.

1. Go through each worked example with students identifying explicitly what Saddler wanted students to recognise in each topic.
2. Understand that Saddler does not cover every dot point in the syllabus.  You do need to check what is missing and include it in your programme.
3. Check that students are doing the Miscellaneous questions, otherwise they will miss one of the greatest benefits of the Sadler text.
4. There are few exam level questions in the text.  Ensure students use their revision guide in conjunction with the text.
5. Provide revision papers, prior to tests and exams, to get students to assessment level.  The text does not do this at all.
6. Make connections to the glossary and formula sheet whilst students are learning.
7.  Use a journal to identify key points (eg. get students to put their notes in a seperate book from their exercises) and then generate their page of notes from the journal.
8. Get students to highlight question numbers that are tricky or test corners of the syllabus that may turn up in assessment.
9. Identify which questions may appear in calculator sections and which questions appear in non-calculator sections.
10. Explicitly teach and enforce calculator usage until competency.
11. Make sure students are reaching questions at the end of chapters and not just doing 15 easy questions in class.
12. Do corrections (and go through the assessment) after each assessment.
13. Ensure that students check answers after every exercise (at a minimum) and redo questions that are incorrect.  Preferably in red pen, so that you can see from a distance without interrupting them.
14. Be mindful that some exercises take longer than others when setting homework.  As a safety net, I tell students to stop after 1hr 15 mins and assume that they will do a minimum of 45 mins every night.  If it is the whole class, we continue the exercise the next day.  If just a few students we identify together why they are taking too long and try to remedy it.
15. Extend students with the Nelson text if they are finishing earlier than the rest of the class.  In some cases, get them to use this text instead.

I tell students the following:
a) Do only the first ten questions in each exercise and expect to fail.
b) Do the main exercises only and you may reach 50% on assessments and expect to fail the exam.
c) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, you may reach 50% on assessments and it's possible to pass the exam.
d) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary, you should reach 50% on assessments and could pass the exam.
e) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary and use the revision guide, you should do well (60%) on assessments and may pass exams.
f) Do the main exercises and miscellaneous exercises, make good notes, understand the syllabus dot points/glossary, use the revision guide and do your corrections thoroughly, you should do well (60%+) on assessments and about the same in the exam.
g) Make a study group prior to exams and allocate content research for revision to each member prior to study meetings to further improve exam results.  Drop members that are not actively contributing.
h) Do as many past papers as you can lay your hands on and have time to complete. Identify any patterns in papers.
i) Do all the past ATAR papers prior to Mock/ATAR exams.

Given the median in exams is over 70%, points g-i are imperative for low SES students to reaching the state mean (not only using Methods as part of your ATAR score).  We would complement above with after school classes, UWA Fairway, ECU Studiosity and summer schools to help students rectify the 2 year gap that they entered high school with.

Natural ability will take some students so far and buck the trend, but usually it catches up with them.  The formula above has worked well with getting average students through the course and though "obvious" took a fair few years to nut out what worked and what was ineffective for larger groups of students (other than just the top four students or students falling behind getting intensive tutoring).

Three Games - Machi Koro, My First Carcassonne and Arkham Horror 3rd Ed

Machi Koro (G Rated)

I played this with my 10 year old and her grandparents.  A simple card game where you build a city engine that is run by dice.  Easy to learn and quick to play although it does have a finite life as it does get samey after a few plays.  Don't let the name fool you, it's all in easy to read English. A four player game that could definitely work in the classroom as it should play under an hour.

A couple of take-that elements to teach resilience and gamesmanship, some text and literacy, some optimisation and a little strategy.

Recommended for early to late teens.

Found online, at stores like Gamesworld or your local friendly hobby store.


My First Carcassonne (G rated)

I'm playing this with my 7 year old.  It's a tile laying game with some counting, network laying, creation of closed networks and simple optimisation strategies.  5-10 minutes long.  She often wants to play 3-4 games.  No literacy skills required.  Nice big chunky meeple.

She can now beat me reliably using basic strategies and is ready to move to full Carcassonne.  It was a great way to get her to want to play games (the harder games turned her off playing).

Recommended for getting young children interested in play based learning.

Reasonably easily located online (try Milsims, gamesEmpire or eBay).


Arkham Horror 3rd edition (M15+ Rated)

I'm playing this with my wife.  The game drips with theme and lots of text.  Takes 1.5 - 2hrs to play which limits its use in school unless able to leave setup over multiple days in a safe location.  Lots of bits and takes ages to set up and take down.  Would need to know the game thoroughly and enjoy it to play with high school age students.

Although the occult theme is attractive to students, parents may not be happy with the theme.  Be best checking first.  It's not gruesome or sex filled, but has demons, spells and the like.  If you are familiar with HP Lovecraft, it's based in the C'thulu mythos.

The game is really good and quick to learn for all its complexity. The mechanics and bits everywhere look great on the table but do overwhelm the gameplay from time to time, but with familiarity, it will hopefully become less overwhelming- especially during the mythos phase.

I'm not sure if I prefer this edition or the 2nd edition but given the old edition is getting hard to find, I'd stick with the new edition as new expansions are likely. 

From a learning perspective, it has a high literacy component, potential for roleplay, lots of instructional text, an algorithmic approach to turns and optimisation in managing the various aspects of play to solve the mystery before becoming overwhelmed by the mythic creatures.  Online tutorials such as Beccy Scott can be a great way to learn the game.

Recommended to play with your own teenage kids or your partner.

Found online, at stores like Gamesworld or your local friendly hobby store.

Writing an application - unwritten rules

To begin with, I think it is awful that we have a process where it is considered ok to have unwritten rules.  Thankfully there are schools that still have fair processes, but, as predicted many years ago, the  rise of independent public schools has resulted in unfair practices (processes that meet PSC guidelines in a limited fashion).

There are a number of unwritten rules that lead to some staff getting interviews and others not, purely on the way selection criteria/CV's are constructed and subsequently read.  The information on the jobsWA website on each application is very limited compared to what is actually being done to get roles.

The first unwritten rule is (to my mind) the most unfair.  The buzz term in resourcing schools is 'projection' into the role.  Projection requires you to answer questions as if you were in the role.  I'm not sure how this meets the Equity or Merit criteria for applications as it gives an unfair advantage to the incumbent and tells you little about what they have done (only what they would do based on model answers).  Some would say this is fair as having knowledge of the context is a part of assessing an applicant, but that could be taken into account in their interview answers. By limiting answers in selection criteria to "projecting" and not "actual experience" in roles that may deviate from the requirements of the role, it diminishes the value of a person with diverse experience and agility to move with requirements. It rewards responses with maintenance of the status quo through private knowledge, current unwritten objectives and agreement with existing practices.

The second unwritten rule is to abide by the word limit.  The word limit rewards someone with intimate knowledge of the school as they can be concise in answering questions in a way that solves problems within the school through projection.  It is harder as a non incumbent (an equity issue again) to identify what would meet school requirements thus requires further explanation to scatter gun what is required.

The third unwritten rule is to write SAO's or some other version of situation/action/outcome.  They are typically wordy and you are not sure which SAO will meet school requirements.  Be too specific and it looks like you have limited experience, be too general and you are not indicating how you solved the problem. Have too many and you have issues with the second rule.

The fourth unwritten rule is you can't expect inference from the CV.  An extreme example would be answering a leadership question in the selection criteria and not discussing chairing the curriculum team because it was not specific to the SAO used.  Some panels will not infer your experience from your CV if it is not specifically in the selection criteria.  A lack of inference (checked at interview) is being addressed at panel training, but is still common practice in schools.

The fifth unwritten rule is to make it as easy as possible for the panel to identify you as a worthy candidate.  Do not use a lot of bold, but bolding where you are attempting to meet selection criteria makes it easier for the panel to see that you have met the criteria (or attempted to answer the question).

"As a leader in the school, it was required ...", "In addressing financial requirements ..."

The sixth unwritten rule is not to read from your notes at interview.  I learned this at my last two wins and am not sure this is a universal rule.  In each case I had the questions in front of me (and only the questions), brought a bundle of notes (that I did not look at, but did review prior to the interview) and attempted to project how the panel would interact with me if I was in the job.

The seventh unwritten rule is that typically the panel will not talk to you during the interview other than to read the questions.  This may be an attempt to maintain a level playing field, but makes it difficult to know if you are answering the question.  Look for when they go to write something as this can be an indication you are on the right track.  A good teacher engages in conversations with students to create a rapport, for many of us, a one sided conversation is not natural and can diminish the ranking of an applicant.  It requires practice.  It's an odd way to assess cultural fit, to my mind the most important part of the interview process.

The eighth unwritten rule is to call the school before the selection criteria to get extra information.  WTF.  This practice is not universal (try taking calls from 90 applicants) but more common in leadership positions.  The couple of times I did it, I was asked what did I want to know? (I don't know what I don't know), or given general information that I could read online.  It felt like an imposition and I stopped doing it.  I think this is done to overcome the Equity issues outlined above with projection requirements but is commonly given advice in feedback.

The ninth unwritten rule is to call for feedback.  Do this.  Some people are wonderful at this and already have it prepared for you as it is a very common practice.  Assess what they say and amend your application.

The tenth unwritten rule is to get assistance writing your application.  Sadly the process is often the best applications get the interview and subsequently the best applicants do not get the job.  After all, good teachers stay put and do not job hop, thus do not have a lot of experience in application writing. Your only hope of avoiding "learning the required way to construct an application by trial and error", is to find someone that has recently managed to navigate the system. Find a recent "successful" applicant - say in the last 6 months and get them to read your application. Get their application to model from.

The eleventh unwritten rule is that if timelines are short, it is likely the school is wanting the incumbent and seeks to limit the time available for other applicants to tailor their selection criteria.  Prioritise the jobs with longer timeframes (if possible) or have an absolute standout and matched application ready for common positions (LA teacher, HOLA, SS, Deputy) for specific contexts (disadvantaged, LSC, high performance etc).  If you win, be prepared to have a disgruntled staff member that may have been promised the position, but the risk of appeal was too high to give them the position.

The twelfth unwritten rule is to let it be known to safe leaders that you are seeking another position and to keep an ear out for you.  Leaders talk and can put a good word in for you.  In many cases they will be asked about you off the record and be able to assess you against other candidates. Pick your time for leaving in advance, so that you leave on good terms (not just leaving because you hate everything and are discontent with the profession) and these references show you in the best light.  I don't know why performance management records are not available during reference checks - it's likely to avoid union issues and potential for bullying, but would make the process fairer if done properly as it would give an indication of your performance over time.

The last rule is a written rule but one worth keeping in mind.  Do your basic research and as with any job, tailor your selection criteria to it.  The Business Plan (school website), Annual Report (schools online website), school demographics and comparison data with your current school (mySchools website) have information that provides feedback on how your experience aligns with school requirements.  This is not projection, (where you are required to interpret this information and apply it in the new context - which biases the process), but allows you to identify what experiences you have may apply in your new context and outline those to put you in the best light.  Also if you are a grad, get into the grad pool.  No I mean it, do it now, it's a palaver but we are looking for you.

Not doing these things means that you have to hope that the school you are applying to runs a fair panel.  I've been lucky as the unwritten rules leave a bad taste in my mouth (leading to me trying to buck the system and write applications that allow the reader to see if I am a potential match from what I have done rather than construct a matchy application that may stretch the truth) and I am a big fan of centralised staffing (despite the inherent weaknesses of centralisation) as practices such as those above, to my mind, are counter productive and could be relatively easily overcome using performance data instead.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

Ps: Here's an earlier post after my last interview process in 2012.

So what comes next?

Career management is an interesting problem in education.  Back in the day, a five year plan was probably sufficient to guide a young teacher through the first steps in education.

Year 1 - survival.  It doesn't matter that you are doing long hours and are losing the will to live.  Find a good mentor.  Talk about your issues.  As the new cab off the rank, your classes are likely to suck and will be a mishmash of whatever the grid throws at you.  Don't complain.  Don't overcomplicate it.    The classes you've been given are impossible to manage properly so use every trick you can think of to connect with the students and stop them piling out the door and annoying student services.  Get on a CMIS Course and learn some low key strategies. Bubble with enthusiasm.  If the year was too traumatic and you caused too much chaos, quickly move to another school and don't make so many mistakes this time.  Resist the urge to relief teach unless you can't get a proper gig.

Year 2 - critical times.  Classroom management should now be in order.  If you haven't managed to annoy anyone, they should be feeling sorry for you after the horror story you were dealt in your first year.  With slightly better classes, start to get your resources in order and start understanding how content fits together.  Your eyes will be sunken into your face and you will look slightly haggard, that sinking feeling that you made a mistake and teaching isn't what you thought it would be will occur.  This is the hump.  Embrace it.. generally speaking it gets better from here, Year 3 will be easier.

Year 3 - content mastery.  If you are finally teaching the same class twice, you will be starting to see how the content fits together in a way teachable to your kids.  There will be bad days when you just want to do your job but the kids will just not do what they should.  Little buggers.  Now that you've been deemed competent, the evil bastard doing timetabling will give you a horror mix of classes.  You will laugh in his/her face and get through the year with a semblance of sanity remaining and possibly looking ten years older than you are.  All those people that told you year 3 was easier are also evil lying bastards.

Year 4 - What the F%$4 happened.  This is when you look back and can't remember the names of students from year 1 but things are looking up. Those evil lying bastards knew something that you didn't know. Something clicks and you realise that teaching is a bit formulaic after you have content and behaviour mastery and you can start doing things you had hoped possible in your first year.  A smile returns to your face (though it possibly cracks when you try for the first time in four years).  Understand where you sit in the queue of better classes / opportunities at the school.  Don't get sad if someone else gets something you want, just figure out how they did it and be ready for the next one.  If you haven't already, start asking for that ATAR class.  If that evil lying bastard is around, thank them for guiding you and ensuring that you are ok.

Year 5 - Get Out. If you are still in the same place, get your butt into application mode and seek a school with better conditions than the one you are in.  Get your resume and CV done.  Get involved in the 'write your selection criteria' meetings with Exec.  Understand what opportunities that exist that float your boat.  By doing this, the school sees potential and one of two things happen - either promotional opportunities occur locally, or you take all your new found skills elsewhere and start again on the same cycle (though hopefully shorter).  Check to see if that evil lying bastard is willing to referee for you and will tell others how you are the best thing that ever happened to the education system; hopefully they are your line manager.  Year 5 is the critical step for career progression, it refreshes your enthusiasm, provides challenge and is the basis of any 5 year plan.

Years 6-10.  Look at what you want to do next and start doing it in your current role.  Aspire to HOLA?  Work on programmes and get a place on the curriculum committee.  Take a praccie and practice those management skills.  Join the social, board or ball committee.  Be active and gather more advocates for your career.  Don't sit back and wait for it to happen.  Volunteer for that two week role, lead the student council, anything that makes that CV align with your next chosen role.  Do some interviews, get interview skills and your CV right.   Your first interview is likely to suck. You won't be ready for that role you really want if you don't do the hard work early.  Don't get stuck in a school unless there are serious opportunities for progression.  It's harder than Year 2 but more rewarding at times.  Beware giving up teaching student time (it's an easy trap to fall into) - it's the buzz in teaching, without it, you can start again to wonder where the satisfaction is, even if it is a bit easier.  Students may make your hair flame in burning angst but they are also why we enter into this thing.

After that you'll have to ask someone that has successfully navigated it.  I'm still figuring it out too, although on a fairly accelerated trajectory. Have fun!

Looking back at 2019

So when I look back at 2019 I see a successful year.

• Deputy for the majority of the year
• Supported three different Principals
• Assisted students find alternate pathways where required
• Navigated difficult cases working with Department of Communities, Department of Justice, Participation and Engagement resulting in positive outcomes for students
• Led the Course Counselling team
• Led the Curriculum team
• Completed the 2020 timetable (undone)
• Created a MAG class for 7/8 to assist low literacy numeracy students in 2020 (undone)
• Implemented the Student Council Form Class
• Implemented a lower school specialised basketball programme
• Created a focus on Endorsed Programmes (undone)
• Changed the mode of the period 25 class to reduce FTE requirements (undone)
• All teachers on load (undone)
• Created a focus on NCCD intervention (unlikely to continue)
• Worked with teachers in performance management group to raise awareness of opportunities and strengths
• Managed the NNEI relationship
• Named a fellow by Rotary for services to education and welfare of students
• Started the Guitar group and a boardgame group with students (unlikely to continue)
• Continued to work with the low mood boys group (unlikely to continue)
• Developed an understanding of SENN reporting and implemented it for a whole year 7 class
• Mentored two social work Practicum students
• Navigated some difficult staffing issues to conclusion
• Maintained a calm approach in Senior School
• Organised the achievers club with 80 students on B averages (a rise from 50 in semester 1)
• Developed the business plan reporting tool and managed the addition of information to the tool
• Completed 5 job applications, 2 interviews, 1 job

Update (edit above): Sadly, a lot was undone when I returned to my current role due to a host of reasons, (including leaving for a new role in a new school).

High School Boardgames

It's been a while since I have written on board games successful with high school students.  While I still have favourites in my repertoire, a few new ones are being used to good effect.

Recently we have been playing Warhammer 40 Killteam, a skirmish based war-game after school.  Kids can now play the majority of the rules during a game, takes about an hour and is a bit of fun.  Cost of entry is a big concern unless you have a Warhammer person on staff and use their stuff.  Playing, painting, assembling, learning rules is part of the fun.  Warhammer stores offer school based offers from time to time.

Deception, Murder in Hong Kong has become my go to Cluedo/Werewolf, type game over Spyrun.  It's simple, can be learned fast, is easy to get your hands on, and is less than an hour to play.

5 Minute Marvel/Dungeon is a quick game, runs to a timer and gets a bit of excitement in the room.  Students have to refine their strategy as the enemies get stronger.

Together with Blokus, Citadels, SET, Ticket to Ride Europe, Apples to Apples, Dixit, Carcassone, Claustrophobia, King of Tokyo/New York, Triazzle; games in a classroom can become a whole class or small group activity that develops a classroom and builds social skills.

Timetabling

In a small school, timetabling is a delicate balancing act.  If too many resources are placed in maintaining ATAR classes, limited resources are available for the lower school or for the majority in General or Certificate based courses.  If too few resources are placed in ATAR courses, students lack the diversity of subjects required to fully engage them to achieve their best.  It also can limit the career progression of teachers seeking positions in other schools as they lack the experience teaching ATAR courses.

The previous core of subjects (Maths II/III (in whatever incarnation Methods/Specialist, 3ABCD MAS/3ABCD MAT), Physics, Chemistry, English/English Literature, History) now has a few alternates with Politics and Law, Computer Science, Human Biology that can challenge the traditional big six for getting a high ATAR score.  Language bumps and min/maxing Mathematics Applications (Discrete, Maths I) could also provide avenues for success.  To provide a core of subjects can be costly when 10-16 students are involved in each ATAR cohort.

Timetabling is difficult in these circumstances.  Split 11/12 classes or combined General/ATAR courses become more common.  In our case we share courses with neighbouring schools and bus kids back and forth, using a pair of double periods (one after school) to minimise busing and disruption to the general timetable.  SIDE becomes an option where class sizes reduce below 5.  It is very important to have teacher buy-in to prevent resistance and disruption to learning.

Important to success is careful planning during course counselling.  Choices for students need to be limited to what can be delivered.  Failing to do this effectively results in a bloated grid or considerable disappointment and re-counselling of students when subjects are not offered.  This process requires long lead times and making accurate predictions on the nature of each cohort prior up to two years before a cohort hits upper school.

To maintain teacher morale, it is important that the needs of an individual are considered when assigning teachers to classes.  Planning must be in place through performance management and career planning.  A degree of equity is required to ensure that challenging classes academically and challenging classes behaviourally are shared. Strong vs compliant personalities need to be considered.  Promises made must be adhered to, to maintain credibility - especially hard as these can be made to past timetablers, HOLAs, Principals or "just be in the head of a teacher" as a fair response to a difficult prior year.

SCSA requirements through the CAR policy in year 7 and 8 has put pressure on the grid. Requirements for digital design, performing arts, visual arts, computing and soon languages puts pressure to maintain specialist teachers within the school, typically with less than a full FTE requirement.  This results in an increase of teachers teaching out of area or on reduced loads.  The alternative is to have more multi-skilled teachers and to create "teacher based solutions" that are hard to refill if the teacher moves on.

Specialist teachers in key areas (such as Certificate delivery, Physics, Specialist Sport, Dance, D&T, Media, Visual Art) can be hired on reduced loads, but typically request 0.8 FTE over four days.  With four to five people like this in a timetable, this is difficult to grid in a small school, requiring careful consideration to prevent lopsiding grids with subjects not evenly distributed across the week, creating situations where teachers have multiple days without breaks or a subject being repeatedly delivered during the last period of the day.

Requests to reduce load to cater to family requirements, mental health or in preparation for retirement are common.  With childcare costs similar to working costs, requests for fulldays rather than 0.8 over 5 days has significant proportions of staff on reduced load.

With diluted specialisation (if sharing a specialist subject such as Methods between multiple teachers), a teacher may only get to teach a subject once every two to three years.  This does not lend itself to the level of specialisation typically required to be able to accurately grade and design assessment materials.  This has created an increased reliance on purchased assessments (which are regularly compromised through sharing on social media) and small group moderation.  Small group moderation puts additional pressure on teachers as there is an overhead mantaining these relationships successfully.

More recently the need to use endorsed programmes to supplement WACE has become more prevalent.  Leadership, Sporting, Performing Arts and Workplace Learning skills developed by teachers requires individuals to deliver particular courses as only they have the expertise and patience required to monitor, manage evidence and deliver the programmes within the school, limiting where these individuals can be used on the grid.

Other considerations also drive the timetable. Marketing a school is important (put effective teachers in year 7/8 or risk reduced numbers from reputation loss), remediation through extra resourcing or multi-age grouping, extension classes, capacity building, balancing electives come to mind.

Understanding these factors, and the skill base of each teacher is the domain of the timetabler.  A skilled timetabler in a school manages this with ballet-like grace and few understand the surprise that comes with a grid finally coming together.

Staff and student wellbeing

Developing a positive culture at a high school is an ongoing task.  Transience, cohort changes, workload, personalities, religious beliefs and perceived racism, perceived sexism, competence, home life, mental health, physical health, systemic change, leadership styles can all influence the "mood score" of a school.

Most schools are currently grappling with the Aboriginal cultural standards framework.  Some schools will be grappling with societal changes (eg. changing the way the issue is viewed in society) as they will have few, if any Aboriginal students in the school. There will be many people in these environments that believe the whole project is a minor inconvenience that can be for the most part ignored.

In our environment this is not true.  How we embed these ideas in the school will impact the mood of the whole school.  We're probably a little bit ahead of the game, which allows agencies to think we are a solution that will work for at-risk students.  Unfortunately that is not always true as these interactions require intensive support for success, support that is already stretched between the competing needs of the school.

There is that balance in resourcing for us that needs to examined as individual students can disrupt the learning of large number of students.  Although, through the framework we can assist these students, over time, in some extreme cases (like with any other student from any other nationality) the needs of the individual exceeds the ability of a school to respond to their needs and external help is required.  For these students, the ping pong between agencies begins as they see the best solution as a child in a school, but the school sees the situation as untenable as they put students, staff and themselves at risk when they enter school grounds due to their current circumstance.

The ability of teachers to deal with the individual needs of a student is not equal across a school.  Identifying new areas of challenge(weaknesses) and then working with teachers to resolve them is a delicate process, challenging established practices and then examining and redirecting to develop alternate practices.  Trauma informed practice, culturally informed practices, perceived racism in practices, perceived favouritism toward students, perceived sexism in practices, gender related practices (a relatively new phenomenon to deal with) all require a delicate touch, to confront someone after a complaint to challenge the way they teach can go as deep as personal identity which can result in emotional and aggressive responses.

Although teachers are relatively static in a school, year 12 cohorts leave and year 7 cohorts enter each year.  This results in a leaving of the leadership of the school, the most competent in a school leaving each year and a whole new group becoming embedded in the culture.  With the varying skill levels of teachers in year 7, this can impact the school for a significant period.  Students transitioning to school have siblings in feeder primary schools and this, more than any other factor, impacts on the enrolments at a school.  These are the parents giving feedback to new parents in each feeder primary school.  No amount of marketing will overcome the response of existing parents leaving the school or repeating that the school has an issue with fighting, bullying, drug use, poor teaching practices etc.

The one line budget has put significant strain on small schools, struggling to maintain ATAR classes, struggling with high class numbers and struggling to provide high levels of support to students with all the issues that low-socioeconomic areas bring in financially struggling, high levels of mental health concerns, limited parenting, low support for education, high levels of drug use in the home, and with considerable parts of welfare dependent cohorts.  Many of these categories are not covered through the one line budget outside of broad groups such as EALD, Aboriginal and Islander students, and Intellectual disabilities.  The use of one line funds to maintain additional school Psychologist time in particular is one drain on a budget.  To fund extra class resources, Professional Development is being done in-house as much as possible, external agencies are being brought into schools in an increasing rate (which feels a bit like money shuffling as all the money comes from the same place), requiring additional management time to do properly.

The story here is only the beginning which shows how complex and underdeveloped my understanding is of the issues we face.  I suppose the point is that school culture changes glacially as nothing seems to occur in a vacuum and very few simplistic solutions can have an impact across a school - all we can do is look for wins in certain areas, make sure they don't move resources from something that is already working and measure the effect.  A school has a simple goal at it's heart ("teaching kids well") but have allowed themselves to become much more and we may need to reconsider some of the roles that schools play to gain traction again with the idea that "high care, high expectations, high results" is narrow enough in its scope to do well.

Back as Deputy again... .. and the NCCD list

So that little sojourn back as Dean of Studies lasted all of two weeks and I'm back as deputy again, this time under the new Principal.  This is the fourth Principal in 12 years, each having their own quirks, and I imagine wondering what the hell is this upstart talking about now and why do I have to deal with him.

A pet hate has always been implementing things just to tick a box or because an actual solution likely to succeed is too hard.   It becomes quickly evident through my body language when I feel this is the case.   The current solution for "students identified through NCCD requiring additional support" may fall into this category, although the verdict is still out on the current solution. Students were identified and then pedagogy based solutions written up in documents outlining what will be done for them.  There is acknowledgement in staff that the current solutions are not working and more needs to be done to engage them.

My only beef with the current solution is that it appears more about documenting the existing modifications that are "good practice and good teaching" and should be done (regardless of being written up), rather than identifying strategies that will make a difference to a particular student different to the general needs of the group as a whole.

To my mind (as little as it is), the problem requires a multidisciplinary approach.  As a teacher I do not know the ins and outs of every intellectual disability or behavioural challenge (and in many cases I don't care about the diagnosis), I just want to know how to work best with my kids.  This knowledge is held by school Psychologists and Paediatricians and then provided to me through the school Psych, Student Services or a Deputy.  Best practice would say that it then goes into an IEP in conjunction with teachers of other LA's to make a consistent approach where possible.

With the NCCD kids, they may not have a diagnosis but we (as teachers) suspect that something is going wrong.  My issue with the approach on Friday at our PD day was that we were asking teachers for solutions - in most cases they had already tried what they knew (and thus indicated that something was wrong that required additional assistance).  A better approach (to my mind) is to look at standardised testing results, class results, psych files and then work with the care team to identify possible solutions for the student in the context of the whole class.  Working on individuals does not create a workable solution in a class as it does not take into account class dynamics, the biggest factor outside of appropriate content in engaging students.  This means that you will be looking at the whole class at once and developing IEPs for groups of students.  The class that I am thinking of had 85% of students on the NCCD list, a class that had come together from multiple primary feeders, each indicating that these students faced challenges in learning.

It also did not address the content issue.  By putting together teachers from multiple LAs, it did not address whether the student could access the curriculum or more specifically the modifications to the syllabus to allow them access to the curriculum.  When a student is 4-5 years below the year level achievement standard, modifications to pedagogy alone are insufficient to engage a student.  There it is, "the elephant in the room".  You cannot deliver a Year 7 syllabus to a student operating at a year 2 level.  They will be disruptive, bored and no amount of reward programs and pictorial representations will give them access to concepts that require years of scaffolding.

It does not address the workload issue.  Current estimations are that 25% of students or 100 students in the school need to be placed on the NCCD list.  Staff are querying how IEPs can be written, maintained and followed for all 100 students.  I too am worried that the current approach is not sustainable.

What's more, having 21 IEPs in a class all different without significant (eg. bodies to assist the teacher) assistance is not going to set up a positive learning environment and put significant stress on the educator in the room.  The picture that is created must identify which IEPs align and then create workable groups after classroom cohesion has been constructed through success, rapport and them having belief that learning is possible.  I'm not sure this was understood during the session.

So the challenge going forward is to measure the impact of the PD (I would love to be wrong and see engaged students as a result of the PD) and then if it fails, identify the positive parts and then try some of the things listed above that did work during a trial earlier in the year.  One of the nice things that happened recently was an acknowledgement that a role of the Wellness team was to identify classes or teachers that were not operating to capacity and allocate support to these teachers (rather than solely relying on ad hoc support from deputies, HOLAs and through performance management).  This has the potential to be an avenue to implement some of the more holistic approaches listed above outside of the current NCCD process and get further support to these students in need.

Named a Paul Harris Fellow!

This week was shaping up to be a shocker.. 6 fillings, four hours in the chair, another hour getting my ears cleaned out, 4 plumbers trying to find a leaky hot tap under the house, stood on a nail, kicked in the knee, hours writing 52 pages of content creating a course beyond my level of expertise (I really am clueless below year 7). Trying to get back some mojo after returning to my substantive role as 11/12 coordinator.

Well.. that turned around fast and came out of the blue.

Last year I was asked to attend one of the changeover nights with the Rotary club that partners with the school.  We've worked together over the past 5 or so years and they have done wonderful things with our kids.  I've sat in the background and helped where I can.  They're more friends that colleagues now.

The changeover night came around again and I was asked to go.  It's a small thing to attend and a fun and jovial evening.  They're genuinely nice people and it is always great to associate with them.

They asked that I speak about our Interact club with some students and the outgoing Principal (which I did with pleasure as it is a great thing) and about the other things that Rotary has done in the school.  The kids spoke well as they always do. When I had finished, they asked that I stay on stage and then the club president proceeded to name me a Paul Harris fellow for doing what I do at school.  I was presented with a badge and a medallion.

To say I was shocked was a bit of an understatement as I enable stuff, typically I don't have a lot of time to actually do stuff.  To nominate a fellow they have to donate $1000 US to their Rotary charity (which is no mean feat) for someone that turns up to their events twice a year. The people in the club that have been nominated, generally have a lifetime of service behind them.  Those wearing their medallions were generally club past presidents. I'm not even a member!

I felt a little bit of a fraud but very thankful for their thoughts and best wishes.

So there you go.. recognised for what I do with the kids.  A very cool thing and thank you Heirisson Rotary.  You have certainly put wind in my sails.

One person can make a difference

I've had "One person can make a difference" written on my door for the last nine months.  It's a reminder that much that is done in a school starts with one person.  It's a statement supported by Hattie in his indication that teacher impact has the largest effect on student learning. My latest project shows the power of one person running with an idea.

With my current period as Deputy, returning to my role as 11/12 coordinator and with the start of a new Principal, it's important to find the next thing that keeps you motivated.  Schools aren't a place where you can rely on your line manager to identify what that might be, so it's important to be on the lookout for it.

For me, the main thing that will change is the return to the classroom for four periods a week, as I haven't taught whilst being Deputy, other than the odd bit of tutoring students that come to my office.  I've been given  a dysfunctional Maths class, the most challenging class in the school and one that needed further assistance.  I've had some practicum students who have been observing them for me and we have a great team generated and some defined outcomes that we seek to achieve.

It's something that I would suggest to any educator that has more than three years of experience.  Find a project, if one comes to an end, find another project - something that will drive your motivation and keep you engaged.  It's a great way to be noticed in the school and can create some great collaborative activities that keeps the mind working and prevents you becoming stale in your role.

Better still, if you can make something that has a lasting effect beyond your involvement.  I've been lucky to have had a few of these, maths summer school, mathematics academy, ICT committee, this blog, after school music classes, the boys group, the interact club - but I've also had my set of failures to go with them, projects that have died a slow death.   Don't become disheartened if your project does not have the take-up that you thought it would.  Be supportive of others if they are trying to get their project up and running.

This current project is a doozy though.  To think I could go in as a teacher and just fix things based on my teaching experience would be fairly egotistical and prone to failure - after all they have had an experienced teacher all year.  To succeed we need to try something different.  I've had a bee in my bonnet about "imputed disabilities" and reporting to "year level achievement standards all year".  Ann eMarie Benson at SCSA made the comment to me that if 2/3 of the students at your school cannot meet year level achievement standards, then your school is doing something wrong, and it is something that has stuck with me.  We have some intervention work to do.

I was lucky enough to do the SEN reporting at the start of the year and discovered a tool that might be able to provide the glue for the project.  Coupled with the SCSA K-10 scope and sequence document, it provided the broad brush to create IEPs for the 25 students in the class. By using PAT tests and NAPLAN results I was able to identify where the class was and with help from the Semester 1 teacher I laid out a programme of work for term three that complemented work done in Semester 1.  My practicum students observed the class over the past three weeks and collated their predominant behaviours and attention spans across different learning areas and noted in which classes they were most dysfunctional.  The school Psychologist is working closely with me for the first week to identify desired classroom behaviours.  We created seating plans and a list of desired behaviours.

Now, as I said - it is not about just going into the class and doing good teaching, they have had that.  It's about intervention, which by definition is something different.  The next step was to identify resources that were available to assist driving learning.  The school has no new resources available at this time of year (thus I'm being deployed to the class as the best available resource), I have the semester 1 teacher remaining with me, but have identified a couple of ex-students studying teaching that have agreed to come in and work.  The local university has also pledged teaching students to pop in and assist as my skills in k-7 teaching are limited and I will need to do some heavy lifting to get up to speed and assist them assist the kids.

In any success driven class we need strong feedback loops indicating the level of success achieved.  For this I have gone old school and printed A1 posters for the wall indicating each student has 14 tasks to overcome this term and bought gold circles to paste up.  Some would see this as public shaming, but the 14 tasks are individualised and noted in the IEPs - if we have set the outcomes correctly, then this could drive a little competition and could be a strong success indicator to kids.  We also used the observations done to drive classroom behaviours through a four point behaviour poster which controversially uses some negative language (the PBIS language is missing, but has been ineffectual in semester 1 anyway), it's something I will need to monitor to see if it works.  If the posters don't work - it's ok! We just rip them down.  I've put the IEP in student portfolios so that they know what we are trying to achieve - and each assessment goes in there so that it can be looked back at as a path from what they knew to what they know now.  NCCD quality teaching ideas can easily be embedded in the interventions for each student attempted by myself or associated teaching staff.  Staff from outside the class that have seen that these kids are at risk have pledged their support.  We have pens, books and other resources to limit avoidant behaviours.  They have watched me suspend students all semester - so I come in with authority, now I need to develop a caring rapport to match.

I have worked with the English HOLA and Principal to indicate that this is a model that does not have an overhead, uses resources that are available, lives with the student (SEN reports can be used and progress from 8-10) - it is a low risk project that can be supported.  I'm not sure if this is destined to be a failed project or a success - but I'm keen to attempt something that has not been successful in the past and create a new string for the school that parents and the school can crow about.  It's important that communication to parents from the beginning is strong and continuous - especially as much of the contact to date has been behaviour related and class reports were for the most part indicating limited progress and students that are behind.  Here is the potential for the school response to be vigorous and effective (and maybe even recognised as a good solution for others to model).

.. and if you have a chance to work with practicum students, do it.  Yes you will get the occasional plonker, but on the whole they can fire you up and help you achieve work you cannot do on your own.  The current pair have certainly done that and can run with an idea (and generate some great ones through observation) once it is seeded and hopefully get a good appreciation of what is possible.  Without them, we wouldn't be this far down the track without teaching a lesson. Yay!

Vocational vs career teachers

With teacher pay improving over the years, teaching is a competitive career with other professions.  A teacher can rapidly be on a six figure salary and be trained on an ongoing basis with career options going ahead.

The profession is changing from one which was fundamentally filled with vocational teachers, who entered teaching because they had a love of teaching and a desire to teach, to a profession with a mix of vocational teachers and those who enter it as a long term career, one of the few that are predicted to last for the next 20 years through technological change.

This is a not necessarily a bad thing, but it does raise a challenge for vocational teachers as they are vulnerable in the system.  By vocational teachers not targeting advancement, school run the risk of dissatisfied vocational teachers who are unaware of the gauntlet required for advancement - they will advance slower than career teachers.

For instance, a teacher focuses on their student cohorts and their craft.  Over many years they become a passionate and great classroom teacher.  They see a career teacher that is not as good a teacher, does not understand the craft required to become truly great at what they do but that has targeted the KPIs that are required for advancement.  The career teacher can talk eduspeak, self promote actively, are involved in projects that meet STAR objectives, actively seek promotional positions, understand how to write a CV and answer interview questions, have been at multiple schools over a short period - burn bright but over short periods.  Once the balance tips towards career teachers (are we there now? Panel training indicates we are!), this becomes the model for advancement.

The question I ask myself is does this help kids get better in classes?  Does this promote better mentoring of young teachers?

There's a little voice in the back of my head that says - "yep, but vocational teachers, the passionate ones can also be the flaky, argumentative, the most painful teachers to manage as they are needy and require constant guidance compared to the focused teachers on career progression."  And I hear you little voice, but when I look at exceptional student outcomes, being 50% in doesn't cut it compared to what some of these teachers can achieve.  An evidence base shows this over and over again.

Are we, by encouraging a career based approach, turning our vocational teachers away from their passionate, "this is my life", approach towards a more career based (I do this for the wage and the six hour day) sustainable and minimal intervention approach because it is easier to manage and less likely to cause management pain, even if the evidence shows that it has lower student outcomes?

If this is the case, and to a lesser or greater degree I believe it is,  we need to re-evaluate how we remunerate teachers and the merit system that in its current form is encouraging a change to a career workforce rather than a vocational one and that where career satisfaction is through advancement, not through student achievement.  A teacher for life, cared for by the system, developing their skills, recognised by the community for what they can do, moving passionately with changes in pedagogy required and realising that they are blessed for being involved with a system that guides our youth not for the career progression that they are not getting.

How to get teaching to that point is an interesting intellectual question.

Resourcing in a small school

Many organisations have worthwhile programmes that are offered to the school.  They want to work hand in hand to deliver a project that they have developed. They have value and for larger schools are easy to roll out and have a target audience.  The temptation is to take them all on for the good of the kids.

In a smaller school like ours, that is offered many projects during the year, the need to manage them becomes a resourcing issue.  Excursions require a file of documentation, staff willing to participate, students willing to give it a go, a spot on the planner that won't cause disruption to learning and ensuring it's not the same six kids going on each excursion.  We need to liaise with partner organisations, work with them and ensure that there is a win-win situation available.

What I have found is that we have had more success with organisations that ask our needs and then seek to help us reduce the issues caused by them.  UWA Aspire and Rotary are two good examples of where this can work.

UWA Aspire had a clear goal to raise low socioeconomic student engagement with university and to raise their aspiration levels.  We needed support for our Math/Science students and assistance with career activities. They listened and assisted us establish our Mathematics Academy by providing university students that worked with our kids and supported us with resourcing and food to keep them coming.  They take our kids on a Leadership camp. They support our summer school with a venue and ambassadors at UWA. They come to the school for each year group and work with developing a career focus from year 7 onwards.  We assisted them with developing activities that would fit our students.  They assisted raising awareness of modern teaching pedagogy through their education faculty.

Rotary offered to help as a community minded group.  They had leadership programmes and science programmes but waited to establish a connection and asked what our requirements were.  We needed assistance in developing a strategic plan for the school.  They worked with our board and now help lead it through our chairman with our Principal.  Our kids wanted to be more involved in the community and formed a Rotary Interact Club.  Rotary programmes could be run independently of the school, reducing administrative overhead, increased student involvment - resulting in community events and even trips to Singapore and London for our students.

Both of these are relationships that I have had involvement with.  There are others, such as with the Smith Family, ABCN, with organisations within DOE such as SEND:BE and the engagement team which have similar impact.

I'm currently starting a music club after school (as we have no offering for music at the school), running some maths extension classes and building our Achievers club (students that have 4As and no Ds).  A good model for external agencies is to pilot a project, have it running for a year or so and then have a model for a partner agency to develop.  I hope these develop into something that the school can use for some time, like the Summer school, Interact club and Mathematics academy - each that involve 20-50 students (10-20% of the school).

A well meaning project can take up resources that may be better utilised elsewhere.  These usually involve 3-4 students (such as the solar car challenge or a number of local leadership programmes), over an extended period, are expensive, are during school time, require transport (a bus is $300 per day), want access to upper school students and require teacher involvement for duty of care (at $600 per day, a "free" project becomes expensive).  If a project can't be accessible to 20-30 students (which is a difficult brief), I think often kids are better off in school, somewhere geared to teaching large groups of students.

Where this is untrue is in the VET space, where small (1-4 students) projects have lasting impact on students but that is for another day.

Role models and dreams of the future

It was posed to me who I looked up to as a role model.  The example given to me was the queen of England and I was asked to think of one better.

Scary to think that I couldn't come up with one.

Scary to think that we, as a generation can offer no-one up that is both as well known as the queen and as publicly selfless.

We've given this generation narcissism and fame hunger.  Sarah Hanson Young and the Leyonhold guy.  "Me too", sexual harassment, anxiety, loss of hope, an emptiness hard to fill.

I think about the cold, emotionless education system we've created where a few people doing horrific things to children have destroyed what could be a loving and nurturing environment and turned it into something sterile and with the sole purpose of providing skills and knowledge to survive post schooling.   ... and not even doing that particularly well.

As a male teacher, being hugged by a student, places you at risk of a standards and integrity investigation and criminal charges.  Being a female teacher now is changing to do the same thing.  To protect ourselves we cannot be a role model to students - the barrier of societal trust is not there.  Where we once at least had gender appropriate roles that protected the emotional self of a student, strong male and female role models that fulfilled different roles that were ok, now neither can help fill the void created by a society where two parents work and the relationships that help build a whole person are not being supplemented by a society that forgets that nurturing its young is its prime imperitive.

When children need emotional support, there is nowhere for them to turn.  There are times when I see distressed students that are seeking emotional support and the best we can offer them is counselling, when they really just want a hug and to believe it will be ok.  Those two things are powerful are missing from our education system.  It wasn't always this way. 

Ten years in teaching and I have not seen this issue addressed in other than band aid modes.  Will we look back and think how the hell did we miss this.

I watch year groups robotic in their approch to schooling, lacking a love of learning, of each other or the school system.  Seeking to get by to their next step as citizens.

It's wrong.

I don't know how to fix it.  It will take brighter minds than mine.   Maybe its a call to our generation beyond the teaching fraternity to stand up and be good role models - do great things and become examples for our youth that teachers can point to.  Something to aspire to and give belief and love back to a generation feeling lost.

Violence in the workplace

My father was a prison officer, so I have a polarised viewpoint when it comes to the judicial system.  His viewpoint was biased as he noted recidivism in the system.  This has also biased my outlook as once a child enters the judicial system, they become exposed to others in the same system which can normalise behaviours that wouldn't occur otherwise.

So when I was faced with violence in the workplace for the first time in my career where I believed a student intended physical harm to myself, I had to consider what my philosophical viewpoint is regarding children coming to grips with their physicality and using it to influence their environment.  Did this need to be reported to police?

I considered that students have maturing brains, are impulsive and will have limited empathy for others.  I considered that my actions, as administrative staff, sets the tone for the school and my personal philosophy needed to take into account the norms that the school wished to purvey.  I considered societal expectations of what teaching staff were expected to deal with.

Student influences / Context

There are many reasons students become violent.  Frustration, domestic violence, physical abuse, peer interactions, sexual abuse, physical development, trauma, self image, helplessness, modelling/culture, attachment, gender confusion, sexuality, mental health, drug abuse are just a few reasons that spring to mind.  Any one can make a student respond in a violent manner given particular situations.  Schools today are expected to identify issues, manage risk, provide options for counseling and deal with situations that arise when plans put in place fail to adequately cover a violent series of incidents.

School influences

Maintaining a safe workplace is a necessity as a school becomes a melting pot of these issues.  How a school responds to the threat of violence, dictates how safe children and staff feel when in the school.  The ability of a school to predict where a problem may occur and develop a rapport that prevents violent outbursts is critical to the managing of low socio-economic schools experiencing many of the issues identified above. Staff that can do this effectively are rare as each issue tends to demand a different response and the responses can be personally draining and require high levels of support for students and support staff.

The maximum immediate penalty that can be imposed is 10 days of suspension, a period intended to allow time to improve risk plans, allow time to consider actions, organise support for families and support staff and work with students impacted upon by the violence.  Diversion of a student to another location may be attempted, but if different solutions cannot be used, this may only move the violence from one school to another. When a school cannot devise a solution that is likely to succeed (and has likely failed many times with attempted solutions) then, and only then can exclusion be considered - it is a long and arduous process, as it should be, as there is no real solution at the end of it, other than saying school is not for that student.

Philosophical issues

Teachers do not report students to the police often or probably often enough.  There are a few reasons for this, the main one being is that (good) teachers see students for who and what they are, not for their aberrant behaviours.  In most cases these children are the most needy and require our assistance not our condemnation.  I didn't start in education to be a pathway to the judicial system.

The counter is that as a deputy I have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment, with limited resources to deal with violent offenders.  Nothing in the EBA indicates that it is ok for a teacher (as a worker for the Education department) to feel unsafe in their environment.  Physical aggression, intimidation and assault are not ok and need to be seen to be dealt with for the mental health and confidence of staff, students and parents in the school.  In a no tolerance for violence environment, 10 day suspensions for breaches are one part of a two part solution.  Consequence for behaviour together with assistance to prevent similar behaviour in the future is key to success.

Societal Expectations

Schools are being asked to be a one size fits all solution to youth issues, increasingly working with agencies to fill gaps where there are no resources to deal with them.  Finding alternate agencies with capacity in itself requires resources and deviates from the core business of teaching students the curriculum.  In a high care, high expectation environment, schools are required to deal with context and deliver results.

What then?

I still have not in my career referred a student to police for threatening me physically (although I have for student welfare concerns and have restrained students on a number of occasions), I do hope that it remains this way.  I must say though in the past five years, I have gone from feeling that students understand that threatening a teacher is unthinkable to now being a threat becoming relatively commonplace. I am more reliant on personal rapport with students than respect for my position to keep me safe.  Both in junior and senior school  there have been times when I have felt there has been risk I would be assaulted and that dealing with the student situation had a level of risk of physical assault, I may end in being physically hurt.  Although schools are supportive when police reports are made over assaults, teachers like myself remain reluctant to ignore the factors that cause the assault in the first place (listed under student influences above) and fail to make a report - our knowledge of why students behave violently is part of why we are teachers in schools like ours.

Mandatory reporting of assault against staff together as suggested by the union (did I just agree with the union??) with protection from freedom of information may be one solution to measuring the issue and to target higher levels of resourcing to support students with anger management issues.  Blanket FOI would be problematic (as with NAPLAN) as it would target schools attempting to deal with spikes in violence that occur with particular cohorts.  Identifying accurately epicentres of issues, their causes, teachers struggling and then providing schools targeted assistance through existing processes would be a good start.

Violence in schools remains an area of potential conflict between parents, administration and teaching staff, where any action may be viewed as too little or too much, with clear differences in opinion in what is necessary to protect staff in their workplace and students in their high school depending on the perspective of the situation.  

CMS Training

I've just finished CMS training (a little humourous as I rarely teach, more to train others using consistent terms) and although I question the effectiveness of some strategies for teachers that might be struggling to gain control of their classrooms, there is some good information in there.

Today though was the first time I had to question the delivery of the session and the assertion made during the session.  The statement made was that every escalation that led to a student-teacher power struggle was instigated by the teacher.  The explanation given (and predicted before it was given) was that it takes two to have a power struggle and that the adult had the ability not to raise it to that level.

I think the simple counter to that was that there are instances where it is in the interest of the school to ensure that certain standards are publicly kept to, especially around safety, intimidating behaviour and agression towards female staff.  It's not a PC view, and I know that but I'm willing to defend it.

A no tolerance policy towards intimidation and aggression has to be public.  Students cannot be seen to be able to intimidate, physically threaten or assault staff.  Students need to know that there is a line they cannot cross.  Early in my career, maybe ten years ago, I could stand between two fighting out of control students and know that I was safe with punches being thrown over my shoulders.  Today, this simply is not true.   Some of this is to do with the mental health issues now processed by schools rather than other agencies, some due to serious drug use, some have experienced war trauma, some due to fewer role models, parenting by screen and lack of care in homes.  Students are now 18 years+ when they leave school, some refugee students are older than this, are strong enough to challenge multiple members of the male staff at once.

The maximum practical consequence a school has is the 10 day suspension.  Expulsion from a public school is a rare and difficult process.  If students are comfortable with threatening staff this is not a deterrent.  The ramping of consequences in today's high school teacher -> Year leader/Student Services -> Deputy -> Principal can happen in a single incident.

So back to the original problem.  Student verbally abuses a teacher (reprimand by year leader after the child has calmed down). Student verbally abuses a year leader (reprimand by deputy after the child has calmed down).  Student abuses a deputy - there is only one step left before Principal and  the entire bluff that underpins the system is gone.  The student can't be expelled.  Here's the line where the processes of de-escalation have failed - the student has had the opportunity to learn how to identify the triggers leading to being out of control.  Now a harder line needs to be followed and the power struggle needs to be addressed and is fraught with issues.  If the student abuses the deputy, the situation needs to be dealt with there and then. In most cases the deputy has to diffuse or win the power struggle, in many cases with parent assistance.  If this fails, like in real life, police become involved.  After all, it is not ok for anyone to verbally or physically abuse or threaten to physically intimidate anyone, anywhere.  Sometimes it is a very difficult lesson for students to learn.  In life someone is always the boss of you unless you live alone on an island or up a tree somewhere!

Otherwise the child is out of control.  We are teaching the child it is ok to be out of control, if after best efforts to educate the student otherwise, they continue to be out of control.  The deputy in a school stands like police do in the community to ensure safety of the public, staff and students. To suggest that a deputy is wrong to stand for the school in a public exchange where power is involved threatens the fabric of discipline in a school.  A deputy is typically a highly trained and experienced member of staff.  These are people that understand the role they play and do not seek to become involved in behaviour incidents wherever possible as challenging a deputy is clearly different in scope than challenging another member of staff.  It's not advisable to have them dealing with day-to-day incidents as the punishments they hand out are significantly more serious (to deter challenging of deputies) than to other member of staff.  Discipline in a school requires them to be a last resort.  Deputies are better used developing rapport with students before incidents so that they can assist in post incident support of teachers and year leaders than during incidents themselves.

I've spent a fair bit of time explaining incident management to kids, a) that it is appropriate to surrender control to staff members when in school b) that it is important that students understand that they need to follow instructions without question for safety reasons.  a) can take a fair bit of convincing especially for kids that have a level of financial independence or are living independently.  b) is more easily understood by students.  After an incident, explaining to a student why I acted as I did, and appropriate future actions for a student is more important than the incident itself.  A student with limited control of themselves needs to understand where the boundary is, that it must be respected and alternative behaviours that can be learned to deal with undesirable situations.  My limited experience indicates that this approach works with most students.

The line that the teacher is a student's 'boss' is a learned behaviour.  The line that a student has to follow a teacher instruction is a learned behaviour.  The line that a student is respectful to a teacher is a learned behaviour.  The line that physical violence and intimidation is not ok is a learned behaviour.  The line that consequences escalate if student/teacher/Year Leader/Deputy/Principal relationships are not maintained is a learned behaviour.  These need to be taught, we can no longer rely on parents and the community to teach these behaviours to a small proportion of a school.

Getting the Principal involved in a behind the scenes capacity is great as they have a wealth of experience and have met most circumstances before.  Keeping them informed so that there are no surprises is a good idea.  If they have to get involved in a practical sense it is problematic.  They are the last arbiter in a school, if all else fails and they get personally involved, the situation has the potential to escalate, reach media and impact on the public image of the school - especially if they are forced to defend poor staff actions.  If they are placed in a situation where they make the wrong decision, it never looks good.

Intimidation of female staff by male students is also a particular bugbear of mine.  In the way female teachers are generally better at dealing with emotionally fragile students (the ones that need a hug and affection), male students using their physicality to intimidate female staff is an area that male staff can and (I think) should be used where appropriate.  Reinforcement of Australian values towards women, like everything else, is a learned behaviour that is not always modelled in the home.  Where culturally women are not valued - this message can sometimes be delivered by male staff and reinforced by caring female staff.  Not PC I know, but practical.  Some female staff don't want the help or need it, and that needs to be respected to.

I don't think I've explained myself very well, which probably indicates that this requires more thought to work through issues.  I think it is probably influenced by my involvement in corporate life where decisions cost money and failure to follow instructions costs jobs.  I needed staff that could question and develop ideas whilst being able to follow instructions immediately when required.  This made for a healthy and robust environment - something I hope I encourage with processes of escalation and the teaching of respect for authority in our school. 

Mental Health - The unwritten story in WA Education

Mental Health (particularly depression and anxiety) is one of those things that cannot be written about or discussed freely in the staffroom.  It adds a level of complexity to teaching children and a level of complexity to the role of a teacher.  Being labelled with a mental health issue is not something that is easily moved on.  It is an underground issue that can change how a child is perceived and limit the progression and career of a teacher.

2016 was the year of challenges for boys in education.  The fear of leaving school was palpable with little in the way of career opportunities for boys, both in the mining sciences through tertiary study, through building and construction or through manufacturing industries.  The path to a wage or salary position was unclear, as were pathways to white or blue collar work.  Students saw parents in long term unemployment.  The number of mental health raised issues rose in schools, as did neglect and behavioural issues in classes.  The meaning of why students should seek education as a path to employment was blurred as increasingly specialised schooling did not provide the promise of first jobs and the value of a generalised education for the future was not being sold to students that knew better through observations of society and the freedom of information available.  Everyone is an expert in the Facebook and Google age.  The validity of information and truth itself became increasingly questionable and fake everything became the norm, fame the object rather than the result of success and narcissism the new black.  Add to that students that have achieved D/Es in math for their entire schooling that are progressing at a high level but know that they are not at level though mandatory use of Australian Curriculum grading really did not help.  Worryingly recreational drug use appeared to be rising again leading to further mental health issues.

2017 was the year where mental health in teaching staff reached the limit of what could be supported.  The question was not who had mental health challenges, but who didn't, who was still able to cope regardless and who had to be nursed through until they could cope again.  The demands of an education system with limited discipline support, where engagement was the only real answer, where curriculum was alienating large parts of the student cohort, where curriculum modification required teaching three to four years on either side of the curriculum set, where the teacher had to have the answers or be deemed incapable placed additional pressure on teaching and administrative staff.  Tie this together with budget measures increasing class sizes, reducing access to behavioural programmes and diminishing external support (the loss of headspace and other programmes had an effect) was a bit of a tsunami in terms of stress in the classroom.  Supporting and managing staff with emerging or with diagnosed mental health issues is often a thankless task.

The positive is that private and charitable organisations are starting to fill the need but it adds an additional level of management required on an already stressed administrative system.  Where three to four people in a school now manage staffing, timetabling, behaviour, analysis, strategic planning, marketing, performance management, finance, community standing - it is not always clear how they can also focus on academic performance, course counseling and wellbeing of staff and students - leading to a feeling of a tokenistic approach at times.  This was always going to be the challenge of de-centralisation and the independent school system - the same resources to achieve local agendas, a grand but difficult plan to implement.

Engagement of students is always the ultimate aim, in a world where schools drive the wellbeing of the local community, I'm not sure schools are sufficiently resourced, either with adequate trained manpower or financially to achieve societal aims.  With the influx of career teachers and the diminishing number of vocational teachers (who are burning out trying to achieve what previously could be done with a little effort), next year could be a tough one both in dealing with the inevitable turnover that comes from time to time and some tough cohorts that are travelling through the system.

Professional Development - Connect use in 2016

I was asked to do a Connect beginners session (a social networking/LMS/feedback/calendar/submission portal developed by the department) at the local group of high schools PD session.  I said ok, I can train anyone in anything given a little knowledge of the product and how it is applied.  Generally speaking, people like the sessions, will sit through them and try to learn.

Connect though is a funny beast.  It's reasonably mature and is being used by students and teachers. It works now, it's not a bad time to adopt it as long as there is a commitment to keep developing it by the department.  There are issues with it though that have nothing to do with the software.

Firstly, teachers need to understand it does nothing without a commitment to it.  By this I mean if you want it to work, you (as teacher) must clearly define what you want it to do in your classroom.  When I used a similar portal (Edmodo) successfully I had a clear idea of what I wanted it to do for me.  I wanted to extend my reach beyond the classroom to assist students when I was not physically present. 

I had a commitment to Just-in-time intervention, a strategy that requires responses when the student requires it.  This required my solution to evolve as needs arose.  The skill I required as a teacher was to keep these intervention events in the classroom and maximise learning time outside of the classroom.

I started by attempting a flipped classroom and blending my learning with ICT.  Edmodo (like Connect can do) provided the glue between the instructional sessions (designed by me a few lessons in advance on a tablet and posted online or during instructional periods in class on an IWB later posted online) and response sessions.  I made a commitment to my students that I would respond out of hours (if I was available - generally after my kids went to bed) to provide solutions to problems students experienced in attempting classwork.   Simple things I could prompt with short text answers, curly ones I would explore using a graphics tablet and record my voice to show how I explored the question and derived an answer.

Now that they were familiar with the programme I introduced materials from other sources that they could access with new topics, Khan academy topics and mathsonline were great for this.

Then I added quizzes to provide formative feedback, things like exit statements from lessons or readiness percentages for tests and assignments.  As other teachers became aware of the success, they tapped in and started answering questions for my students and I did the same for theirs.  This also provided prompts to revisit topics where confusion reigned.

The great thing about one of the classes is that my time teaching reduced considerably, the students would ask me to sit down and not teach.  I think this was because we managed to plug more holes this way, they started to answer each other's questions more frequently and they were more capable of independently learning, confident that if they became stuck, help was available.

Each step, I explicitly taught to students.  They had to understand what it was for - there was no learning by immersion or osmosis - if they didn't know it was there or how to use it, it might as well have been just another useless page on the internet.

Going back to Connect - this is the sort of thinking that has to sit behind it's use.  Connect is useless if it has not purpose in (or out) of the classroom.  I used all sorts of tricks to get them using a portal initially, but with some perseverance they became the easiest to teach and the highest performing class I have ever had.  I'd like to think what I learned could be used by someone else.  I know at least one person has it figured out and continues to evolve their own solution.

How do I teach that to 60 people?  When I was researching it, my supervisor concluded it was me not the ICT use that was successful.  I'm not sure I agree with him, but enthusiasm for teaching is infectious - it could be the forming of a synergistic class/teacher relationship (with high levels of confidence in their teacher) is the result of ICT usage rather than any benefit derived from the usage itself.

I don't know.  Wish me luck!

2016 and the move to Administration

It's two or so years since my last post and a fair bit has happened.  From Head of Department to Dean of Studies to Deputy Principal of senior school.  It would appear that my career has gone from strength to strength.

Perhaps on paper, but it sure has had its ups and downs.  The hardest part about the transition to administration by far is the loneliness that goes with it.  In a small public high school there are 5-6 administrators, generally dealing with different issues than teaching staff.  First and foremost, you are by necessity distancing yourself from teaching colleagues.  You now have a line to carry, whether you believe in it or not, in order to provide a united front for the school.  Disunity among admin is tantamount to a dysfunctional school.  The vision for the school starts here.  Managing friendships and management is not easy to do, and it is often more practical not to try and draw a line in the sand.  You work long hours with limited contact with anyone other than discipline cases and parents that are highly defensive and in many cases feel powerless to positively change the situation.

Next is the management of staff.  Vocational staff are lofty in their ideals and don't mind how many hours they work, career staff are there to collect a wage in order to provide a livelihood for their families.  Most teachers fall between these two extremes.  The way both staff are managed are completely different and requires a deft touch to massage egos and be mindful of family commitments.  Some are purely burnt out, others ineffectual, others outstanding but require careful stroking.  To be honest this is where I get criticised because personally I believe we are paid a lot to do a job.  The bare minimum expectation is that you do it.  I'm often a little too black and white about this and this causes me trouble.  Stroking staff is not an attribute that I have been required to develop in the past, and I find it mildly distasteful.  We do what we do due to personal motivation, lack the motivation and you are not doing your job.    Unlike with students, motivation has always been the problem of staff themselves.  There is an element of motivating staff required, but when teaching philosophies are so diametrically opposed, reconciling yourself to saying what needs to be said to maintain a status quo rather than dealing with the issue I find difficult.  I feel I am learning, but on this front I appear a slow learner.

Perception is always an issue.  People cannot see what you are doing, and judge you based on how well you do their task.  Sure it may not be the most important task that needs doing, but it is to them.  That student that did not pick up a piece of paper, that is late to class, has not completed homework can be just as important to resolve as the incident where a student has been assaulted.  Talk in the staffroom forgets all the good done and focuses on the current issue as if it was the "thing" wrong with the school.  Sentiment changes and your popularity with staff changes likewise as policy that is implemented is not always popular.  You are rarely judged on how well something is implemented or considered, the only comment I can recall said to me is that "you are a good operator".

The last two years were hard, transitioning from a job that I had done well for some time (as teacher and Head of Mathematics) to a job that was challenging due to staffing constraints (as Head of Math/Science) to a role that I found difficult and was initially ill defined (as Dean of Studies) and now temporarily to Deputy.  In each role I assisted the person moving behind me into it by improving process, building a functional team (or improving a dysfunctional one) and providing a foundation to build upon future success.

Physically and emotionally there has been a toll, one that is still being paid.  The returns from teaching are harder to find away from the classroom - there is a high from teaching that is poorly understood or recognised.  Take that high away and I see little to recommend in the job other than a wage that sends my girls to private schools - somehow from being a vocational teacher, I have become a career administrator.  My task now is to find the reward and vocation in the job in other areas; be that strategic development, staff development, staff managment, timetabling, career counselling, student counselling, curriculum development, marketing, behaviour and risk management or the other ten hats a Deputy or Dean of Studies wears.

2014 Achievements and the IOTY

2014 was a difficult year in that it lacked the proactive measures that we have achieved in previous years.  Loss of a valued staff member and the care and ultimate passing of a loved one resulted in reduced capacity to implement measures that were in the pipeline.

We did achieve a few things though:

- research is done for organising teaching observations in 2015.
- the 6th summer school has been organised and is over subscribed again with 48 students.
- Mathematics Academy classes have run for the 7th year.
- new staff are integrating well and capacity is growing in Math/Science.
- the Fogerty leadership programme helped develop stronger planning measures for the school.
- we're looking at a number of fun behaviour management schemes.
- transition went well and numbers are looking good.
- implementation of the new behaviour management policy.
- implementation of the formal streaming process.
- implementation of the ICT plan and rollout of 200 units of ICT across the school.
- made connections with like minded schools to ensure issues faced with small groups are diminished in 2015.
- plans have been presented to further enhance the mathematics programme through an engineering and public speaking focus in 2015.
- Australian curriculum implementation is progressing well.

The IOTY award for 2014 goes jointly to the teachers union, our beloved premier and the media for repeatedly reporting that we were on the list for closure or amalgamation during year 7 and 8 enrollment times.  A close second goes to the commonwealth for mandating inflexible A-E grading when it is not appropriate for schools with significant delays such as commonly found in low socio-economic schools.