Trust

Source: Yuriy Seleznev/Shutterstock

Trust is a nebulous thing - it's hard to define and even harder to develop and maintain. It's the cornerstone of our relationships. Trusting someone means you can rely on them, that you have confidence in them and that you feel safe with them both emotionally and physically. It's easy to say you trust someone, but it's hard to do and it's equally hard to be trustworthy.

Relationships cannot survive without trust because it is the willingness to be vulnerable to another person based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable and competent.

For organisations like schools, trust is a powerful resource in day to day work. It plays an important role in visioning, modelling, coaching, managing and mediating (Tschannen-Moran, 2014). A school built on trust is more productive, more engaged, happier. It's buoyed along on it's own tide of positive emotion. People feel it when they walk into the office. They see it watching kids at work and play. They hear it in teachers' voices. They see it in our faces.

What to do when trust is broken? How much does it hurt? How widely does it spread? Can it be built back? Is it possible to make yourself vulnerable again? Can we again have confidence that the other will be benevolent, honest, open, reliable and competent once more? How long does it take? Trust matters; it matters in our personal relationships, in our working lives, in our social lives... and in our school.

'I don't ask for much, I only want trust,

And you know it don't come easy'

Ringo Starr

Tschannen-Moran, Megan (2014) Trust Matter: Leadership for Successful Schools, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco

Turning 10

Credit: Getty Images

It's our birthday soon - we're going to be 10. I keep telling people we're 10 but technically we're not 10 yet. But I don't know any nine year olds who can't wait to be 10 (and I know nearly 200 nine year olds).

We've come such a long way - building our school from a tiny community of 264 students and 12 classes to a massive 1120 and 45 classes. It's been a wild and rewarding ride and we're going to celebrate!

Everyone's getting in on the act - there will be a special Birthday Assembly (of course - our school never goes halves with Assemblies!) with cupcakes, presentations and performances, murals, games and an open day, special 10th birthday handballs all kids will want, a movie of our 10 years, and the opening of the time capsule and the closing up of it again until our 25th. We will celebrate all those children turning 10 with us this year. It's going to be great fun.

I can't wait to be 10!

A teacher's role description

Our employer, the Department of Education, proudly provide a role description and functional job requirements for teachers in its schools. It's an interesting read containing very few of the things teachers are required to do and leaving out nearly all of the things they do out of the goodness of their hearts ... and because they care for kids.

A colleague recently presented his list of the roles 'required' of a teacher.

We could also add
- nurse
- dentist (ask an early years' teacher how many lost teeth they have dealt with)
- banker
- emergency taxi
- mediator
- lunch maker
- stationer
- lost property coordinator

If you are a teacher or a school leader, what roles would you add?

The consequences of our choices

The values of Choice Theory underpin our beliefs and ways of working at Peregian Springs State School. They are evident in the ways we treat each other, the decisions we make, our policies and procedures and how we educate our little people.

The basic premise of Choice Theory is acceptance of the idea that we choose our behaviour and are responsible for ourselves. Living a Choice Theory life gives a person control over their thinking and actions, is self motivating, and empowering. 

The choice we have is paramount.

Glasser says 'We almost always have choices, and the better the choice, the more we will be in control of our lives'. 

It's the best lesson in life there is.

Like a leader

I had the pleasure of accompanying 24 of our student and sport leaders to the annual GRIP conference this week. GRIP stands for generosity, responsibility, integrity and people.These core values drive the content and underpin the ways of working we hope our student leaders will develop.

The students spent the day learning about collaborative leadership - that is, the style of leading that enables others to work together towards a common cause. The students' enthusiasm and thoughtful responses to the challenges presented were a sight to behold. Each student leader group has a different level of skills and confidence. This year's group are quieter, more observant, tentative almost. They are looking for role models and willing to learn. They accept feedback greedily, willingly trying out the tips they have been given to test the effects. They want more and they want to learn.

The GRIP conference enabled their confidence and gave them something to aspire to, strategies to practice, a framework to hang their budding leadership of people on. They met leaders from other schools and exchanged ideas with kids like them, and different from them.

They also had a lot of fun! It's money well spent.

And I'll be going again next year.

Family histories are wonderful

On a recent visit to my Mum's she unearthed a cassette recorded in 1972 of my elderly grandfather talking about his long life and days gone by. Known as Grandpa to us, he was a stately English gentleman born in 1880 who led a long life raising two families, serving in two wars and indulging in his passion for gardening. Frederick William Gee left school at 13 years of age and joined the railways at 14. He worked his way up through small stations to become a station master at Market Harborough in middle England earning 17 shillings a week. He retired at 65 with the only breaks in service to British Rail being officer duties in the Boer War (1899 to 1902) and World War 1.

My Mum and her brother grew up on the railways and spent World War 2 under the threat of German bomber planes as they sought to destroy the extensive network of railways that criss crossed the United Kingdom. It's the stuff fantastic historical novels are made of.

It was fascinating on all sorts of levels - listening to my Grandpa describe the changes to the railways and the English villages he lived in over his career of 51 years, looking through the photographs that were pulled out to match the stories and checking the visuals against our modern day Google Maps (those houses in the background of the photo of my Mum 82 years ago still look the same), as well as the fact Mum's cassette player still works and the tape hasn't deteriorated in 47 years!

Family histories are a treasure trove, and I hope to keep digging through mine to see what other gold, silver and precious titbits I can unearth.

Llandudno, Wales

Nude food lunches

This strategy to raise awareness about the use (or over use) of plastic in our environment has really taken hold across our school. It's fantastic to see.

The initiative has grown from having nude food picnics once per term with the whole school gathering on the oval to encouraging nude food lunch boxes weekly to now making Monday and Tuesday officially nude food days. The spill over to the other days of the week has been great to see. (These photos were taken on a Friday!)

The lunch boxes take many forms as parents figure out how to pack food without single use practice. There are inventive ways of keeping lunches cool, amazing stainless steel containers looking like modern day tiffin tins, plastic boxes with lids and small suitcase varieties with cute dividers.

One of the best things has been that these nude lunches are much healthier - gone are the chip packets and muesli bar wrappers having been replaced with cut fruit, baby tomatoes and cucumbers, crackers and cubes of cheese, buns and plastic free sandwiches. There's less cling wrap and more bees wax wraps.

I love that kids are pushing this initiative along themselves. They understand already how important it is for us to create less waste. I'm sure it won't be long before we can dispense with reminders and nude food celebrations and it just becomes part of our automatic practice.

Teacher

A friend gave me this wonderful book. It's been sitting patiently on my couch for weeks waiting to be picked up. Finally, I had an hour to myself on a plane and got sucked in straight away. Chapter One is an hilarious recount of any afternoon in most teachers' classrooms - until the end when the reader realises the distress of the author's commitment made to children's needs and their education.

This powerful memoir explores the heart of what it means to be a teacher of primary aged children. It's clear on what makes a great teacher and what our children need from their teachers. The author, Gabbie Stroud, clearly has a gift for teaching and she narrates painfully how the system finally broke her. It's brilliant writing but heart breaking to read. I felt sad when she described her Principals and their expectations of her and her colleagues. I would like to think I work hard to protect my teachers as much as possible from system expectations by framing how we teach individual children according to their needs and talents as learning for tall of us in the school. But it's hard when the pressures from above demand success in the system priorities of NAPLAN and regional targets on reporting scales press down on our already overwhelmed shoulders.

Teacher is a work of national importance. It needs to be read by every educator but more so by those who make the demands on how we meet the needs of the little people in front of us every day.

Our system can do better.

There's whales at the office

We have some beautiful spots in the school, spots full of colour, greenery, light and shade, contrast and the natural environment. But my favourite place in the school is near the whales. One of our clever teachers from a few years ago painted these gorgeous creatures and they took pride of place right outside the office. Whenever I walk out into the school from the administration building I feel cheerful. They have become a focal point - 'see you at the whales' is much easier to remember than 'there's a space at the back of the administration building, near the side and across from the gardens'. This is where we meet for enrolment tours - what a place to start showcasing our beautiful school.

Where is your favourite spot?

Newsletters from the teacher's desk

The newsletters our class teachers write are a wonderful read. They take many different forms - emails, PDF documents, PowerPoint displays, photos  and very professionally produced publications. They contain a wealth of information about learning events and classroom expectations - and usually lots of photos and examples of student work. Some of them are so beautiful they even become keepsakes!

Teachers send their newsletters to me to have a read of and it's always a pleasure - I do have to remind them though that they are not expected to produce something that looks as glossy and polished as a copy of Harper's Bazaar. (But some do!)

Class newsletters in any form are not just for information - they develop a sense of connection between home and school, they are a closer point of contact than the whole school newsletter, and some are just very beautiful to look at!

Learning how to use email

Credit: https://tinyurl.com/y76p8c43

Yesterday I spoke with some Year 5 classes about proper use of an email address which is supplied by their school or (in the future) their workplace. It's important because Year 5s start to learn to use email as a tool for learning and sometimes get carried away with the sense of connection sending and receiving emails can bring. And before long emails are flying around that bear no resemblance to anything to do with learning. And before much longer someone sends something inappropriate and it gets diverted to my inbox. The email trails often make for some 'interesting' reading (if I can find my way around all the emojis).

The children had some really insightful questions which shows they are thinking carefully through this expectation and wondering about the grey areas. We talked a couple of these through to demonstrate thinking 'before pressing send'. Is this email about my learning or school? If my email gets forwarded to someone else would there be unintended consequences?  and finally If I'm sending this to Ms Sands have I checked spelling and punctuation and deleted all the unnecessary emojis? :)

Number patterns - what use are they anyway?

Maths in the early years is a lot of playing with numbers to discover what they do - turn them this way and that, add 10, take 5, make it as big as you can, what happens if... 

Essentially it's about patterns. Recognising number patterns is an important problem-solving skill. We want our children to see a pattern when they look at examples because they can then use that pattern to generalise and predict in another circumstance. Transferring the play to mathematical understanding is the goal.

Parents often ask how they can help their children with mathematical understanding. This is often prefaced with something along the lines of 'I couldn't do maths...' But everyone can play with patterns. They can be fun and creative and lead to every child finding mathematics accessible and enjoyable.

Here are some examples our Year 2s and Year 3s are playing with at the moment.

 Fluency, understanding, reasoning and problem solving with patterns like this is expected by mid Term 2 for all Year 3 students.

Stories from the green zone

I love this duty. I try to get out there as many afternoons as I can. I get some sun on my face and arms, I can wave to my staff as they finish for the day, I can greet parents walking to and from the office,
and best of all, I get to chat to kids. They always have something to tell me - often it's about the weekend or their pool they can't wait to get into or some art work they created that day. Sometimes it's checking I know their names, know their car or know which teacher they have this year. Many times they are full of excitement about something. One little bloke last week couldn't wait to tell me how many friends he had made since moving to Peregian two weeks ago - more than all the six years at his old school, he marvelled.

This is great to hear. Our school places a lot of emphasis on kids looking out for each other, on building each other up, on helping without being asked or rewarded for this behaviour. And it really works. Our kids are friendly and compassionate. They are sharers and givers. They are smiling and happy. And they tell great stories in the green zone.

Yoshi stools are the go

In the holidays I noticed Amart selling yoshi stools for $14.95. These stools are the cutest things - little three legged stools of the old fashioned milking kind but with funky patterns and covers. I tentatively reached out to our teachers through Facebook Messenger and the response nearly shut down the internet! I ordered 100 and then 200 and probably could have ordered 300 but by then our Business Manager had waded into the conversation with a few timely 'Hmmmms'.

The yoshi stools arrived on the Student Free Days and teachers who wanted some were asked to line up down the hall so we could distribute them in an orderly fashion. What eschewed after that like the Boxing Day sales. There was squealing and line jumping, swapping and shouting and best of all laughing. 200 yoshi stools were gone in a flash. I was left with empty cardboard boxes and looking like I'd been pulled through a hedge backwards.

The joy these little stools created had to be seen to be believed. Within minutes classroom corners were set up, teachers were emailing their thanks and the laughter and pleasure around the school was tangible.

A word of advice to Principals around the country - if you're wanting to boost morale in your school just buy some yoshi stools.

Senior shirts

There's just something about being in Year 6. You are the oldest in the school and there's some prestige that comes with that. Teachers treat you like a grown up, sharing stories and a sense of humour. There are all kinds of fab opportunities - a trip to QPAC, an amazing camp, running SpringX, student leader roles, the GRIP Conference, a special school photo, visiting local high schools and checking out the scene, a classroom in the double story building, graduation, and the list goes on.

And then there's the shirts...

And everyone knows you're a senior.

Play first, eat second

When I was at school we all raced out at morning tea to eat our lunches. We had to eat lunch before we got to play. Most of us were keen to get on the netball courts, to continue the skipping or elastics games or to get to the newly opened library first to borrow the one and only copy of Pippi Longstocking the school had. Lunches went under the seats, in the bin or back in bags in our hurry to get out to play. We would all be starving by the time we went back into class (at which point my teacher made us drink the milk provided by the government of the day - but that's another blog post). I don't remember but I'm pretty sure not a lot of high quality learning went on after no food and rushing about the playground and returning hot and sweaty to class.

The merit in playing first is that kids do sit and eat properly. There's no point throwing your lunch away when you still have to sit through eating time. There is no more play! This is the time to chat with your friends, cool down, solve some gripes, plan the play for the next break and go back into class refreshed and ready to learn.

Kids just want to be up high

For quite a few years we only had a small adventure playground for Preps and another one for Years 1, 2 and 3. The word 'adventure' in this context is a bit misleading as kids and adults alike would tell you there's not much adventure in these two playgrounds.

Then last year, thanks to our P&C's fund raising events and some massive contributions from Jodie Curran, a much loved community member and parent of our school, we were able to build this massive spider net for our older students. Now the word 'adventure' can certainly be applied. The minute a staff member comes on duty kids rush on climbing and clambering around. I'm always so happy to see what this must be doing for their gross motor and perceptual skills.

The net can hold nearly 100 children climbing around, bouncing on the ropes, hanging about, stretching their muscles and their confidence.

But in the end, they just want to be up high...

Think 5

The best gift we can give a child is the ability to be resilient and the confidence and skills to solve and resolve conflict. Our Take 5 program has been a common feature of our school for many years and children use it with ease. It gives them the tools to feel they have something to do and the confidence that there's back up if it all falls apart. Sometimes when we have a problem we just want an action we can take and someone to tell for support.

There's more to it than that. All action is preceded by thinking. Good quality thinking leads to good quality actions - ones that are most likely to succeed, that is, result in improved relationships.

The Think 5 hand aims to make good quality thinking automatic. It's our first 'go to place' - think the problem through and then take the action you most feel comfortable with - the one that's going to help solve the problem. Children need so much practice doing this. They need to hear it modelled, see it working, say the words aloud to themselves, practice it in a safe place (e.g. role play in a classroom), and then try it themselves out in the playground, knowing there are plenty of adults there on hand to assist.

The Take 5 and Think 5 hands are everywhere in our school - and even the adults find them useful.

Rewarding children for helping others

Little kids feel good when they help others. They innately feel compassion for others and want to help. It seems we're born this way.

As adults we value this behaviour in our children and unwittingly probably seek to reward it some way. What happens then when children then get something in return for helping others? What happens to their intrinsic motivation to feel compassion? The desire to get credit for good deeds becomes an external reward. How often then do they want to help when they are not being given something tangible in return?

The human race benefits when we seek to help others because it feels good. The human race is harmed when we only help others to get something.

Our endangered species

Image credit - https://tinyurl.com/y76t36zs

Right at the front of our school we have a Richmond Birdwing Butterfly vine plantation. It's strong and healthy and spreading far enough that we hope some Richmond Birdwing butterflies notice it and lay their eggs. This beautiful butterfly is endangered and only lays its eggs on this particular vine.

The huge posters near the front of our school were created by our Year 6 Earth Smart Leaders a few years ago. The posters tell the life cycle story about this magnificent but very vulnerable insect.

The other place on the Sunshine Coast where you would see this vine is at the Sunshine Coast Airport between Arrivals and Departures. I'm not sure what self-respecting butterfly is going to brave jet planes and their passengers! I really hope they discover our more peaceful habitat and we get to see them flying in our school soon.

If you are keen to get your own butterflies in your garden contact the Coolum Community Native Nursery.

Our kitchen gardens

We have a few teachers and teacher aides in our school with green thumbs. They love spending time in the kitchen gardens with kids. It's a great place to while away* a lunch time, watering, digging in the dirt, perhaps picking a passion fruit to munch on. For some reason, eggplants love our gardens and grow ferociously - we get to have baba ganoush at least a few times a year. Kids are always so proud to serve up food cooked from something they've grown themselves.

The gardens are amazingly fertile given the soil conditions in this area - all those lunch box compostings really help. Our lime tree is heavy with fruit, the pineapples and paw paws are growing, and it won't be long before the passion fruit vine needs pruning again.

Many staff members have contributed to the gardens - there's plants and trees from home, art work, a worm farm and compost bin. And everyone looks for an excuse to walk through there.

The gardens are all ready for a new year of plantings and we have a fabulous new scarecrow to look over things as they grow. Our last scarecrow was disappointingly dismantled by vandals one weekend last year. Hopefully, this doesn't happen again. Children get so upset and disappointed when their efforts are trashed by vandals.

Our kitchen gardens are cool, tranquil and so peaceful - and this week, particularly, are soaking up some of the summer rain we've had.

The garden is a wonderful place to learn about insects, food, and companion planting. It's a great place to chat to a friend and marvel at what's growing. And I love that I can see it from my office window.

* Foot note: The phrase meaning to pass time idly is while away. It is older and more logical than wile away. But because the second phrase occurs so frequently, it is now included in many dictionaries and is rarely considered incorrect.

Writer's Block

Writer's block was a term invented in the 1940s - such an interesting concept really. Prior to that writing was a hobby for the wealthy or the hip. These days we are all called on to write - to document our ideas and share them with as many people who are interested. Ideas spread this way and develop their own power and influence.

Seth Godin challenges us to think of 'Writer's Drip' instead - the alternative to writer's block is a drip - a post a day, week after week 365 times a year. Not sure I can keep up with this so I've committed to the next 30 days along with my colleague, Chris Wise. You can read his entertaining views on life, parenting and education and just about anything else at The Dad Regime.

Me? I'm blogging about school. There's more than enough material in a school with more than 1100 children, 150 staff and upwards of 2000 members of the community interacting every day to ensure I can drip without interruption for 30 days. And who knows...maybe I'll just keep going...

It's absolutely okay to deface your hat

When I do enrolment tours on a Thursday I always mention hats. Our new families are startled when I announce it's okay to deface your child's hat. Go ahead - personalise it anyway you wish. Some ideas - ribbons through the holes, big colourful cloth patches, names in fabric paint under the brim, beads and strawberries and unicorns - whatever you want! I also warn them that if they only write their child's name on the small label provided by the manufacturer, expect to never see the hat again! We seem totally unable to locate the hat eating monster in our school!

Personalised hats are great - kids can pick their own hat out of a pile really easily, the hat rarely gets lost, and when they are misplaced, they are most often returned. Our teachers and teacher aides also get to know the hats and can identify who is running around underneath them. It's a win-win all around.

As I walked in the playground this week I collected some photos of some terrific examples. These hats will remain with their owner for a really long time!

Go ahead, be bold and make this next weekend's project.

Our first Assembly of the year is always a great time to tell stories

I love numbers. They tell so many stories. And there are many stories that are important for our school - especially at the start of the year. This morning 1HJ helped me tell some stories at Assembly.
1120 - our total enrolments for 2019. We are a very big school!
1120 kids in 45 classes. When we opened in 2010 we had only 12 classes!
264 - the number of children we had on 27 January 2010
10 - we're 10 years old this year!
9 - we're not 10 yet but all nine year olds can't wait to get to double digits! We will be 10 in Term 4 and we'll be having a big party with many classes contributing something towards it
189 - our biggest year level is Year 4
143 - and our smallest is Year 3
158 - we have 158 Preps in seven classes. It's the most Preps ever!
4 - four students didn't have black shoes to complement their uniform this week. We're hoping parents will be able to sort this out this weekend! 4 is also the number of children not wearing a hat for outdoor play. A hat is a must and we encourage all children to personalise their hats so they are easy to recognise and find.
32 - the school's leaders have picked up 32 pieces of rubbish as we've walked around the school this this week. Much of this was plastic and straws. We would love all children to bring nude food lunches - and many are! I've seen some fabulous lunch boxes this week.
31 - being at school as much as possible is really important. Every day makes a difference! 31 children came to school late this week, 16 left early and 51 didn't come at all. That's too many for the first week.
25 - we are celebrating 100% attendance and 25 classes had every child at school every day.
7 - we've felt sad that 7 children have experienced mean moments. These were all swiftly dealt with by class teachers and staff on duty.
886 - in end of 2017 reports 886 children received the equivalent of an A or B for behaviour. This is amazing! When this many children are focused, polite, caring and considerate teachers can teach so much more and everyone learns better.

2019 is going to be a bright year and we've gotten off to a great start.

Learning is a conversation

As a little girl I loved nothing more than lining up my dolls, stuffed toys and friends and playing 'school'. I read them books, set assignments, wrote on my chalkboard and gave them maths tests. When I first started teaching in the early 1980s my classroom wasn't too different from this! I was often at the front presenting all the information. I assigned the projects and I determined how to mix up the instruction. I always connected with my students personally but I didn't teach them as individuals.

Early in my career I attended some amazing professional development in early literacy (ELIC) and for the first time learned how to develop flexibility in classroom environments and lessons with each and every individual learner in mind. No longer was there a 'one size fits all approach'. I thought about how students learn best, how to give them voice and choice, and how to present a menu of options including collaborative work in groups, independent work, working closely with me as the teacher or a combination. Learning became a conversation with each child and achievement soared; so did engagement and social literacy.

These days our teachers at Peregian Springs State School are absolute masters of this way of teaching. Learning is preparation for life. It's relevant to children's needs. It's enjoyable and engaging. And children are achieving so much more than my dolls ever did!

This week tiny Year 1 students presented their work for feedback at lunch time all around the school. They discussed what they've been doing, what they've learned already in the first three days of the school year and what they will do next in their classrooms with students from other year levels, passing teachers and me - so impressive! There were smiles, use of great language and pride in their work.

Learning is a constant conversation and these Year 1s are certainly having it!