IE: Issue 42/Vol3/2012

the professional voice of the Independent Education Union

issue 3|Vol 42|2012

Rising to the challenge

managing behaviour in the classroom

Hip hop for justice|Treating nature deficit disorder|Professional learning communities

Executive Editors John Quessy Deb James Terry Burke Managing Editor Tara de Boehmler Editorial Committee Cathy Hickey Fiona Stutz Tara de Boehmler Sandra White Sue Osborne Journalists Tara de Boehmler Sue Osborne Fiona Stutz Design Chris Ruddle About us IE is a tri-annual journal published by the NSW/ACT, VicTas and Qld/NT Independent Education Unions for members and subscribers. It has a circulation of more than 65,000. IE’s contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the IEU or the editors nor imply endorsement by them.

Email NSW: ieu@ieu.asn.au VIC/TAS: info@ieuvictas.org.au QLD/NT: enquiries@qieu.asn.au IE online www.ieu.asn.au/publications/ Contributions Contributions and letters from members are welcome. Printing does not reflect endorsement and contributions may be edited at the editor’s discretion.

Email iemagazine@ieu.asn.au Advertising Chris Ruddle (02) 9779 3200 Advertising is carried in IE in order to minimise costs.

Advertising does not in any way reflect endorsement of the products or services.

Subscriptions IE is available free to members of the IEU, or by subscription.

Kayla Skorupon: (02) 9779 3200 Printing Print & Mail: (02) 9519 8268 ISSN 1320-9825

Managing behaviour in the classroom

Sharing and comparing Science by Doing

P20

Treating nature deficit disorder

Editorial Kaleidoscope Australia wide

Rising to the challenge

news from the states and territories

Reconciliation Feature

Elders get keys to the College

P30

99 not out - Geoffrey Schneider Professional and industrial

P6 P8

Rising to the challenge – managing behaviour Many pockets required The Four Rooms of Change

P10 P12

Understanding and teaching students

with mood disorders

Gifted with dyslexia

Teaching + learning

Security breach

Meeting the needs of students with disabilities

Hip hop for justice

Grammar program gives you wings

Science by Doing

Treating nature deficit disorder

Professional Learning

Diverse roles Technology Legal Diary/Letters Talking point Review

P4 P4

Lighthouse in a storm Kids Connect Using your own car for work Doing the rounds Are young people too bubble wrapped?

The secret life of bullies

P13 P14 P15 P16 P18 P19 P20 P22 P24 P27 P28 P30 P31 P32 P34

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Rising to the challenge Classroom management is a manyfaceted topic and when one tries to narrow it down to dealing with student behaviour there are possibly as many approaches as there are students.

In this issue of IE, behaviour management consultant Jenny Mackay suggests collating a number of the skills and approaches that could work for your students and using them as an integral part of the lesson planning process.

While the aim is getting students to manage themselves and their learning, the key is adequate and ongoing teacher support and training, she says.

IE’s Rising to the Challenge feature continues this theme, looking at the Four Rooms of Change theory that helps students understand and take responsibility for their own emotions and behaviours, and the Reach Out teacher resources that help create classroom environments that support students with mood disorders.

IEU member Brett Comerford also weighs in, sharing memories of being a student mistaken to be lazy or incapable, when he was simply yet to be diagnosed as dyslexic.

These days Brett is a primary school teacher with a second degree in Special Education, determined to give the best education to others facing learning difficulties.

Whatever our preferred approaches to managing this complex area, this feature does illustrate what a momentous task behaviour management is and the difference it makes in students’ lives.

Also in this issue of IE we hear about some fresh approaches for bringing learning to life, including Hip Hop for Justice (p18), Grammar Angels (p19), Science by Doing (p20) and the use of professional learning communities (p24).

We hope you enjoy the read and would love to hear more about your thoughts and experiences. As always, we invite you to send feedback and story leads to iemagazine@ieu.asn.au.

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If I retired I’d just be sitting around reading the newspaper, and that’s not exciting enough for me.

Above and right: Father Geoffrey today.

Below: Father Geoffrey at age five.

Kaleidoscope

Father Geoffrey Schneider

The 2013 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records will include an entry about Father Geoffrey Schneider, who is officially the world’s longest serving practicing teacher. Father Schneider has been teaching at St Aloysius’ College in Milsons Point since 1963. He now assists with the religious program in the junior school, although he previously taught geography and history. He is still working full time, and also takes Mass at the school and at a refuge. But his teaching career actually began 72 years ago in Western Australia. Turning 100 on 23 December, Father Schneider tells IE Journalist Sue Osborne he has no plans to retire.

99 not out

I can remember my father coming home one day and saying there was a rumour the war had ended. We didn’t have any telephone, radio or television, so we had to wait for the newspaper the next day to find out if it was true.

That was 1918, and I was supposed to start school the next year, but I had to wait until St Patrick’s Day, because there was an influenza epidemic, so I started school a bit late.

I went to Sacred Heart School in Kew in Victoria. The nuns taught us in grade one and two and then the lay teachers.

We loved wrestling in the sand and we used to come back into school all hot and bothered. The teachers mustn’t have liked it, but we didn’t mind the heat.

I remember watching the church next door getting built. We did all our lessons on slates. I was bullied a bit, but that passed.

My high school was Xavier College, just around the corner. We had a lay geography teacher who gave us this great plan of the seasons. I’d never seen anything like that before. I ended up using the same thing when I started teaching geography.

We had a history teacher who taught us European history very well, but he didn’t like chatting.

I didn’t really think about being a teacher then, because I thought it was too much hard work.

My family was fairly religious. We went to Mass every week. People don’t do that now. I went to a Jesuit school, so I thought I might as well be a Jesuit priest.

Class namesake St Aloysius’ Director of Development Murray Happ recounts the story of how, in 1993 when the new junior school site opened, the Principal asked the students to name all their new classrooms after a Jesuit saint.

“Class three came up with the name Father Geoffrey Schneider. The Principal told

I thought I’d be on the road to heaven.

I was sent to college to be a teacher by the Jesuits and then to Western Australia to teach in 1940. I liked teaching history and geography there.

I was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1946, after 13 years training. You did as they told you to do in those days, and they had an emphasis on education.

We were always told we had to make our lessons striking and to collect photos, but nowadays you can just Google it and get something on YouTube and have it on the whiteboard.

It was a bit harder when you just had chalk and board.

I think it’s easier to teach now in that respect. Teachers seem to get a lot more theoretic stuff in their training nowadays, very academic stuff.

I’m happy teaching the junior boys. They’re all friendly, I’ve never had to put anyone on detention and they take an interest in the religious stories I tell them.

I try to teach in an inspiring way. I don’t talk about hell. I tell them to love one another and they won’t do any of the nasty things people might otherwise do.

As a teacher, I’m doing good, building up the background in the religious education of the boys. If I didn’t like it I wouldn’t keep doing it every day.

If I retired I’d just be sitting around reading the newspaper, and that’s not exciting enough for me.

them ‘Father Geoffrey is not a saint, he’s still alive’,” Murray says.

“And the boys said ‘he’s like a saint us’.

So now there’s a Father Geoffrey Schneider classroom.

“Father Geoffrey has lived and worked at the college for 47 years, and I can tell you he’s a much loved character.” independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|5

Australia Wide

NSW Campaigning on several fronts The NSW Government is to slash $250 million from its education budget ($1billion over four years).

The immediate impact on the Catholic and independent schools sector would be the loss of $67million from January.

Catholic employers have indicated that systemic schools would need to increase fees by over $100 per student per year and Catholic independent schools by up to $500 per student.

The impact on other independent schools would be just as dramatic.

Meanwhile, the Union’s campaign for pay parity for early childhood teachers with school teachers is gaining momentum, with the issue debated by State Parliament in October.

The Teachers are Teachers campaign produced a petition signed by more than 12,000 concerned teachers, parents and members of the public which was handed to Shadow Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt, forcing the debate.

Victoria New Directions – race to the bottom of the class?

Education Ministers Peter Hall and Martin Dixon released a discussion paper for consultation on reforms they say are aimed at improving educational outcomes in Victoria.

While Victoria consistently achieves above the OECD average in PISA results, the document’s premise is that this isn’t good enough and that the reforms proposed will get Victorian student results up to the global top tier of the current five highest PISA scoring countries.

Unfortunately for the teachers, students and parents in Victoria, the document is largely an elaboration of so-called reforms that essentially mirror the most concerning elements of the Government’s divisive performance pay, cost-cutting industrial agenda. This agenda of reforms includes: • Linking teacher appraisal and feedback to teacher pay (the paper cites Singapore where teachers are ranked A to E) performance bonuses paid to top performers; differentiated rewards based on

effort and performance criticism of the current system of progression up the scale • criticism of the reduction of class sizes achieved over the past years because they claim this has no significant impact on student achievement • more flexible pathways into teaching, including for those who are not teaching course graduates, relaxing registration requirements for teachers to undertake additional days of professional learning and planning from the 11 weeks of school holidays (non-attendance time) at their school • giving principals greater delegation to take discipline actions, and ‘exit’ teachers – exiting the lowest 5% of teachers, and mandating that teachers undertake a research project every two years and include progress on this as a requirement in the performance management system.

The IEUVicTas has written an extensive response to the discussion document which can be accessed at www.ieuvictas.org.au

Queensland Tool to be phased out

The Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks (QCATs) assessment tool will be phased out by 2013. State Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the tests were now unnecessary since the introduction of the Australian Curriculum and claims the phase-out will deliver a $3 million saving this financial year.

Until this year, Queensland’s curriculum and assessment had been managed under the Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting (QCAR) policy. QCATs have been the standards-

6|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

based assessment tool used by state and some non-government schools since 2009, administered by the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Education Queensland.

QCATs for 2012 have been developed and schools have the option to participate this year. A range of resources is available to assist schools with this process at www.qsa.qld.edu.au/3163.html.

Australia wide

Northern Territory Importance of collective bargaining for enhanced wages and conditions Northern Territory members are aware that collective bargaining is the primary way unions secure enhancements to wages and conditions for members.

This was evidenced when members endorsed their log of claims ahead of bargaining in the Northern Territory Catholic sector.

Previous member resolve resulted in new classification structures and wage enhancements in the former collective agreement for Catholic school employees.

New data shows that more than 2.4 million working Australians are currently covered by collective agreements.

The Trends in Enterprise Bargaining Report for the September Quarter 2011 shows the number of employees covered by collective agreements grew by

350,000 since commencement of the Fair Work Act. By 30 September last year 22,731 agreements were in place covering over 2.4 million employees across a range of industries.

This report shows collective bargaining has allowed workplaces to set pay and conditions suiting the needs of employees. The report, by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, also shows the Fair Work system is delivering sustainable wages growth.

The average annualised wage increase for agreements approved under the Fair Work Act since its enactment is 4%.

Agreements under the Fair Work Act also contain a range of provisions with

the potential to improve productivity in workplaces.

Within the Catholic employee log of claims, members are asking for: • additional preparation and correction time to address the expanding role of the teacher • matters pertaining to hours of duty should be reviewed and consolidated into a provision within the agreement • wage increases that reflect national benchmarks and consistency of remuneration across sectors • enhanced leave provisions • job security, and • other positive provisions for members.

South Australia Profound changes for schools The final report of the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) First Year Evaluation Committee has been released.

“The critics of SACE have been much louder and more intense in their representations to the panel,” SAIEU General Secretary Glen Seidel says.

“However, the supporters, though less vocal, are equally passionate.

“It also appears that despite the intensive efforts of the SACE Board, schools and, within schools, individual teachers, have varied considerably in

their readiness for the changes that the SACE required.”

While changes may have seemed superficially insignificant, they had a profound impact on schools, teachers and students.

Students were generally neutral.

However, there was a very significant difference in the views and outcomes regarding the research project with respect to gender, where girls were much more positive and successful with the project than were boys. The report’s recommendations include the ongoing

development of the SACE Board’s continuous improvement processes, such as extending the reach of clarifying forums and the provision of more annotated exemplars of assessment tasks and student work being made available to teachers.

There are other issues which will need to be monitored over time which include any unintended consequences for stakeholders and the impact of the imminent introduction of the new Australian Curriculum.

Tasmania Improving outcomes for indigenous students Recently released results of the 2011 Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) indicate both that Tasmania has the smallest gap of any Australian jurisdiction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and there has been a continuing closing of the gap in literacy and numeracy outcomes.

The State Government states that it is committed to providing equal

educational outcomes for all Tasmanian students, but while the average gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students may be ‘only’ 50% less in Tasmania than other states and territories, there is clearly more work to be done.

In Tasmania 59 schools have been identified to be part of the Tasmanian strategy for Closing the Gap in Aboriginal Outcomes 2010 – 2014.

A significant number of these schools are non-government schools. There is a wide variation in enrolment of Indigenous students, with some schools having no Indigenous students enrolled, many having 3% - 7% of their students listed as Indigenous, another group at around 12% and some rural schools having enrolments of up to 33% Indigenous students.

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Elders get keys to the College

There were all these dark people there.

I’d never seen a dark person before and it frightened the life out of me, and they were my cousins.

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Towards reconciliation

The doors will always be open at Redfern Jarjum College, a new school for Aboriginal children being supported and sponsored by St Aloysius College in Milsons Point, the first new Jesuit school in Australia for 60 years, writes IE Journalist Sue Osborne.

Left: Beatrice Sheen.

The historic presbytery is being restored to house the school.

Above: The school’s new emblem, designed by Beatrice with feedback from members of the Redfern community, to reflect Aboriginal and Catholic culture.

The idea for the school came from Ailsa Gillett, an executive assistant at St Aloysius, who had been running the Life for Koori Kids program in Redfern/Surry Hills on Saturdays for 15 years.

IEU Member Beatrice Sheen will be the new Principal, and the development of Jarjum has coincided with Beatrice finally being proud to call herself a Gamilaroi woman.

“I didn’t know I was Aboriginal until I was 11. We went to my dad’s mother’s funeral and there were all these dark people there.

I’d never seen a dark person before and it frightened the life out of me, and they were my cousins.”

Her parents had kept her father’s Aboriginally secret to protect her from the discrimination that was around when Beatrice was young.

“In those days you weren’t allowed to go to school if you were Aboriginal.”

Beatrice says it was only years later when she started teacher training at the Australian Catholic College she acknowledged her race, standing as the University’s Aboriginal student rep.

“But I still wasn’t really proud. As I look white I thought people would think I was saying it to get free cars and houses.

“Even today people still think that’s what we get.”

Being appointed Principal of Redfern Jarjum College has finally allowed Beatrice to embrace her culture and background.

Jarjum (meaning children) will be a short-term option for students that are struggling with the mainstream system. At the moment, the school is a Year 5-8 school, as many Aboriginal children leave school in Year 8, but that could change depending on need in the community.

The school’s philosophy will be based on the Stronger Smarter Institute philosophy of Aboriginal Teacher Chris Sarra and the Big Picture Education model, an international NGO promoting individualised teaching.

“Our aim is to give children the confidence to return to mainstream schooling. We will work with the child, parents, aunties and teachers to come up with an individual learning plan for each child.

“We want everything to be practical and we want to get out and about. We’ve been donated a bus so we’ll be going back to Country and seeing the learning.

“The Redfern student population is made up of all different mobs with different culture and spirituality.

“Many of the kids will go back to Country for sorry business and they could forget to come back to school for a month or so.

“We’ll be providing each child with an iPad loaded up with the work so they don’t fall behind, a type of distant education model.”

Beatrice expects children to come to school each day and wear their uniform, to show pride in their education and a form of self-discipline.

“I will have high expectations of all the students, as they are met with low expectations in some schools and society”.

The school will employ two teachers and three teachers aides from the community, who will receive training in partnership with Lithgow TAFE. Partnerships are important to the school, with the Jesuit community, other schools such as Knox Grammar, Wenona School and Ravenswood School supplying support and resources, and local organisations like South Sydney Rugby Leagues Club and the Martian Embassy (a writers’ centre) helping out.

The school will operate from 8am to 9pm, with elders, volunteers, teenagers and the community encouraged to attend and be involved in the afternoons and evenings.

The students will run assemblies and the yarning circles every morning, and spend afternoons building their leadership skills.

“On the opening day, I’m giving all the elders the keys to the College,” Beatrice says.

“Elders never used to appreciate the importance of education, but now they realise it’s everything, it’s the key to many opportunities in life”.

Beatrice’s own educational journey was a long and difficult one. She left school in Year 8 and worked in shops and factories.

Her parish priest, Father Carl Ashton, encouraged her to take the role of catechist/ special education teacher in the local public schools, where she discovered she was good at teaching.

The priest also encouraged her to enrol for a diploma at Australian Catholic University, and she eventually graduated with a degree to teach careers, industrial arts and personal development.

University study was hard. “They started talking about bibliographies and I had no idea what language they were talking. They said get out a setsquare and I had no idea what one was.”

Perseverance paid off, and now Beatrice has almost completed her Masters in Religious Education at the ACU. Her first teaching job was at Benedict College (now Trinity) at Auburn.

“I was a bit of a novelty there, teaching industrial arts in a boys’ school.”

After a year, she went to St Andrew’s Marayong where she stayed 18 years, and then on to Met School, an Exclusive Brethren School in Campbelltown.

“The people were beautiful but they did have their different ways. After a while I missed not being part of the religious life of the school.”

She returned to the Catholic system at Loyola College in Mt Druitt, near her home of 40 years at Mt Druitt, Western Sydney.

“When I saw the ad in the paper for the Jarjum job, I said ‘that’s my job’, I was so excited”.

Beatrice believes her own life experience will make it easy for her to understand what the children at her school are going through, and what the people in the community want for their children. independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|9

Rising to the challenge

managing behaviour in the

classroom For those classrooms that runneth over with challenging behaviours, there are just as many theories about what we could, should or most definitely must not be doing about it. The following pages highlight some practical strategies for supporting teachers and students, with a focus on tapping into the learning opportunities that these challenges present.

Many pockets required Do you ever feel like your classroom would be perfect but for the behaviour of a handful of students? Do you marvel at the viral effect of a disruptive personality? And have you ever felt you might as well be banging your head against a whiteboard for all the response your discipline strategies are garnering? Behaviour management consultant Jenny Mackay (pictured right) tells IE Journalist Tara de Boehmler what teacher training may have failed to Picture the scene: As you are preparing to enter the classroom and you take a few minutes to think about the behaviour of 10|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

students. Johnny has been getting frustrated as he finds the subject matter hard to grasp.

Elizabeth and Shari talk too much and focus too little. And there is a group of boys who like to constantly fool around, disrupting their fellow students.

It’s the reaction to this scenario that interests Jenny, who believes it’s the teacher’s response that governs not only what happens next, but also the students’ abilities to manage their learning.

“Students just behave in a certain way because they feel like it, but by managing ourselves and our responses we can enable our students to get it right,” she says.

“It’s not a punitive thing. We were brought up to believe that if you misbehaved you got into trouble but all this teaches is fear and blame shifting.”

What Jenny encourages in her work as a behaviour management consultant is preplanning and a well-engaged imagination,

Feature

We are not taught to plan for behaviour alongside our lesson planning for all students, yet all of us work with this hidden curriculum.

We’re trained in ‘what’ we are teaching but not in ‘who’.

like “slipping on a coat that makes you invisible – but with 1001 pockets containing a range of skills - when you walk into school”.

This suggestion from the author of Coat of Many Pockets (2006), is part of a tool kit she has dedicated her professional life to sharing once she realised skills gained providing parent education in child welfare were invaluable to her work as a teacher of students from kindergarten to Year 12 and in tertiary settings. She says the behaviour management skills she supports teachers in developing are often left to chance, yet can make all the difference in a classroom setting.

“All this requires training,” Jenny says. “In teacher training programs practical behaviour management is generally not part of the core and tends to be an optional extra, often based in research learning – an important aspect of their training, but the key to effective classroom management lies in learning how to practically manage student behaviour, and this requires experience and application.

“Universities tend to rely on the practicum experience for this but if not equipped with knowledge and skills and being greatly dependent upon the abilities of given teacher mentors in the schools where they are placed, this can be a variable experience for a preservice teacher.”

Jenny says a sound knowledge of research in the area of student behaviour provides an understanding of “why young people behave in the way they do”, which is best combined with the “practical interactive skills to respond in a manner which maintains dignity on both sides” while teaching.

“What we really need is to have the strategies on hand before a situation arises that will enable students to manage themselves, their behaviour and relationships – this leads to being able to manage their learning.

“When students gain a sense of confidence and their self-talk says ‘I can cope’ it makes a big impact on their ability to learn and in our ability to engage them in the lesson.

“We are not taught to plan for behaviour alongside our lesson planning for all students, yet all of us work with this hidden curriculum.

We’re trained in ‘what’ we are teaching but not in ‘who’.”

If Jenny was entering Johnny’s classroom, she might say: “Boys, I heard you did well in the cricket and Elizabeth, you’re looking well today. Are you sleeping better?”

She says the most ineffectual approach would involve walking in and starting by telling them off.

“If you enter a classroom and tell them what they are doing wrong you are subconsciously teaching them to misbehave as a way to feed their desire to have the acknowledgement of their teachers,” Jenny says.

For Johnny, who struggles with the subject matter, Jenny says her response might depend on whether he had learning

difficulties, autism spectrum disorder or ADHD. “In instances like these we need a wider knowledge of their abilities. I work with interactive skills but students with autism don’t pick up on social cues so additional support is needed.”

But whoever the student or circumstance, Jenny says the principle remains the same.

“I decode and tune in to who I am going to teach and all the time I am carrying a positive expectation for their behaviour. If we don’t do that we are undermining our work.

“The students don’t have to like what happens - for instance where they need to deal with consequences of their actions – but they do need to learn. Good teachers know how to build relationships and this is about managing those relationships and situations to maintain the flow of teaching and learning.”

When students really go outside of the boundaries, Jenny says they need to earn their way back in.

“They need to put right what they’ve put wrong. They need to work proactively and restoratively when they go too far.

“We need to enable the student, as quickly as possible and with minimal intrusion, to put the situation right while maintaining their sense of self-esteem.”

In every situation students and teachers must maintain their dignity because “this is the basis for respect and relationships”, Jenny says.

Jenny’s management techniques are founded on the following principles: behaviour, whether good or negative, is always a message that teachers need to decode; teachers need to make a connection to their students in order to engage them in their learning; and when expectations and boundaries are established, we can govern what happens next by affirming those ‘doing it right.

This enables those who get it wrong to learn how to ‘put it right’ and when they go too far, follows through consequentially so all students learn what is and is not acceptable.

“We need to respond in a way that is encouraging and empowering, and to understand the importance of our own response to their behaviour and how it impacts on them,” Jenny says.

“We have a tendency these days to rescue young people instead of giving them the ability to do it for themselves and learn these for life. When we enable students to manage themselves, their behaviour, relationships with learning no matter what they are faced with they get the message: ‘You are responsible for you’.”

To find out more about Jenny Mackay’s consultancy, Behaviour Management in Education, or her book ‘Coat of Many Pockets: Managing classroom interactions’ visit http://www.behaviour.com.au/

independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|11

Feature

Rising to the challenge

Four Rooms of Change The Four Rooms of Change is a psychological theory that helps people to understand and take responsibility for their emotions and behaviours, Michael Barrett, Four Rooms Project Officer, Teacher Learning Network, writes.

Every child deserves the opportunity to learn what benefits can come from positive change, real empathy and a deeper understanding of those around them.

At its simplest level the theory says that there are four frames of mind that we all experience in our day-to-day lives in response to our physical and emotional environment.

The theory deals with change, development and learning, and is designed to help us understand how we experience the world and helps us to understand the experience of others. The theory works with adults and students in the classroom.

Mackillop Catholic Regional College, Werribee was one of six Victorian schools that took part in a pilot project of The Four Rooms of Change in 2011, applying the program to two Year 7 classes. Initial success with the program means that is now being applied across all Year 7 and 9 classes.

The program has many dimensions, but for a school there are two main functions: • to build staff cohesion through the use of a common language and understanding about how people operate, particularly in the face of change, and • to build social and emotional intelligence among children and thereby reduce anti social behaviours (bullying) and increase empathy and group efficacy.

The four frames of mind are referred to, as: • Contentment • Inspiration • Self-censorship/Denial • Conflict Participants populate each of the rooms with descriptions of emotions and feelings.

These words, it should be stressed, are not set but are created by the participants to become a common language of the group.

They are encouraged to share their own individual experiences and the common language allows greater understanding of the experience of the whole group.

When you consider the varied levels of facility with language and social confidence in any group of students, the importance of giving a sense of ownership, not to mention understanding, of the program is clear.

12|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

It is one of the powerful yet quite simple aspects of the application of The Four Rooms of Change.

According to one Year 7 teacher: “The quietest member of the class loved The Four Rooms of Change as it gave him a chance to express himself without using words. He was not forced to enter into discussions as to how he was feeling, the class ‘just knew’”.

In the classroom simple materials both create the Four Rooms as a physical thing the students can interact with (in the form of a white board showing The Four Rooms, with personalised magnets representing each student and their teacher) they also imbue the Rooms with descriptive language all can understand (through drawn faces representing four frames of mind to which students apply descriptors).

Another teacher says: “The Four Rooms of Change enabled each child to have a voice, everyday, in the classroom without having to actually ‘speak up’. By placing themselves in a particular Room, they were ‘talking’ to their classmates and their teacher(s).”

The simplicity of the Four Rooms concept along with its design that gives teachers the flexibility to adapt the program for their own unique context is what seems to have made this program so effective.

The program, while still new to Australia is growing rapidly under the auspices of the Teacher Learning Network, the professional development organisation owned by IEUVicTas and the AEU Victoria Branch. Almost 20 schools in Victoria are now working with the program in one form or another and the first teacher training program commences in NSW in November 2012.

Last word goes to the Director of Student Wellbeing at Mackillop Catholic Regional College: “Every child deserves the opportunity to learn what benefits can come from positive change, real empathy and a deeper understanding of those around them”.

More information is available from www.fourroomsofchangeinschools.com or admin@tln.org.au.

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Rising to the challenge

Understanding and teaching students with mood disorders A curriculum resource to support the teaching of mental health in Stage Five PDHPE is available from the Black Dog Institute and Inspire Foundation.

According to the Reach Out Teachers Network (ROTN) website, the resource is based around a series of presentations to illustrate the “nature, symptoms and management of mood disorder, their impacts for young people and strategies to build resilience”.

Comprehensive background information for teachers explores what a mood disorder is, looking at depressions, grief, anxiety and bipolar disorder. As well as helping teachers develop their knowledge, the resource includes practical strategies on how to create a supportive learning environment, manage classroom discussions on sensitive topics and ways to support a student who may be experiencing mental health difficulties.

In creating a supportive classroom environment, the ROTN recommends: • collaborating with students to develop a group agreement that sets the parameters for class discussions • reflecting on their own role in discussions acting as a facilitator of the conversation to help to generate many viewpoints

• valuing all student contributions and making this known • using a range of questioning techniques which open up discussion rather than trying to get to a quick right answer • recognising that some students may not feel comfortable sharing • exploring ways of dealing with this such as using think, pair, share activities, and • exploring ways to ensure that all students get an opportunity to speak, such as using talk tickets.

The resource provides a list of signs and symptoms to look out for, useful addresses and information about the importance of de-stigmatising mental illness in school communities and why it is necessary to teach young people about mood disorders.

The teaching resource itself includes modules on helping yourself, making a difference, helping others and the lowdown on mood disorders. There’s also a mood tracker journal for students and an action plan template.

Find out more at http://teachers. reachoutpro.com.au/teaching-resources

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Feature

Rising to the challenge

Gifted with dyslexia

I know how it feels to struggle to learn.

Keeping their self-esteem intact is of utmost importance to me.

Growing up, Brett Comerford had difficulties at school. In those days teachers were not prepared to deal with students with challenging behaviours or learning difficulties; Brett’s teachers thought he was lazy and as soon as he was offered a chance to leave school he took it. However, it wasn’t until he decided to go to university and study education in his 30s that he was diagnosed with dyslexia. IE Journalist Fiona Stutz discovers how the primary school teacher overcame this challenge and how he now helps his students who have learning difficulties.

At 37 years old Brett was diagnosed as dyslexic during his first year of studying a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) degree at Central Queensland University in Mackay. Seeking the help of the university counsellor after having difficulty studying and enduring numerous headaches, Brett felt like dropping out of university.

However, with the counsellor’s help, Brett was finally diagnosed and given the support needed to cope.

“I was unaware of what the uni could actually offer me by way of increasing the size of my text books, having them photocopied onto blue paper, giving breaks during exam time etc. The diagnosis opened up a new world as it showed me that I could learn,” Brett says.

Brett was not always so keen to learn. In his younger years, school was torture as he faced difficulty in reading, writing, spelling and maths. Often he would daydream, get in to trouble because he could not do the work and be sent to the office on a daily basis to get the cane. Brett admits he felt different to other kids and thought getting into trouble each day was normal.

“My teachers would often say that I was ‘dumb, stupid, lazy, good for nothing, no hoper.’

I got no extra help at school, just more caning.”

As he was failing high school, the school’s deputy principal helped him secure a job as a cadet purchasing officer at a local sugar mill.

However, working out of his comfort zone and trying to cover up his shortcomings was difficult.

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Moving to another job doing similar work and using a computerised system helped, but there was no job satisfaction. It wasn’t until he was retrenched that he decided to go to university to study teaching. Brett graduated in 2002 and was immediately employed as a teacher. In 2011 he graduated with a second degree in Special Education with the desire to help as many students as he could.

“Dyslexia never leaves you; it is with you for life. I use lots of strategies to compensate on a daily basis. I often talk to my students about my childhood and dyslexia. Wearing coloured lenses in my glasses invites questions from students. So I get the opportunity to explain about scotopic sensitivity syndrome and how the coloured lenses help me cope. Each year I get my students to Google dyslexia so that they have an understanding of my challenge.”

Being a primary school teacher Brett is faced with children who have learning difficulties and feels a special affinity with them. “I know how it feels to struggle to learn.

Keeping their self-esteem intact is of utmost importance to me.

“Living with dyslexia and being a school teacher has driven me to make changes for students who have dyslexia. What failed me at school makes me more determined not to let that happen for students in my care. I now feel that my dyslexia is not a disability but a gift instead of being frustrated I feel liberated.”

For further information on dyslexia contact the Australian Dyslexia Association www.dyslexiaassociation.org.au.

Teaching and learning

Security breach Entering the workforce for the first time can inspire a tremendous sense of freedom but, for those seeking security, the outlook is sobering.

IE Journalist Tara de Boehmler reports on the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ Secure Jobs Better Future Campaign.

The lack of income security that this work offers can have severe impacts on workers’ living standards and financial independence.

With ABS data showing that more than 30% of casual employees would prefer ongoing work, and with many health, relationship and financial issues associated with insecure arrangements, union members throughout Australia are supporting the campaign for a better deal.

According to the ACTU-commissioned Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work, almost a quarter of Australian employees are engaged in casual work and a further nine per cent are on independent contracts.

Insecure work is most apparent within, but not limited to, unskilled, untrained workforces. It’s an across the board trend with concentrated numbers in the following industries: • health care and social assistance • retail • construction • manufacturing • education and training, and • public administration and safety Younger workers and women are most likely to find themselves in casual employment.

While casual work can mean ongoing financial uncertainty for those relying on irregular shifts, the situation is little better for the 30% or more of casuals who work full-time hours.

According to the Inquiry report, Lives On Hold: Unlocking the Potential, those casuals who work full-time hours “have none of the basic entitlements associated with ongoing employment”, including paid sick leave, carers’, annual and long-service leave”.

In addition, these workers have reduced ability to access similar training and career opportunities to their permanent counterparts. They can also struggle to find accommodation, whether rented or owned.

“The lack of income security that this work offers can have severe impacts on workers’ living standards and financial independence.

Throughout the inquiry we heard of countless

stories of individual workers who were unable to secure a home loan or a car loan because of their lack of job security. When they were able to secure a loan, it was often from a second tier lender, meaning they faced higher rates of interest.

The report says that with insecure work arrangements enabling employers to minimise costs and shift risks to their employees, “for many, life in insecure work is not a temporary situation – there is no pathway into a secure, permanent job”.

While some employers say insecure work is necessary to keep up in a globalised, competitive marketplace, the ACTU report disagrees, stating: “There is no reason why Australia should accept that a modern economy must also drive insecurity at work”.

It says labour laws must be reformed to provide greater protections for all workers and to meet the challenges of labour and skill shortages, including: • universality in labour law • reforms to better capture indirect employment relationships • a firmer definition of casual work • expanded minimum employment standards to create a set of inclusive minimum standards that protect all employees • stronger powers for Fair Work Australia to determine where joint employment relationships exist and to grant secure employment orders • a licensing scheme for the labour hire industry • a mechanism to enable casual employees to accumulate entitlements like leave over time, and • more resources invested in enforcing the Fair Work Act. To find out more and to support the Secure Jobs Better Future Campaign visit www.securejobs.org.au. independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|15

Meeting the needs of students with disabilities

It’s time to bridge the gap with more than words This year has seen an unprecedented flurry of reviews, reports and discussion papers on meeting the needs of students with disabilities, IEUVicTas Education and Policy Officer Cathy Hickey writes. This is certainly a timely and welcome focus.

Importantly, the recent review of funding, known as the Gonski Review, has made some important recommendations in respect to improving funding for disadvantaged students, including students with disabilities.

The Independent Education Union has recently adopted a comprehensive policy on the Quality of Education for Students with Disabilities and Special Needs (www.ieu.org.au).

This policy highlights the need for adequate funding to schools to be able to provide the appropriate level of educational support, not only for students who fall within the Commonwealth’s limited definition of disability, but also for those students with a broader range of physical, intellectual, emotional, behavioural and/or learning needs who require additional services and support to ensure they can access appropriate quality educational opportunities.

What does the Gonski Review deliver?

One of the important recommendations of the Gonski Report is that the additional costs of educating students with a disability should be included as a loading to be paid as an additional percentage above the basic school resource standard. This is strongly supported by the IEUA. The adoption of such a loading could end the existing disparity between the greater funding provided for such students in the public sector and those in non-government schools. Gonski also recommended that work begin immediately on collecting nationally consistent data on students with a disability to ensure any such loading is correctly calculated. It is important that this work is a priority area for the government.

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Changing the legal requirement In August this year, the report of the Review of the Disability Standards for Education was released. This was the first five-year review of the standards. While the report found that the standards provide a good framework, it recommended further work be done to improve the effectiveness of the standards in practice.

The response of the federal and state governments has been to agree to undertake work essentially around awareness-raising.

They’re ensuring that best practice guides on meeting the obligations are developed and made available and investigating options for improving compliance and reporting. The Federal Government proposes to also work with the non-government sector to improve implementation of the standards.

However, inadequate funding is still a major impediment. The IEU’s submission to the Review highlighted the significant impediment to the effective implementation of the standards caused by underfunding.

Simply raising awareness, focusing on training on how to implement the requirements of the standards, and strengthening compliance, will not enable schools to effectively meet the requirements. The IEU strongly contends that without consistent and adequate funding mechanisms, it will be difficult for schools to achieve the standards regardless of improved clarity and guidance notes.

The requirements on education systems and schools in relation to students with disabilities

Teaching and learning

is spelled out in The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and The Disability Standards for Education 2005.

The Act seeks to eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination against people with disability, including in the education of students with a disability. It is unlawful for an education authority to discriminate against a person on the ground of the person’s disability. The standards clarify and elaborate the legal obligations for education. It is unlawful for a person to contravene a disability standard.

The standards specify how education and training are to be made accessible to students with disabilities. The standards cover the following areas: • enrolment • participation • curriculum development, accreditation and delivery • student support services, and • elimination or harassment and victimisation.

All education providers, under the standards, are required to make, where needed, adjustments to ensure students with disability participate on the same basis as students without disability in the school’s learning program or courses, and to use or access the school’s facilities and services.

More accurate identification In April this year, The Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCEEC), comprised of education ministers from across Australia, agreed to a trial of a model to collect nationally consistent data on students with disability and the level of ‘reasonable adjustment’ (according to the Disability Standards for Education 2005) that they are being provided with to assist their equitable participation in school education.

It is proposed that the data collected in the trial will then inform policy and future planning to better equip schools and education authorities to support these students and education authorities to support those students with disability who have additional learning needs.

As part of the trial the following information will be collected: • the number of students receiving ‘reasonable adjustments’ to participate in education • the level of ‘reasonable adjustments’ made demographic information including student age, gender and school year group, and • where known, the student’s type of disability – physical, cognitive, sensory, and /or social emotional.

Improved Curriculum A common issue continually raised over the last couple of years in the consultations

on the development and implementation of the Australian Curriculum has been the concern that it enables schools to provide an appropriate quality learning program for students with disabilities and other special needs, including enabling the identification and valuing of the learning outcomes of all students.

Teachers and principals have been concerned also that the associated assessment and reporting processes enable diagnostically useful and positive feedback on all students’ learning outcomes, and do not directly or indirectly discriminate against these groups of students.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is responsible for the development of the Australian Curriculum and has understood the need to ensure that all students are able to meaningfully access the curriculum.

ACARA’s intention is to design an inclusive curriculum where students with disability, including those with significant intellectual disabilities, use the same curriculum. They say that in the new model, teachers locate their student’s current level of knowledge, understanding and skills and make adjustments to their teaching and assessment based upon individual learning needs.

The adjustments are to be informed by the Australian Curriculum content along the learning area F-10 sequence, general capabilities learning continua and/or cross curriculum priorities. ACARA has developed content descriptions, content elaborations and achievement standards for students who are progressing to the Foundation achievement standard in the learning areas of English and Mathematics.

ACARA has this year published a number of specific papers, including Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting in Special Educational Needs and Disability: A Thematic Overview of Recent Literature (January 2012), and Students with Disability: Progressing to Foundation Consultation Report (January 2012).

In reality this whole area is extremely complex and challenging. There is significant tension, for example, in achieving age specific curriculum and the requirements in respect to specificity of the content in the curriculum.

There has been general agreement that ACARA needs to do much more work on assessment, due to the challenges with A to E reporting. The states and territories are still responsible for the assessment and reporting aspects, and interestingly, a number of states already have in use assessment and reporting frameworks which are usefully in identifying and assessing learning outcomes for students with learning challenges.

Victoria’s Working Towards Level 1 framework is well supported by schools, and it has been agreed that this will be integrated into Victoria’s implementation of the Australian Curriculum. independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|17

Teaching and learning

The most common thing the students said was that they could see the relevance of what they were doing. People were listening to them for a change.

Hip hop for justice When Keith Heggart decided to introduce hip hop to his students, his biggest challenge was convincing their parents it wasn’t all about drugs, violence and misogyny, writes IE Journalist Sue Osborne.

IEU Rep and Online Learning Coordinator at McCarthy Catholic College, Emu Plains, in western Sydney, Keith’s hip hop journey started when he met Akesha Horton at the University of Technology in Sydney, where both are postgraduate students.

Akesha is in Australia on a Fulbright-mtvU scholarship. Fulbright-mtvU scholarships are awarded to US students who pursue projects on international contemporary or popular music as a cultural force for expression.

The Michigan State University doctoral student in the Department of Teacher Education has been teaching urban youth about issues of global and digital citizenship through a focus on hip hop for three years.

Akesha and Keith decided to join forces and see if hip hop could help McCarthy Catholic College students learn more about social justice.

“We asked teachers to nominate kids who they thought didn’t have much of a voice in the school community,” Keith says.

A group of 17 boys and three girls were selected. Some were of Zimbabwean, Pacific Islander or Indigenous descent. Others were simply students who were disengaged or disaffected.

“We explored hip hop and the way it could be used for social justice and empowerment.

We took the kids out of class to the Aengus Kavanagh Education and Equity Centre at Mt Druitt, which has a recording studio.

“They recorded songs about things that mattered to them, like bullying, school uniform

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and homelessness.”

The students were able to perform their songs at assembly.

“The most common thing the students said was that they could see the relevance of what they were doing. People were listening to them for a change, they had a voice.

Keith says the work included using YouTube, Google Maps to identify where artists came from, and Google Translate to listen to rap songs from the Czech Republic.

“They became more engaged global citizens and it empowered those students, because they became self-identified ITC experts in the classroom.”

Keith and Akesha did a ‘Google hangout’ on their hip hop for social justice program, and they were invited to go to Paris to present on it at a Crossroads Conference held at the Sorbonne University in July.

“It was incredible to go the Sorbonne and find out that people in France, Brazil and Africa were doing the same thing with hip hop music.

“It was strange that a few months before I’d been convincing parents it was okay to do hip hop, and now we were talking about it at a conference for 1400 delegates from around the world.”

Keith says all 20 students who took part in the project want to do it again, with at least as many new students wanting to get involved. Keith plans to repeat the project next year.

Teaching and learning

We do want our students to understand the joy of giving and making connections with people who, through whatever misfortune has come their way, have found themselves unable to care for themselves or their families.

Grammar program gives you wings Grammar Angels are dedicated to doing good. IE Journalist Fiona Stutz looks at how this inspiring group are benefitting their school and wider community.

Inspired by a Pastoral Care conference about the benefits of students doing community service, Ipswich Girls Grammar School, Brisbane, Dean of Students Jayne Acutt came up with the idea of ‘Grammar Angels’.

Jayne says the school began to look at using positive psychology in Life Skills programs, with the notion of giving or service underpinning everything.

The first action was with a group of Year 12 students who became involved with an organisation called Footprints in the Park, a Ministry run by Pastors Ron and Narelle Lambert in the Ipswich community The Ministry holds barbecues in parks each night of the week to support the homeless and disadvantaged.

“I would take a group of Year 12 students each fortnight on a Wednesday night. Staff donated the food and the girls cooked and served it. The girls have created some lovely relationships with the regulars. There are some staunch staff members who attend each time to support the girls in this endeavour,” Jayne says.

Year 7 students work for the RSPCA and the Animal Welfare League. Students in Year 8 collect canned food and donate these on a five weekly basis to Ipswich Foodbarn.

Year 8s also take part in a Shanty Town for World Vision, where they sleep out at school in cardboard boxes and pay for the privilege, then purchase items from the World Vision Gift register for villages in developing countries.

Year 9 Grammar Angels read to the junior and prep students, as well as participating in an eco-project where they have planted and cared for trees at a local park, in conjunction with Ipswich Council.

Year 10 students have completed a Clean up the Ipswich Mall project, again in conjunction with the Council.

Year 11 Grammar Angels work closely with Ipswich Hospice, and support their fundraising events, such as their Mothers’ Day Garden Party, Art Auction and their annual doorknock.

Jayne says she is proud girls of all ages have shown such a connection to their community and are eager to help wherever they can.

“We do want our students to understand the joy of giving and the great satisfaction that can be gained by not only providing money to help organisations, and we do a lot of this, but that giving is about putting yourself out, providing your time, making connections with people who, through whatever misfortune has come their way, have found themselves unable to care for themselves or their families.” independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|19

Sharing &

comparing Science by Doing

Transforming school science departments into effective learning communities is key to boosting results in the secondary years and encouraging senior students to stick with the subject, the Australian Academy of Science’s Professor Denis Goodrum tells IE Journalist Tara de Boehmler.

The Science by Doing collection of resources goes about this transformative task by targeting the head of each school’s science department, showing them how to get their teams working as professional learning communities, and by providing practical work units to bring the curriculum to life for students.

Project Director Professor Goodrum says Science by Doing ties itself to the new curriculum’s “grab at the contemporary basis of science”, with timely units like ‘Enough water fit for drinking’ that combine interactive CD Roms, current media debate, classroom discussion, analysis and experimentation.

While enabling individual teachers to adapt the units in their classrooms, the Science by Doing approach also provides an opportunity for all members of a school’s science department to come together and focus on the question “how can we improve our practice to improve outcomes for students”, Professor Goodrum says.

He says the professional learning model acknowledges teachers as the key to improving student interest and learning, and an inquiry-based approach for maximising

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student engagement. The structure and approach of Science By Doing is backed by several key reviews and reports on science education, most of which Denis has played a key role in.

“In the mid 1990s the focus was on lower secondary and we were asked by the government to do a review, looking at the status and quality of teaching and learning of science in Australian schools.

“We felt the compulsory years of science education were really important yet it was a hard nut to crack for a variety of reasons.”

A couple of reports and a pilot project later, Denis was asked in 2008 to take on Stage 1 of Science By Doing.

“Our philosophy is that to bring about educational change we must involve teachers working together in teams, as professional learning communities.

“As many secondary school teachers work in isolation, developing a collaborative approach requires leadership. It also needs support in the form of professional learning resources and curriculum resources, plus the support of schools and systems.”

Teaching and learning

Our philosophy is that to bring about educational change we must involve teachers working together in teams, as professional learning communities.

As many secondary school teachers work in isolation, developing a collaborative approach requires leadership.

Independent analysis of science teams suggests that all teachers stand to improve as a result of a collaborative approach, Denis says.

“The focus of these teams must always be on students, and this can mean reflecting on their own practice, providing feedback for colleagues or even going into each other’s classes.

“For many, what they find most important are the curriculum resources, particularly those with a strong inquiry base, that get students asking questions and solving problems.”

One such exercise in the Science By Doing unit ‘Enough water fit for drinking’ gets students conducting a simple experiment to find out how many drops of water can be placed on a single coin. The process reveals that water has a skin and that by increasing the skin more drops will fit.

The unit builds on this understanding of surface tension by showing how detergents and heat impact to improve water’s ability to clean.

Further into the unit, students look at how science can help people make evidencebased decisions, when they examine the issues around using recycled water for irrigation, industrial and drinking uses. Students explore how the controversy is portrayed in a media article, and how the coverage might influence public opinion; they identify questions for further inquiry; present a claim, explaining how the evidence supports and justifies the claim; and they reflect on the effectiveness of their argument.

Feedback from a pilot of 28 schools from every jurisdiction and system revealed a hunger for more resources like these. It also prompted the Science By Doing team to develop additional leadership tools, including a guide to establishing a professional learning community.

Once the curriculum is finalised, workshops for

heads of science are also in the pipeline.

Denis says the approach is applicable to many subject areas, not just science. But he sees this field as a priority in an environment where “affluence can be our own worst enemy, particularly when we perceive science as being too hard or uninteresting”.

“All students want to learn and every teacher wants to help their students learn,” Denis says. “My hope is that once students experience this in their compulsory years of science, they will be more likely to do it in Years 11 and 12. And my aim is for all of us to be scientifically literate in our thinking.

“In this way when we are making choices we will look at the evidence for basing decisions on and for understanding the consequences – even to the food we eat, the transport we use, or lifestyle issues like smoking or exercise.”

Denis can see plenty of reasons why developing an ability to make evidencebased decisions needs to be a priority, regardless of whether students aspire to choosing a scientific field as a career. Not the least of these is the debate around climate change and what constitutes an appropriate response.

“Here we are debating climate change within a pretty uninformed community. There has been a lot of quite irrational discussion but thankfully the real information is coming out.”

For best use, scientific literacy is combined with the ethical dimension to science, which Denis lists as: open-mindedness, the importance of evidence, a refusal to distort findings and peer review.

All of this is included in the Science By Doing resources, in a way that enables students to arrive at their own conclusions.

“It’s about not imposing your own values but allowing students to clarify their values based on evidence.” independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|21

Treating nature deficit disorder Have you encountered students who have trouble balancing on rocky ground, or are scared to walk on grass?

IE Journalist Sue Osborne learns it’s not uncommon.

Teachers at the NSW National Parks Nature Education Symposium, held recently at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, shared such anecdotes.

Symposium keynote US author Richard Louv said it is increasingly common for teachers to encounter children who have had little or no experience of nature.

He has written a book called The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature Deficit Disorder (Algonquin Books, 2011), in which he offers a vision of the future where children are as immersed in nature as they are in technology.

Richard says countless studies have shown the benefits of nature exposure to children’s learning.

“I understand teachers are overwhelmed with curriculum, but if you can’t take children out to nature, then bring nature into the school,” Richard says.

Vegetable patches, a creature in the classroom, plants in the schoolyard that attract birds or butterflies, can all provide incidental nature experiences and learning for children.

“Canadian studies have shown that teachers who work in this environment are less likely to burn out too.”

If there’s no time to study nature specifically, he says to weave it into other parts of the curriculum. Richard recommends www.childrenandnature.org for ideas.

Associate Professor, Pedagogy and Learning in Social Ecology at the University Of Western Sydney, Tonia Gray, has been a long-time advocate of nature education.

“In 2011 a shape paper appeared for the Australian Curriculum that had zero mentions of outdoor education in it,” Tonia told the Conference.

“The child in nature is an endangered species, yet a survey of 46,000 adolescents

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by Mission Australia found they felt the environment was the most important issue in Australia.

“The curriculum should include some activities that allow children to become risk technicians, experiencing some risk outside so they can manage it better later in life.”

Tonia says outdoor activity improves: • motor skills • creativity • depression • a sense of place, and • stewardship of the land.

The finalised version of the Australian Curriculum contains 14 references to outdoor education, thanks to strong lobbying by Tonia and others.

IEU member and St Michael’s Primary School Nowra Teacher Amanda Lloyd believes outdoor education plays a vital role in her students’ learning, especially those with a learning disability, and has helped forge strong links with Aboriginal culture.

“At first, when we would take them to the national park they would be saying ‘oh, my gosh, I can’t touch this’.

“We let the kids go and play on rocks and logs and Indigenous elders told them stories about nature and we etched it all together.

“For some boys with autism, Tourette syndrome and receptive language issues, two hour blocks of nature helped them develop socially. One boy had huge gains in his oral language.”

National Parks have produced a new educational resource designed to encourage children to experience nature. See www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/ wilderquest.htm

Teaching and learning

The child in nature is an endangered species, yet a survey of 46,000 adolescents found they felt the environment was the most important issue in Australia.

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Professional LEARNINGCommunities

latest When voters in California’s Redwood City passed Measure W this year, they agreed to pay an additional $67 annual school tax to attract and retain quality teachers, through initiatives like school-based professional development programs known as Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) obviously an enlightened community ‘in the know’ about teacher development, NSW/ACT IEU Organiser Sandra White writes.

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real deal?

In education circles, the use of ‘learning community’ to describe a school is commonplace, however the term Professional Learning Communities has a more specific meaning. It relates to teachers and leaders in a school-based setting continuously sharing professional experiences in a structured way, and then acting on what they learn.

The goal is to enhance their effectiveness as professionals to benefit student learning.

PLCs are seen as a powerful staff development approach and a potent strategy for school change and improvement.

Of course, the basics of PLCs are not new – teachers have been sharing ideas and resources forever. What is different though, is an organised and structured approach to such professional collegiality.

Research points to two sets of conditions that facilitate and support effective PLCs: physical conditions such as time, space and

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funding, and human conditions, including a culture of trust and supportive leadership.

During the eighties, Rosenholtz (1989) noted the importance of teachers’ workplace factors in the discussion of teaching quality. He maintained that teachers who felt supported in their personal ongoing learning and classroom practice were more committed and effective than those who did not receive such confirmation.

Support via teacher networks, cooperation among colleagues, and expanded professional roles was found to increase teacher capacity in meeting students’ needs.

Further, Rosenholtz found that teachers with a high sense of their own capability were more likely to adopt new classroom behaviours and also more likely to stay in the profession.

Work by McLaughlin and Talbert (1993) confirmed that when teachers had opportunities for collaborative inquiry they

Leadership

At the core of any successful PLC is trust and openness, along with a strong shared vision.

were able to develop and share knowledge gained from their learnings to benefit practice.

Darling-Hammond (1996) cited shared decision-making as a factor in curriculum reform and the transformation of teaching roles in schools. She found benefits where structured time is provided for teachers to work together to plan instruction, observe classroom interactions and share feedback.

Fullan (2006) uses the terms structural conditions and social and human resources.

These structural conditions include making time to meet and talk, interdependent teaching roles, physical proximity and effective communication structures. He emphasises the importance of a culture of openness, trust and respect as an essential social and human resource, along with a cognitive skill base and supportive leadership.

Theory is great, but will it succeed in practice?

There are a number of essential physical and people factors necessary to sustain successful PLCs: • the availability of resources, especially time to meet and talk. Time, or more accurately the lack of it, is arguably the toughest problem faced by schools • leadership from those in key roles supportive and inclusive, and by example schedules and structures that reduce teacher isolation • policies that encourage greater teacher autonomy, collaboration, effective communication, teacher empowerment • equity of access to staff development teacher training for giving effective and supportive feedback • respect and trust between all levels of staff, and • parental/carer and community understanding and support for teacher development.

These factors underpin the operation of the PLC. Teachers experience in the Northern Territory Australian Government Quality Teaching Program (NTAGQTP), identified “supportive leadership” as essential to sustaining PLCs. “The success of PLCs hinge on leadership – without it, opportunities to discuss student work and reflect on classroom practice fail to happen. PLCs are too important to be left to chance” (Danielle Little, NT Christian Schools Association).

Others involved in the NTAGQTP linked leadership with the provision of structural conditions, such as providing time for the PLC to meet and talk (at Centralian College) while the Central Australian Special Education program recognised that by providing time within the school day, leaders were acknowledging that they valued their special education staff.

Many NT groups also saw the funding provided by the Australian Government as an

important structural condition, giving the PLC initiative legitimacy, authority and credibility.

Teachers saw the NTAGQTP activity as a “funded, supported program that would give them a voice”(Kormilda College).

What if there is no funding?

It could be said that if there is no funding, PLCs will not work. In general, initiatives that are not supported will not be sustainable.

However, there are some alternative ways to provide time for teachers to engage in PLCs without increasing workload and risking teacher alienation.

One approach is for the school to schedule a late start/early release to a particular school day. Another alternative is to scrap part of the scheduled general staff meeting time, or drop one whole meeting in a cycle, and devote that time to PLCs. These approaches are gaining in popularity – for example in South Africa’s Western Cape Education Department, in many school authorities across USA, including California’s Pleasant Ridge School District, and at St Paul’s College, Kempsey, NSW. This solution costs less, and allows teachers to be released simultaneously across all faculties.

Both, or a mix of these alternatives will require some administrative adjustments, and certainly the late start/early release options will need community education and support.

Bringing about change in the community’s perspective and attitude towards teachers’ professional development – that is the understanding, valuing and support of teacher PD opportunities – will require focused and concerted effort. Some action has already started in Australia, including agreement across states and territories for a standard requirement of 100 teacher PD hours over five year periods, and the recent release of the Australian Charter for the Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders: A shared responsibility and commitment, which is based on research that indicates the most effective professional learning is relevant, future focused and collaborative.

The Charter describes to the community what high-quality professional learning looks like and why it should be valued.

Simply, sustainable change is more likely to be the result when teachers and school leaders are operating in a culture of trust where learning is encouraged, and where it is well resourced, based on research, available and matched to need.

independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|25

Principal’s view

Paul O’Heir, Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School, Kurri Kurri, NSW PLCs provide teachers with the support and direction that is necessary in today’s challenging world of education. All teachers, regardless of experience, need the benefits of systematic and comprehensive PD. Successful PD needs to be purposeful, serving the local needs of participants. All too often in the past PD has been passive and has not addressed local needs.

Leadership is instrumental in any PLC. It is paramount that school leaders be effective instructional leaders and that this leadership needs to be characterised by a genuine attempt to address pedagogy through relevant professional development.

At the core of any successful PLC is trust and openness, along with a strong shared vision. They are also recognised by a shared responsibility for student learning and as a context in which teachers reflect on their practice. This is why The Quality Teaching (QT) Framework (Professor Jenny Gore/University of Newcastle) is an ideal professional development tool to use in PLCs. The QT Framework provides a common language and makes substantial teacher professional learning achievable. It is respectful of teacher knowledge, creates positive interaction, stimulates dialogue and builds teacher capacity.

A recent development to the framework is known as QT rounds - an approach that enhances PLCs by assisting teachers to reach evidenced-informed agreement about their inquiries (Bowe and Gore, 2012). This process provides time for sustained teacher engagement, collaboration with colleagues, reflection on practice, and a coherent framework.

The QT Framework enhances the work of PLCs to create an effective and efficient approach to school professional development.

References

Teacher’s view

Mary Murtagh, St Paul’s College, Kempsey, NSW In many ways there is nothing so different about PLCs and the ethos of collaborative teaching and resource sharing, which has always been the practice at St Paul’s. What the PLCs do provide is a more structured time in which to reflect, plan meaningful assessment tasks, access useful resources, especially ITC and organise the usual administration of KLA. PLCs have worked for us because they have been introduced without additional time demands on staff. General staff meetings are now limited to two a term and the PLC meetings run every alternate Tuesday morning from 8.30-9.15 and are KLA based.

Building Professional Learning Communities in the NT www.det.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/ pdf_file/0015/4218/part1_research.pdf (accessed 22/8/12) Darling-Hammond L 1996, March The quiet revolution: Rethinking teacher development.

Educational Leadership, 53(6), 4-10.

Fullan 2006 November, Change Theory: A force for School Improvement. Centre for Strategic Education, Victoria. Seminar series Paper No 157.

McLaughlin MW & Talbert JE 1993, Contexts 26|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

PLCs have worked for us because they have been introduced without additional time demands on staff.

that matter for teaching and learning. Stanford, California: Center for Research on the Context of Secondary School Teaching, Stanford University.

Rosenholtz S 1989, Teacher’s workplace: The Social Organization of schools. New York: Longman.

Professional Learning Communities: What Are They And Why Are They Important? Issues About Change, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1997) www.sedl.org/ change/issues/issues61.html (accessed 22/8/12)

Diverse roles

Lighthouse in a storm It is overwhelming, especially when you are trying to deal with issues relating to your children, and you don’t speak the language.

Fadia Rizk has been providing a safe haven for more than 25 years. Originally employed as a bilingual assistant and home liaison officer at Holy Family Primary School in East Granville, Sydney, Fadia helps migrants adjust to a new school in a foreign land.

“When I first started here lots of parents and children were enrolling at the school who did not speak any English, so the school community applied to get an Arabic speaking assistant,” Fadia says.

Many of the migrants were arriving from the rural parts of Lebanon, and had little experience of education.

Fadia herself arrived in Australia with no English only five years before starting at Holy Family.

Apart from the language barriers, getting parents to accept school interventions was a big part of her role in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“We would assess the children for learning difficulties or hearing and vision impairments.

“If there was thought to be an issue, the children were sent to Parramatta clinic.

In those days it was located in the old Parramatta pschiatric hospital.

“It was a hurdle to overcome to get parents to accept their kids being sent there.”

Most Lebanese families enrolling in the school now can speak English, and Fadia’s role has more emphasis on home liaison.

She has changed from full-time to five days a fortnight, and her job title is now Lebanese Liaison Officer, although she assists Syrian families, and some Sudanese refugees as well, as they can understand Arabic.

She also relates to Vietnamese migrants, because she can understand what they have been through.

“It is overwhelming, especially when you are trying to deal with issues relating to your

children, and you don’t speak the language.”

In 2010 she launched a support group called St Anthony’s playground, which is now run by the Lebanese parents.

Fadia says even though most Lebanese’s families now speak English, young mums cans still be isolated at home and needing support.

She gives an example of a young family with five children who were never seen at school.

“Aunty was dropping the kids off, and we never saw mum or dad. Through my work, those parents are now playing a more active role in their children’s education.”

During visits with that family, Fadia noticed the two-year-old child was not walking, and she was able to organise intervention for that child long before she started school.

“I’m not a counsellor and families may not want a counsellor, they just want someone to talk to for five minutes to put them on the right tracks.

“If requested by the teacher or principal, I sit in on parent/teacher interviews and other meetings to help with the language.”

Fadia says she has gained most satisfaction from helping children who needed extra support who might have otherwise have missed out.

She is also involved in the cultural life of the school, assisting with Lebanese food at events and organising Lebanese dancing and drumming lessons.

“It’s great seeing families become so involved in their school’s day to day life.” independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|27

Kids Connect St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School, Camp Hill students from Years 5 to 7 are taking their digital capabilities to a new level by running an Information Communication Learning Technologies (ICLT) Conference for students and teachers in Queensland. IE Journalist Fiona Stutz investigates how this is allowing students to explore and teachers to think outside the box.

An essential component of education today, ICLT provides opportunities for students to be creative and reflective, develop problemsolving skills, interpret interactivity and enhance communication techniques. Not only does the advent of improved ICLT engage students, for teachers it also creates new learning and teaching possibilities, provides flexibility, supports communication and collaboration, extends the depth of learning, improves student participation and achievement and makes learning and teaching more effective.

Capitalising on many of these benefits, St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School has developed a two-day ICLT conference in Brisbane, Toowoomba and Rockhampton.

‘Kids Connect’ is run by the students for students. They are given the opportunity to work with teacher facilitators on a range of ICLT projects to gain experience using new technologies and develop skills which can then take back to their schools.

St Thomas Year 7 Teacher Jessica Torrisi says the conference, now in its third year, sees students plan and organise the event, from booking the venue, designing the logo, updating the website, contacting schools, obtaining sponsorship from local businesses and organising catering and equipment.

Students who attend the conference take part in project-based ICLT workshops with an expert facilitator covering digital photography, film making, animation and robotics.

“Kids Connect is a great opportunity for students to use ICLT in new and creative ways. It provides opportunities for authentic learning, with students engaging in higher order thinking and problem solving. There is also a focus on collaborative learning, with students working together within their breakout groups and then sharing their new ICLT knowledge with their classmates upon their return to school,” Jessica says.

When planning for the conference, students use a range of ICLT resources including email, spreadsheets and word processing, blogs, Bento, Trello and Twitter.

Each student also works in a sub-group or department who are then responsible for a different aspect of the event.

“As well as learning how to use a number of ICLT resources, students have further developed their literacy and numeracy skills. Higher order thinking, communication and collaboration skills are also developed throughout the project.”

28|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

Student tasks include: Literacy • writing and sending emails to schools, businesses and media contacts • writing a media release • updating information on the website • designing the logo with help from a graphic designer • designing banners, posters, flyers, certificates and name badges, and • planning, filming and editing an advertisement.

Numeracy • using spreadsheets and formulas to calculate the cost of catering, including cost per student • using spreadsheets and formulas to keep track of the budget, including income, expenses and sponsorship/donations • creating a timetable for the two days, and • considering room and table capacities at the venue and planning groups accordingly.

General capabilities (higher order thinking, social skills) • working as part of a team • developing effective communication and collaboration skills • developing effective organisational skills, particularly through the use of email, calendars, spreadsheets, Bento and Trello • problem solving within their teams and as a class • analysing situations from different perspectives to decide on a course of action, and • reflecting on their learning experiences via blog posts.

Specific ICLT skills included: • taking photos using a digital SLR camera • filming and editing using iMovie and Garageband • using Bento to record facilitator and delegate information • using Trello to record the tasks for each department, their status and the team member responsible for each task • updating the website and Twitter • using MS Excel and/or Numbers to create spreadsheets for a range of purposes

Technology

Higher order thinking, communication and collaboration skills are also developed throughout the project.

• using MS Word and/or Pages to design posters, flyers, certificates etc • using MS PowerPoint and/or Keynote to create slideshows for the welcome and evening presentations • learning how to install required software onto laptops • learning how to use iPads and iPod touches, in order to provide technical assistance at the conference, and • writing weekly blog posts reflecting on their learning experiences.

Not only does the conference benefit the students, but it also benefits the teachers who attend as they take part in a professional development workshop focusing on how ICLT can be used to enhance teaching and

learning. “Teachers are introduced to a range of ICLT resources and applications that can be used with students of all ages and ability levels and will also be shown how to plan and implement their own project-based learning experiences using ICLT.” Teachers or schools interested in running their own Kids Connect conference can visit the website at www.brisbane.kids-connect.net Reference: MCEETYA 2010, Contemporary Learning: Learning in an Online World. Melbourne, Australia.

independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|29

Legal

Using your own car for work-related activities IEUVicTas Industrial Officer Denis Matson looks at this often queried area. Using your own car for work related purposes presents a myriad of issues - consider the following and you may decide against it.

Can employees be directed to use their own cars?

You cannot be compelled to use a personal vehicle for work unless it was agreed to, by you, as a term of your contract.

The IEU suggests that you do not agree unless the employer enters into a deed with you that comprehensively covers you for all losses and costs, and against all claims, arising in any way whatsoever in connection with the use of your car in, or in relation to, your employment. Even then, it is not ideal. This applies equally to school camps.

Are employees covered by their insurance if they crash while driving for work?

Probably not. You’re liable for any excess, and may be excluded from making any claim if the use was for work. In fact, the use of your car for business purposes may invalidate your insurance policy entirely unless you have informed the insurer of the amount of work travel you do, and they have agreed to underwrite that risk. If not, the insurer will be at least entitled to charge a higher premium (retrospectively) and/or to reduce the amount they have to pay on any claim you make.

In any case, you need to read your policy very carefully to be sure – each policy is different. At the time of printing, most ‘major’ car insurance companies’ standard policies excluded work use from ‘private and domestic’ use policies.

What are the risks?

There are numerous questions that may arise when using your car at work. Various states’ legislation may differ as well

Most ‘major’ car insurance companies’ standard policies excluded work use from ‘private and domestic’ use policies.

30|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

• are you covered by Workers Injury Compensation legislation (WorkCover) • what if you have dropped off the students and are on your way home • what if you are carrying students, but divert to buy some milk on the way • in what scenarios are you covered by Transport Accident Compensation or Workers Injury Compensation • what about third party property damage • what if your driving was fine, but the insurer claims you were at fault for failing to check the brake fluid • are you covered for public liability in every case • who pays if the other person was at fault and can’t be found, and • what about professional liability if you are trusted with the care of the students?

What’s the sensible response The answers to the questions above are complex, and the legal actions to get the answers can be very costly.

The IEU strongly suggests that you don’t use your car for work purposes, especially to transport students.

Only consider doing so if the school is prepared to give you a comprehensive indemnity to cover all possible costs and losses from any accident and indemnity against all related claims. This is unlikely, as insurers refuse to indemnify schools where they accept such broad liability.

In short, you have a perfectly reasonable and lawful reason to refuse to use your own car for work.

Diary

Diary

Australian Geography Teachers Association 7-10 January 2013, Perth College, WA Includes a preconference tour to the south-west region of WA from 2 to 5 January, plus five field trips and more than 50 workshops - many focusing on the new Australian Geography curriculum.

Details: www.agta.asn.au/conf2013/registration.htm

Teachers Matter Conference Spectrum Education 17-18 January 2013, SMC Conference Centre, Sydney Details: www.teachersmatter.co.nz/Teachers_ Matter/sydney/home.html

NSW/ACT IEU Indigenous Education Conference 15 March 2013, Mercure Hotel, Sydney The focus on national teaching standards: 1.4

‘strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ and 2.4 ‘understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’.

Details: Iva on 9779 3200 or email iva@ieu.asn.au.

NSW/ACT IEU Teach Survive Thrive Conference This conference caters for early career teachers.

3 May 2013, Mercure Hotel, Sydney Details: Iva on 9779 3200 or email iva@ieu.asn.au

Principals Association of Victorian Catholic Secondary Schools Conference 22-24 May 2013, Melbourne Keynote speaker is Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, USA. Details: www.pavcss.org.au

Letter to the Editor

Send your letters to iemagazine@ieu.asn.au

I read your article regarding teacher performance or teacher development (IE issue #2 Vol 42) with much interest.

I certainly agree with the issues you raise. I feel that an ideal method of professional development would be the Quality Teaching Rounds that Professor Jenny Gore (Newcastle University) has researched. This

I believe would be an excellent tool, not to appraise, but to lead a staff through a process that builds capacity. It is affirming, builds on teacher knowledge and has a defined process.

Kind regards Paul O’Heir, IEU Member

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An image from our Timor-Leste projects Members of the remote mountainous community in Fahisoi work together to build a water tank for their terraced vegetable plots Photo: Scott MacKinnon

You can help support over 60 training projects around the world.

Become a Global Justice Partner today.

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independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|31

Are young people too bubble wrapped?

Learning to cope Brian Lacey, Principal St Catherine’s Catholic College, Singleton, NSW As a Principal of a K-12 College, I get to experience all children, and their parents, journeying along the formal education pathway.

While I don’t see all young people as being ‘bubble wrapped’, I do believe we have a significant issue in our society about helping our young people to be resilient and giving them the skills to be able to cope with rejection and failure.

The issue of resilience in our young people is a major one facing schools and educators today. It is a sign of the times when schools have to develop a Sports Selection Policy because of the number of complaints and ‘please explains’ from parents and students, when children are not selected in the school football or netball team.

One of the concerns with our over protective parents and society is that our children don’t ever learn to experience and cope with rejection, failure, disappointment and what happens when the ‘taking of a risk’ fails.

In developing a stimulating learning environment for today’s children educators often challenge children to ‘take risks’ and to learn from the experience, whether the risk was a ‘winner’ or a ‘failure’.

The concept of ‘going without’ or ‘wait until your birthday’ in some families has gone and many of the children in our schools expect to get what they want now. Sadly, some parents feel compelled, even neglectful, if they don’t respond to a child’s request or demands.

Even sadder is the parent who believes it is their obligation to challenge every result on the report, every selection for the netball team and every birthday party invitation their child has not received.

Unfortunately, life is not this fair.

Protect and challenge

Narelle Wallace, Parent to Steven, who is at university studying to be a teacher, Michael, Grade 12 at St Patrick’s College, Brisbane, and Amelia, Year 8 at Mary MacKillop College, Qld My gut reaction would be ‘yes’, however it is not quite so simple.

While there are restrictions placed on children about a whole range of activities, there are also greater expectations on them to experience, achieve and adapt as technology takes over so much of our world.

32|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

Talking point

Our role as parents is to protect but to also develop our child to fend for themselves. It is a constant balancing act between head and heart, with every child being different.

We know that often the hard times and failures are the experiences that teach us most and build character and resilience.

Life should be hard enough to teach you lessons but not so hard to leave deep and long-lasting detrimental impacts on your life.

Sadly not all parents embrace their responsibility to protect while challenging their children.

I wonder if the world is really a more dangerous place or if media just allows us to know more about what is going on.

I think we have lost a lot of family values as the concept of family has changed over the years.

I despair of a society that allows fear of litigation to limit the experiences of children playing in the street, using monkey bars, doing handstands and skipping ropes.

It worries me that social media, video games and movies expose our children to situations that they may not be able to deal with.

Being a parent is the most rewarding but also the hardest job that any of us will ever take on, and as parents and caregivers we need to do our best to ensure our children are only ‘bubblewrapped’ as much as they need to be.

I would urge politicians, teachers, parents and caregivers to maintain opportunities for our children to have a healthy, balanced childhood.

Working it out ourselves

Dominie Brear, completed Year 12 in 2011 at Genazzano FCJ College, Vic

Being a young person today isn’t easy, but then has growing up ever been without its problems? From what I hear, in the past people had to put up with plenty of things we don’t face today and I’m glad for that. That’s not to say that there aren’t challenges that make life tough.

It’s only natural for parents to try to protect their children from these challenges but in some families kids never get the chance to learn anything for themselves.

I think it’s wrong, for example, to drive your teenage kids everywhere and expect to know where they are 24/7. If you don’t give them some freedom and trust them, that’s when they rebel or else can’t do anything for themselves.

I also think that it’s unreasonable to expect schools to prepare kids for every tough lesson life is going to serve up. My teachers did a good job preparing us for life after school. We learned about social justice, using our initiative and that you have to work hard to get good outcomes. But at the end of the day, there are some things you can only learn for yourself.

It’s about getting the balance right. Young people need a supportive environment but they also need a chance to make decisions for themselves, even if sometimes those decisions might end up being wrong.

Questionable question Shane Cooper, School Counsellor, McCarthy Catholic College, Emu Plains, NSW Are young people too bubble wrapped? I sometimes wonder about the usefulness of the question. It invites only two responses. I’m not sure that arriving at either one leads us anywhere.

If you don’t give us some freedom and trust, that’s when we rebel or are unable to do anything for ourselves.

I guess that those who would answer ‘Yes’ would see this as undesirable, an over-protectiveness resulting in young people who are lacking in practice at safe risk-taking and initiative – a risk for the future.

In the ‘No’ camp might be those who perceive reduced safety in society, and a need to provide protection not otherwise available. They might view less vigilant adults as perhaps indifferent or neglectful.

However the inability of adults to adequately protect young people can place them at risk of danger. This does not automatically lead to harm. Many negative effects in children’s’ lives occurs in such environments, yet these circumstances are also known to elicit very skillful survivors.

So are young people too bubble wrapped? – well yes...and no...maybe.

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independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012|33

Reviews

The secret life of bullies With the release of the Lee Hirsch documentary Bully, educators have been arguing the merits of the film, and its focus on five young people in rural areas of the USA.

The value of the film Bully is to highlight social issues occurring in various communities, and mobilise the audience to respond

34|independent education| issue 3|Vol 42|2012

The film investigates face-toface bullying, and ignores cyberbullying. According to Lee, his aim was to look at some case studies in more remote areas of America, to highlight the way children treat each other when some of them don’t quite fit the ‘accepted’ norm.

There have been surprisingly few documentaries on the topic of bullying, which makes Lee’s film so distinctive. Finding young people willing to be filmed, and developing naturalistic stories around their situations, without intruding on their lives, is always difficult for filmmakers.

Lee told me he used a small camera with a movie function so that it would not be too obvious he was filming, plus he also only used a sound recordist as crew.

He worked carefully over time with the children, families and schools in order to achieve an untrammeled observational film.

Yet, in one significant part of the film, where one of the boys was being severely bullied on a bus, and the school did not believe that this was occurring, Lee intervened to show the principal the footage so that this destructive behaviour did not recur and to prove the boy was right. The denial presented by the school authorities is breathtaking in its audacity.

It is interesting to note that the American education system has many challenges, which this documentary and a previously reviewed one: Waiting for Superman, reveals. This is where filmmakers have the opportunity to show audiences what is happening in reality (rather than a constructed reality) so that change can occur.

Indeed, as suicide is a possible consequence of bullying behaviour,

Lee’s documentary exemplifies the way everyone needs to address the issue so that these negative outcomes don’t happen. Indeed the American education system needs to examine these issues thoroughly.

The value of the film Bully is to highlight social issues occurring in various communities, and mobilise the audience to respond, and to ensure that the deleterious behaviour is addressed and hopefully stopped. The power of a well-directed documentary on a significant issue is immeasurable, but essential as part of the process of portraying challenging social issues.

Fictional films could also have a similar impact if well produced, but the messages are usually muted by narrative imperatives, and commercial decisions. An example is the film Drillbit Taylor which addresses the issue of children being bullied in school, but overlays it with a dubious premise and a need to overplay the violence and sentimentality.

There is nothing sentimental in Lee’s documentary, but instead a warts and all ‘Crix de Coeur’ to end the abuse, bullying and social impact of this awful behaviour, where being different turns into a malevolent act by others.

What indeed is the power of film, can it make a difference? The resolution of the film Bully indicates that film does make a difference.

What do you think?

Peter Krausz is Chair of the Australian Film Critics Association (www.afca.org.au), film critic, radio broadcaster and film journalist. He can be contacted on: peterkrausz8@gmail.com

One Voice

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There are many benefits of being an IEU member.

Every member strengthens the voice of the organisation that continually negotiates for improvements in your pay and conditions.

As a member you are also entitled to the support of your Union on general industrial matters, advice regarding your individual work circumstances and access to professional development, resources and a range of other services.

The IEU represents the professional interests and concerns of all members at a state, territory and national level, whether they work in a school, early childhood service, English college, business college or other non-government educational institution.

Our officers are just a phone call away and are available to meet personally with members, at the IEU office or at their workplace by appointment.

Add your voice to that of 72,000 of your colleagues and find out today what Union support is all about.

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