Learning to struggle

There's a growing body of writing focusing on the importance of finding learning difficult in the overall development of children. And there is a plethora of examples comparing the difference between Eastern and Western classrooms and parenting.

A post by Alix Spiegel discusses the differences eloquently.

Over the years I've been an educator I've seen an interesting phenomena develop. We (parents and teachers) don't like to see our children find things hard. We don't like them to have to struggle for too long. We don't like them becoming distressed if they can't do something, and over time we have rescued and rescued and now we have many many children who simply don't make the link between hard work, struggling with a problem, perseverance and achievement. The net result is that children give up too quickly, and perhaps, are not learning to live with a feeling of 'uncomfortableness' for any amount of time.

I recently witnessed my own daughter struggling with studying for an end of year exam in anatomy. The procrastination, the complaints about the teacher, the whining about not being smart enough and 'everyone else is so clever; I'm not' and the claims that 'we haven't even been taught this' were extraordinarily creative. It really took me by surprise. And it took her more by surprise when I said, 'Yes, anatomy is hard, and no, it's not good enough to be able to give a detailed description of the digestive system when the exam requires one about the eye! Clearly you haven't studied enough and you're going to have to work at it harder now'. And I couldn't resist adding 'I hope you've learned your lesson'. (I probably could have done without that last comment!)

I often hear teachers comment that the children in their classes that find learning more difficult (eg. have to try harder to get the same result another has achieved effortlessly) are the ones who seem to be able to work away at a problem and who have developed a tolerance to having to struggle a bit - as opposed to the ones who have been rescued, and have learned they can just give up.

The problems of our future require people who can struggle away at something very hard and not find that uncomfortable feeling so distressing they don't want to continue. As parents we need to let our children struggle and encourage them to view the struggle positively. We need to let them find things hard and not rush in to rescue them, worrying that their 'distress' is going to cause some unimaginable harm.  In the end the harm it may cause is a generation of children not willing to persist and not willing to struggle to achieve something great.

There's a time and a place

Photo credit: Coldplay Live 2012

I went to see Coldplay in Brisbane last Wednesday night - what an amazing show! There were lights, fireworks, enormous balloons bouncing over the audience, somewhere in the vicinity of 52 000 people, laser beams, and of course, an incredible band on stage. In the first 10 minutes the enigmatic Chris Martin had managed to say what kids tell me is the 'f-word' about six times.

Did I mind? Hell, no! It was entirely appropriate given the spectacle, the noise, the excitement, the sheer awesomeness (another word we love using these days) of it all.

Swearing appears to be such a part of our vernacular these days. We hear it everywhere - at the movies, on TV, in newspapers, at the shops, and dare I say it - in our own homes. It seems everyone swears these days. I even do my own fair share of swearing! So it makes it quite difficult when we want to stop children swearing at school. We tell them it's wrong and even discipline the continual offenders. Is school the only place where swearing is not allowed? No, of course not! There are many situations in which swearing is completely out of place, and may even be offensive.

Kids swear for many reasons - for effect, to impress their peers, to try out an 'adult' vernacular, as a habit, to assert themselves in the peer group - and while I don't mind listening to Chris Martin swear in between songs, I hate hearing kids swear. I hate hearing my own child swear (even though she insists that now she is 18 she can say what she likes!). Perhaps that's the key - they feel grown up when they can legitimately let fly with a few 'f-words'.

Our roles as parents and educators is to teach about time and place so that swearing becomes a mature choice between expressing yourself intelligently and respectfully or taking a shortcut with a few offensive words. Choosing to swear isn't about a rite of passage - it's about choosing behaviour that demonstrates how you want to seen. This is a useful skill for our children to learn - and maturity is demonstrated through its use.

The Art of Persuasion ... Letters from 2B

For the past two years the writing task in the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (otherwise known as NAPLAN) has assessed the ability of students in Years 3, 5 and 7 to write persuasively. And so it is, that at this time of the year our Year 2 students turn their sights towards learning and consolidating this important life skill.

During the week I received a package of beautifully presented (handwritten) letters from 2B. On top was a sticky note, 'Hi Gwen, 2B feel quite strongly about an issue and thought the best thing to do would be to persuade you to their point of view. It is our first go at persuasion and they had a bit of guidance. I know you're busy so thanks for reading them. The kids are looking forward to your response. Bec'

Hmmmmm... Well, firstly, I'm NEVER too busy to read a child's work, to listen to them read or see one (or more) that present to my office full of pride with a job well done. Secondly, I had a pretty good idea they were going to try and persuade me to say 'yes' to something I'd want to say 'no' to!

And so - what did they want? I read 24 letters imploring me to allow them to bring toy cars to school. They demonstrated true generic style by stating upfront what they wanted and then presenting all the reasons why I should say yes, and finishing off with a summary. It was priceless.

I was informed that playing with cars was better than fighting; that kids were allowed to bring a ball to school and didn't I know that a ball was a toy?; that playing with cars was cooler than running around in the hot sun; that they had lost their privileges to borrow equipment from the sports shed and had nothing to do (???); that they could play in the shade if they had cars; that small cars are a lot of fun; that being able to play with them would encourage them to play 'friendly' and share; that teachers 'needed to get over it' - this, I found somewhat less persuasive; that the adventure playground was too small for everyone; and so it went on.

The fact is, we prefer children don't bring toys to school, as a rule. Losses and breakages cause much angst, and parents and children are rarely happy with the outcome of an investigation which has usually taken up far too much of the teacher's time. But I've never been very good at saying 'no' to kids! Especially when they ask for what they want responsibly and through using a tool that is well recognised as purposeful in achieving social action. 'Yes, if..' can be a far more useful response for building responsibility and teaching important life skills without the interference of the resentfulness an outright 'no' often brings.

So, my reply to them was:
Thank you very much for your letters regarding being able to bring toy cars to school to play with at play time. They were very well written and I enjoyed reading them.

The fact is that we have a rule at school about not allowing toys because often toys get broken or taken and the time it takes to sort out the problem means students are missing out on learning – and most times people can't agree on how the toy was lost or taken.

I agree that we have let children bring the balls they won at the Lap-a-thon to school. This was on the understanding that if they went missing, then it's sad but the teachers are not going to chase around looking for it. Other sorts of toys must be left at home.

So, as your letters were very good at persuading me to think about this more I have decided that if you would like to bring your cars to school you must have a plan that describes things like who can bring cars, how many, where you will play, what happens if one is lost or broken. The plan must have agreement from Ms Brian and all the other staff who do duty in the area where you play. The other teachers need to agree because their children will want to bring cars too.

Let me know what you decide and thank you for being so respectful in asking for what you want. If you can learn to do this well then you will have learned a very useful skill for life.

I remembered belatedly I hadn't included that the plan must state how they will play with the cars without digging up the grass and gardens! I ventured into the playground shortly after pressing send (my reply was an email) and was besieged by students from 2B excitedly informing me they were writing me another letter. I'm assuming it will be the plan and I'm expecting it to be VERY persuasive!

Meanwhile, that evening I was watching Better Homes and Gardens and the handy presenter built a gorgeous sandpit seat - is there a Dad out there who would like to build us one of these? Seemed like the perfect solution to me!

End of Year Reports...It's that time of the year again

Some time ago when I was Principal at Chancellor SS the Year 1 classes hosted a grandparents' picnic. Grandparents were encouraged to share their memories and stories of when they were at school. One of the student's Grandad proudly brought along his own father's Report Card written in the early 1920s. It was handwritten in ink on thick creamy paper and gave a snapshot on attendance and punctuality; grades for Arithmetic, English, French, Science and History; and listed some Desirable Traits, for example, completes work, is generally careful, practices good health habits, and works and plays well with others. The teacher had written a brief comment on the bottom of the page 'Would do well to listen more carefully and desist from talking in the classroom.'


So perhaps not much has changed over the last 90 years! Teachers today still provide a snapshot to parents of these things in what is known as the Report Card. These days it is produced by photocopier on light card and the only handwriting you will see will be the teacher's signature - and in our school, my signature too.

At this time of the year teachers from Prep to Year 7 at Peregian Springs State School are spending many hours carefully assessing the work children have produced searching for the evidence of their learning throughout the semester, and considering the best way to describe to parents the growth a child has demonstrated over the year. They write detailed commentary on each subject area and on each child's social and work habits. They spend a lot of time thinking about the best way to record the child's achievements, they proof read them, their partner's proof read them, they rewrite many of them ... and then I read them - all 604 of them this year!

I personally make the time to read and sign every child's Report Card as I love to see their growth over time. Each child's Report Card is a testament to the wonderful work children and teachers are doing in classrooms every day. By reading each report I can ensure the quality of the information parents receive and I also want to affirm each teacher's effort in creating the most informative reports they can.

I, also, want to ensure that when your child's Report Card is read by grandchildren in a few generations it will stand the test of time in terms of the value your child's teachers have added to their life at school and beyond.

Contrary to opinion in the media and fictional accounts of book characters at school, teachers would not write a comment like this one!

The times, they are a changing...your times tables, that is!

When I was in Year 4 my teacher would line us all up on a Friday morning for the times tables competition - you were the winner if you were the last one standing. I knew my tables VERY well - I practised them over and over and on a Friday morning was fast and accurate and most weeks was one of the last left standing.

I also had multiple routes for getting right answers to 'problems' such as 73-49=...well, 3-9 you can't do so you add 10 here, and you add 10 there, and then it's 13-9 and 7-5 and the answer is 24 - simple!

My strategies for calculating and memorising stood me in good stead until senior secondary school.

Year 11 and 12 maths was a nightmare as I struggled to apply what I had memorised to problems presented by the teacher or the text book. I could no longer memorise everything I needed to know to be successful, and like many kids, I grew to hate maths passionately.

Modern mathematics teaching focuses on children developing conceptual understanding and flexible thinking, that is, fluency - they need to understand why, for example, double 5 is 10, and how knowing that is important to understanding larger more complex numbers.

I sat with a couple of Year 3s the other day and talked with them about numbers. I wrote down on paper a 6 and a 9, and asked them - 'what is the sum of 6 and 9?' One went straight to his fingers by counting out 6 fingers, folding them over and counting on another 9 fingers. This is certainly not a strategy a student who is fluent with addition facts would use. The other child studied the numbers for a bit and then said, 'It's 15...yes, 15.' I asked her how she came up with that without counting. She looked at me and said 'I just took 1 off the 6 and added it to the 9 to make 10; that made a sum 10+5 and that's easy - it's 15'.

The second child demonstrated the thinking our teachers are striving to develop - she was fluent, she understands place value, addition and the associative property between numbers in order to arrive at a correct response - she was efficient, accurate and flexible in her thinking, all in a matter of a few seconds. The first child may well have arrived at the right answer eventually but without the key ingredient of actually fully understanding the properties of the numbers he was working with.

Developing fluency in numeracy has been a major strategy for development at Peregian Springs State School this year. We have been lucky enough to work with an esteemed educator in the field, Rob Profitt-White. If you are interested in these ideas you may like to listen to one of our teachers, Chris Wise, interviewing him on the topic - Fluency in Numeracy.

So when you are next helping your child with their number facts homework, ask them to explain how they arrived at their answer, rather than simply focussing on whether they give you the 'right' answer in the shortest amount of time. Thinking deeply about numbers takes time to develop and if you can do this, being the last one left standing on a Friday morning is not all that important.

Check, check and check again

Wearing red at Peregian Springs State School

Yesterday was 'Day for Daniel' - a day when we all wear some red (a colour that has become synonymous with child safety) to promote awareness of the protection of children in our community. Daniel Morcombe was abducted at the end of 2003. Our children have lived with his disappearance all their lives. We, as parents and teachers, have lived with the tragedy and the heartbreaking sadness of the Morcombe family for nearly ten years. A sentiment this strong tends to create a climate of fear and a tendency to overprotect our kids by hovering over them, warning them and tethering them to us closely.

When you think your child has disappeared it is a gut wrenching, heart stopping, sickening feeling of total panic and loss of all rational reasoning. Shortly after Daniel disappeared my daughter (ten at the time) was supposed to be catching the bus from school just 3km into Noosa Junction to where my husband works - simple, just get on the bus outside the school, there's a teacher on duty, sit next to someone you know, get off the bus at the stop outside Dad's office - what could go wrong?

At 4.00pm Rick rings me (I was in Brisbane) and then came the news - 'have you got Maddie? She hasn't come here. I've been looking for her all over the Junction. I've rung the school. I've rung the bus company. We don't know where she is.' It was like a heart attack. I was at least a two hour drive away and Rick was in a mad panic.

After half an hour of madness, phone calls, checking with friends, checking with Maddie's friends, and rechecking all over again while trying not to scream at everyone who said 'no, we haven't seen her', we finally located her at the bus depot in Tewantin.

What the bus company hadn't told us was that the school bus went to the high school where she was supposed to get off and get on a different bus that went to the Junction. As the bus she was on sailed past the end of the Sunshine Beach Road she told the driver she needed to get off. 'No, we don't stop here - you'll have to stay on', she was told. Well, at least it was a happy ending. There is a bit more to this story that I'll tell another time but the point I'm trying to make is that as parents we need to check and check and check AND we also need to make sure our children are building the skills of resilience, self-reliance and problem solving.

Hovering, tethering and warning frightens them - as a parent said to me this week 'Gwen, they think there's a paedophile on every corner'. Of course, there isn't but our kids need to be able to recognise the signs that tell them something is a 'bit off' and then have some behaviours they have practised to remove themselves from the situation. Our student protection lessons at school are about this very thing and on Assembly on Friday 3L demonstrated this brilliantly with their three little skits.

So Day for Daniel is over again for another year, our awareness is heightened and our safety skills are honed...and at 4.10pm as we were all packing up at the end of a week in comes a Dad 'My daughter didn't get of the bus. We don't know where she is'.

Thankfully, another happy ending - she had missed her stop and had to stay on!

Stories from the Past - Living with our History

Over the last 15 to 20 years the teaching of history has had the potential to be a sadly neglected part of the general curriculum. It has still been there, as part of Studies of Society and Environment, but teachers had to look hard to find it. Teaching historical enquiry requires skill and an interest in the past. And so, over time and with a greater focus being placed on other areas of curriculum teaching and learning in history has faded away.

In 2013 all schools will be implementing history as a subject in its own right once again. And I am so excited about this. Having a sense of history is so important to understanding who we are and how we came to be this way, and for understanding who others are and how they came to be the way they are. For example, we cannot hope to understand the culture of Australian born Vietnamese families without knowing the stories of the Vietnam War and horrors endured in getting to Australia. And similarly, white Australians cannot partner effectively with our Indigenous peoples in building their (and our) futures without an appreciation of the ancient time they walked the land and the more modern times of white settlement.

And our youngest students cannot develop a sense of who they are without hearing and appreciating the stories of their own families and communities.

As a new school we will have to work hard for many years to build a history, to create a group of stories about how we came to be. My last school, Pomona SS, was over a hundred years old - the Resource Centre was full of artefacts from a time gone by - photographs of staff and students stretching back to the 1920s, tuckshop menus from the 1960s, a Tug-A-War trophy from one of the first King of the Mountain races. The things we learned about our school and the town of Pomona when we dug up a Time Capsule buried since the mid 1980s was a joy.

So we are collecting historical artefacts for our 'museum' - phones, cameras, kitchen objects, bric a brac and letters from a time gone past. These objects give us a new appreciation of our families and sometimes reveal startling facts and knowledge.

I visited my parents in the last holidays and asked Mum if she had any artefacts. She brought out her memory box and produces a copy of the Daily Mirror from 20 July 1969 - the day man landed on the moon! It was still in one piece and you can go and look at it in our Resource Centre. And what can we learn from a newspaper that's 43 years old? Well, one thing is that some stories never change - besides the moon landing, the newspaper reports on bashings, poorly behaved football players and local youth making a nuisance of themselves after dark! But it is also clear that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in Apollo 11 using less technology than we carry in our iPhones today! And, oh yes, there was a third man on that mission who everyone seems to have forgotten - and he didn't even get a mention in the paper produced on the day this historic event occurred. Perhaps our history lessons next year will help children question why.

Common Courtesies... or just plain old fashioned good manners

I'm pretty big on good manners at school - or Common Courtesies, as we call them. Our Common Courtesies include greeting people when you first meet them for the day, saying please and thank you, knowing how to enter a room politely, using 'excuse me' in its correct context, using each other's names and a few others. At Peregian Springs we teach these to children explicitly, and everyone models their use. Our Common Courtesies are demonstrated everywhere everyday by students, teachers and other staff members - and we love it when parents reinforce these at home too.

Our students' manners is one of the things visitors to our school comment on nearly every week - visitors seem to be amazed at how polite and courteous our kids are. And I'm always terribly proud of them when they walk past me as I'm escorting a group of visitors and call out 'Good morning, Ms Sands', spontaneously and without any prompting! (This often happens in the supermarket in the afternoon too!)

Being consistent with our teaching of manners is important - those of you at Assembly on Friday would have heard me pull up the school and chastise them for talking and walking away while one of our Student Leaders was trying to close Assembly. I'm happy to say, I rarely have to do this, as mostly our kids are happy and polite students without being reminded. For me, though, setting and maintaining the standard is important.

Why do we think manners are important enough to teach? It's because a few common courtesies make the world a nicer place to be in - a smile improves a recipient's day; a please, a thank you and a polite knock on a door helps someone feel respected; the use of a person's name creates connection; and an 'excuse me' often leads to another feeling cared about.

Common Courtesies are the key to helping us function as a community - they demonstrate care and respect, and help us get along with each other harmoniously. A father said to me the other day about his son's discovery of the shower,  'He's just realised that smelling nice helps him get along with people better!' And this is what I think about manners - they help us get along with people better!

Stories kids tell...

Quite often we hear at school about something a child has told their parents their teacher has said or done that has caused a great deal of consternation in the home. My own daughter used to tell me stories about her teachers that would have made their hair curl, had I repeated them!

Most times parents come and ask us about the situation and we are able to put the story straight - many times the stories are quite funny; but occasionally a teacher will say to me in anguish 'how could they have thought I would have said/done/thought that?'

The thing is that kids sometimes (actually a lot of times) get things muddled. They are not liars and they are not lying - they are merely reporting something they have seen or heard from their perception. They don't have the depth of experience or the level of cognitive development that adults have to draw on to make conclusions about what they've seen or heard, and to give it perspective. And perspective is a wonderful thing to have when trying to make sense of something that has happened. From a small person's point of view things are louder, bigger and more exaggerated - and if your child has heard your own conversations about teachers, they may feel their story adds weight to any conclusions they think you have drawn.

So next time your child tells you a story about their teacher (or me!) and your first reaction is 'you've got to be joking - that couldn't have happened; remember - it probably didn't! At least not in the way your child saw it and reported it to you.

A good response to children's 'horror' stories from school is 'tell me more about that' - and then, just let it go or seek more information from your child's teacher.

School pride

School pride - what is it? what does it look like? how do we know when we have it? These are all illusive questions, the answers to which are pursued by schools all over the world.

You know school pride when you see it, but it's hard to describe. It's something you can feel, and it probably can be heard too.

Last Thursday 7/6D went whale watching (courtesy of one of the student's parents). What a fantastic experience on a brilliant Spring day. After they arrived back at school, I received a call from a member of the public who wanted to talk to me about what she observed after being on the same boat with the class. Since these calls are usually bad news I answered with dread in my heart.

The woman explained that she had been on the boat with her elderly mother and she admitted to being annoyed when she saw they would be sharing their trip with a large group of school children. She had pushed her way to the front and demanded that Justin (7/6D's teacher) let them on first as she didn't want her mother 'pushed over'. She then went on to tell me what an amazing group of children they were - their manners were impeccable, they looked fantastic in their uniforms, she didn't hear the teacher raise his voice once, one of the boys gave his seat up for her mother and so it went on. She concluded by telling me they are a credit to 'that young man' - I think she meant Justin - and a credit to the school. Her mother, at the end of the trip, commented how nice it was to spend the day with young people.

I'm sure you can imagine the pride I felt - whammy, straight in the chest. When I told the story on Assembly the next morning you could see 7/6D swelling up as I spoke. And when the whole school congratulated them and Justin - well, it was wonderful!

It's important to teach children the value of pride - not in a 'I'm big noting myself' kind of way - but as an internal feeling of personal power and competence - that is, a motivating kind of way. Being proud of your school and proud of the people in it enhances a willingness to learn and do your best. And this fosters a personal competence that will carry kids through their future lives and will impact on the ways they view the world.

Well done, 7/6D - we're all so proud of you for showing the world and the whales what Peregian Springs State School does best!

Rough Play

What to do about rough play? It's a question we grapple with continuously as many parents question why we stop boys from engaging in what we call 'rough play'. 'It's normal', many of you say, or 'It's just what boys do'. And you are right when you say this.

All young animals engage in playing roughly and testing out their strength... or lack of ... on each other - just watch a group of puppies or kittens for half an hour. They are jumping on each other, biting and scratching and pulling each other to the ground. Occasionally when one gets too rough there is a hiss or yelp warning the stronger one off. This usually results in a short reprieve while everyone cools down before leaping into it again. The rough play of young animals serves a socialising purpose. It's also about 'survival of the fittest' and gaining strength to be the stand out in the litter. And perhaps 'rough play' for young boys is the same.

It can be alarming to see boys engaging in this behaviour at school - there are usually over a hundred boys on the oval at play times (far more than a litter of kittens), and if you can imagine a hundred puppies on the oval you have some idea of the magnitude of the play and some of the potential problems that could occur!

Many boys love to play like this - there's nothing more fun than jumping all over your friends, pulling them to the ground, tripping them as they run by or grabbing someone's hat and keeping it aloft in the air while the poor owner tries to get it back. Really? There's nothing more fun than this? We have just as many boys at school who dislike this kind of play intensely and who are even afraid of it. You see, unlike puppies and kittens who back off when it gets too rough, human animals don't. The 'play' tends to escalate and someone gets hurt - sometimes seriously.

If parents think rough play is important for their child's development then it can be encouraged in small groups (like a litter) under a parent's supervision. It just can't happen at school where we have to consider the risks, both physical and emotional, for ALL boys, of allowing them to play like this.

We believe it's far better to teach cooperative or team games and encourage children to play these as much as possible. They serve the same purpose as rough play - socialising and strength building are inherent in these activities. But they have the added bonus of encouraging the development of quality relationships and connectedness with others.

Rough play separates kids through fear and competition. Cooperative or team games connects kids together through fun and team spirit. I know the outcome I prefer for our boys.

Student of the Week - what to do about awards and recognition...

Sometimes parents ask us why we don’t 'do' Student of the Week on Assembly every Friday to recognise those students in each class who are performing and achieving well. Our decision not to do this was made before we opened and was influenced by our philosophy about providing an environment where all children will choose to work towards their potential in academic and social endeavours.

Strategies such as Student of the Week rarely motivate children to achieve more or behave appropriately – in fact they can often have to opposite effect of creating resentment amongst students who have not been awarded a Student of the Week award, despite achieving well and behaving well all the time. Student of the Week often turns into a turn-taking event in which students are picked based on some nebulous criteria because ‘they haven’t had one all year’. Children are very quick to see through these sorts of strategies.

At Peregian Springs SS we want to recognise all students for doing well at the times they are doing it. All students can aspire to this. Each class has their own way of recognising the great work kids are doing and we use assembly to congratulate those students (all those students) who are achieving above and beyond expectations in their academic, sporting and social endeavours.

I love to see our kids proudly standing for the whole group with smiles on their faces – and equally I love to see the rest of the school rejoicing in each individual’s achievement. Student of the Week becomes a routine activity that looses meaning in this context.

Welcome ... and hello!

Welcome to my blogspot.

As a staff we have been talking about whether we are communicating with our families in a way that makes it easy for them to tune into key messages. Many of you now use social media and we are finding this a great way to get out reminders and good news.

As Principal, I find of equal importance to reminders and good news stories is the transmission of our unique school culture. Our way of 'doing business' sets us apart from other schools and this is something we want to grow and develop - especially as we are joined by new staff, new families and new children nearly every day of the week.

I remember a parent asking me in 2009 'Gwen, what do you want your school to be known for?' My reply was that I wanted a school that teachers (and other staff) and children couldn't wait to get to every day. Two and a bit years in and we are achieving this.

There are many things that lead to a happy school - a school in which kids feel that they can take risks in their learning, test out their ideas and have great relationships with their teachers. This blog will share my thoughts about what some of those things are and how are we are doing it at Peregian. The postings will be irregular but I hope you enjoy them and share them with others.