ANTI-BULLYING FORUM Thursday 17 May 2012 Presentation for the - - PDF document

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ANTI-BULLYING FORUM Thursday 17 May 2012 Presentation for the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Tim Geraghty (Past President) As today is an International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, I would just like to say that last March NAPD was delighted to be invited to be part of the launch of Stand Up! BelonGTo’s LGBT Awareness Week which was aimed at creating a positive understanding

• f lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people and their issues. NAPD have been to

the fore in providing leadership to its members on addressing homophobic bullying in schools. NAPD in conjunction with the Equality Authority, Glen and BeLongG To have piloted whole school training in combating homophobic bullying. This training is currently being evaluated by the Equality Authority. The information, class plans and recommendations contained in BeLonG To’s literature are, I believe, going a long way to helping a greater acknowledgement, recognition and appreciation of all our different expressions of gender identity. BeLong To had valuable suggestions on a whole school approach to homophobic bullying and how it can be specifically included in Anti Bullying Policies. I hope that NAPD’s leadership role is having a positive impact in your work. Clearly, today is about all forms of bullying and NAPD is actively engaged in seeking and developing resources to tackle bullying in schools. NAPD has commissioned Genevieve Murray to conduct research for NAPD. She is a Doctoral student with Prof Mona O’More and is researching bullying in schools with a view to providing resources for school leaders and school management to combat the problem. NAPD is the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and represents school leaders in second level schools throughout Ireland and that includes Community and Comprehensive schools, Secondary Schools and Community Colleges and as such we are hugely engaged with young people in the critical period of their lives between childhood and young adulthood. When students enter our second level schools they are still young girls and boys on the threshold of adolescence a period in all our lives that is unparalleled in its intensity, excitement and promise. As school leaders we are and have to be very conscious of our responsibility to create a safe, secure and supportive environment where students can learn, develop and express themselves. Any form of Bullying is an affront to human dignity and diminishes all our lives.

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During adolescence we make huge strides on the journey towards forming our life identities and huge questions present themselves: Who am I? What will I do with my life? What are my strengths? How do I use my talents? Will people like me? Accept me? Our search for identity is a profound element of each one’s unique search for meaning in our lives and acknowledgement and acceptance of that identity is a profound human right. As school leaders we strive daily to develop schools where all members of the school community are respected regardless of gender, civil status, family status, age, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, membership of the travelling community or indeed any other dimension to

• ur being which might mark us out as different

I attended a meeting recently of the Children’s Mental Health Coalition of which NAPD is a member and the keynote speaker, Margaret Barry, Professor of Health Promotion and Public Health, NUI, Galway spoke of mental health operating on an Individual, Community and Societal basis On a community level she spoke of the mental health benefits of being included in your community and of feeling included and for young people school is a very significant community in their lives. She spoke of the risks to mental health where students did not feel accepted. All bullying is a form of exclusion and all forms of exclusion are painful. Ignorance and apprehension are very often the enemies of understanding and acceptance and today is an opportunity to raise everyone’s consciousness. MORAL PURPOSE OF EDUCATION As school leaders we have always to keep before our eyes a clear moral purpose. From the very beginning philosophers like Plato have spoken of not seeing education in a narrow sense, but in a broader sense of “that other education in virtue, from youth upwards, which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal perfection of citizenship, and teaches him how rightly to rule and how to obey.” Today, there is common consent that education should be holistic and that the development of the full person is the proper aim of education As an association we endeavour to listen to the voice of young people and it is clear that their wish is that education should engage with their full person. At our National Conference in October 2010 representatives from Comhairle Na nÓg shared with Principals and Deputy Principals the results of a survey of second level students which highlighted “teenagers needs for life skills, education that prepares us for the challenges and decisions we face every day. We ask parents and educators to accept that achieving high points in the Leaving Cert should not be the only focus of the education system.” Equally, Leanne McCauley, President of ISSU and a founding member spoke at our symposium in February of that year. “Educational achievement is too often viewed as just the fulfillment of academic roles, when really a wider view of achievement should be taken, to include both academic and social goals.”

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She went on to say that most students wouldn’t even know there is an anti-bullying policy, which is there largely to protect them, in their schools and wondered how they are supposed to follow the policy if they don’t know about it. She acknowledged that these policies exist and that teachers and management apply them and she pleaded for wider student involvement in drafting the policies SCHOOLS ARE ACTIVE But schools are active and as school leaders we must ensure that all are aware of the policies there for their protection and how they can have recourse to them, Schools now have Codes of Conduct, Anti Bullying Policies and Policies on Internet Usage which are clear and explicit. They recognise that schools are people rich environments and the complexity of relationships that exist between pupils, pupils and teachers, teachers and pupils and amongst staff and staff and parents. They are specific about the processes and procedures to be followed for breaches of the codes and the consequences. Schools, as centres of learning, have the opportunity in dealing with the complexity of bullying when it does occur in a way that protects the victim and educates the bully. Schools have developed strong structures to grow and foster an atmosphere of care and safety where learning can take place.

• Strong pastoral care systems with Class Tutors and a Year Head who have designated

responsibility for the welfare of students and who meet regularly to review students’ progress

• Care Teams comprising Principal, Deputy Principal, Guidance Counsellor, Chaplain,

and other key people for the care of students e.g. Home School Liaison Coordinator which meet regularly

• Wise Principals will encourage an active Student Council and devolve real

responsibility to Prefects and Class Captains and listen carefully to their recommendations

• Since the provision for Supervision negotiated by ASTI and TUI, all schools now

have capacity for enhanced professional supervision of students at free time which can be one of the risk times in schools

• Schools have developed structured transfer programmes from Primary to Secondary

School and induction classes and buddy systems to ease the anxiety of transition and to detect early signs of vulnerability. The Transfer document agreement between NAPD & and our sister association at Primary level, IPPN, will enhance the flow of information between Primary and Second level schools

• Many schools have developed Positive Discipline Programmes designed to foster,

encourage and recognise what is good in the manner in which students grow and develop

• SPHE, RSE, CSPE and RE programmes

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• There are particular programmes designed to facilitate examination of relationships in

school and to address issues that arise and many schools have availed of these and implement best practice e.g. Cool School Programme and Restorative Justice

• Schools also run Bullying Awareness weeks & events.
• Schools are communities and an active Parents’ Council where parents’ voices can

be heard and where they can feel part of the school is vital. NAPD has close links with the National Parents’ Council and has regular meeting on matters of common concern And of course NAPD is acutely aware of the importance of Quality Leadership. Quality leadership is at the heart of good schools, at the core of innovation and central to any evaluation of the success of what we are doing. As Principals and Deputy Principals it is important we lead by example, that we are role models and that in all that we do we model courteous and civil behaviour. STRAIN ON SCHOOL SYSTEMS But I have to acknowledge that the current economic and financial crisis has had an impact

• n schools and the educational system. It is one of the unintended consequences of what we

as a nation have had to do to survive. As Principals we are by nature solution focussed but we continue to be concerned that the cutbacks in middle management provision impact on our capacity to maintain pastoral care structures which are a key element in providing for the sense of wellbeing each student has a right to expect and the sense of security each child deserves Likewise, the availability of the listening ear and counselling skills of the Guidance Counsellor has been curtailed and NAPD has worked with all the key partners, the management bodies, IVEA, ACCS, JMB and the Institute of Guidance Counsellors and the National Centre for Guidance in Education to develop a Framework for Guidance for next year to ensure that when a child is troubled because of bullying or whatever reason they have a trained professional person in the school to turn to. BULLYING VICTIM In all that we do as educators in our schools and communities we must never forget the pain, the isolation and the sense of desperation that victims of bullying experience. When I was teaching English there was a poem on the Junior Cert by Stephen Spender. My Parents kept me from children who were rough My parents kept me from children who were rough and who threw words like stones and who wore torn clothes. Their thighs showed through rags. They ran in the street And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams. I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron And their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms.

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I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys Who copied my lisp behind me on the road. It provided a wonderful opportunity to raise issues about bullying and students were very alert and quick to point out that these were not the only circumstances in which bullying

• ccurred.

But this poem was written by a mature person reflecting on his childhood and it does not capture the intensity of the experience of someone suffering bullying. My world is starting to die. and I slowly start to cry. I hate how they get to me, and how they don’t see, that my heart is bleeding, and that my tears have meaning. There’s more to me than they know. I just don’t let it show. I hide the things inside. But I wish I could speak my mind. I wish they knew the real me. Than they could leave me be. I’m just so scared of rejection, that I can’t even stand my own reflection. I hate how they view me, as small and week. My world would be so much easier, if I could be a little happier. EVALUATION and SELF EVALUATION IN SCHOOLS It is worth recognising that that the DES through the work of the Inspectorate is conscious of the importance of accessing these wider experiences of young people in schools. The current model of WSE, MLL has a confidential questionnaire for students and parents in second and fifth year. These are some of the issues explored. Parents My child enjoys going to school I know who to go to talk to in the school if there is a problem My child feels safe and well looked after in school The school pays attention to drugs and alcohol I am satisfied with the way bullying is dealt with by the school Students I am proud to be in this school I feel safe and cared for in the school

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I get on well with other students in the school There is a good atmosphere in the school I understand the school rules The behaviour of students is good in the school The journey towards self evaluation in schools is advancing and questionnaires on student experiences don’t have to wait for the arrival of DES Inspectors. CHALLENGES FOR SCHOOLS We are constantly challenged. In the diversity of our classrooms how do we cherish each student equally, how do we communicate with each one fully, how do we inspire and ennoble each one to be the best person they can be. We live in a world of Tweeting, Texting and of Face book, a society where on occasion the gossip of cyberspace can replace the excitement of human contact and the emotional and spiritual nourishment that comes from a personal relationship Dr Carol Craig who is Chief Executive of the Centre for Confidence and Well-Being in Glasgow which was launched in December 2004, as a keynote speaker at one of our recent conferences spoke of ‘Well-being’ as an essential prerequisite for successful education. She stressed the importance of engagement’, physical activity and ‘resilience’ as essential elements of Well-being In our considerations we should keep in mind also the findings of Dr Maeve O’Brien, St Patrick’s College who did a report for the NCCA in 2008 entitled Well-Being and Post- Primary Schooling “There is strong evidence and argument to support the view that schooling should be concerned with a broad conception of the well-being of a young person. Holistic approaches that involve students in their own learning, and that have relevance and are respectful of students’ own interests and strengths have a much greater possibility of fostering well-being, not just in the short but also in the long term. In highlighting happiness or well-being as an aim of education, issues of respect, care, relationships, and love and emotions become part of the vocabulary of second-level education in a way that has not been usual within educational discourses of performance and

• success. If we agree that happiness is an appropriate aim of education, then we will have to

recalibrate the balance between competing aims, preparing students for the labour market and higher education, and educating students for a ‘good life’. These should not be mutually exclusive but the literature certainly indicates that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of ‘human capital’ education in the narrow sense.” I believe the proposed New Junior Cycle affords an opportunity to address the balance that Dr O’Brien speaks of.

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In addition to Numeracy & Literacy the New Junior Cycle focuses on 6 key skills which puts the student at the centre of the educational experience

• 1. Managing Information and Thinking
• 2. Working with others
• 3. Managing yourself
• 4. Communicating
• 5. Staying Well
• 6. Being Creative

SYMPOSIA - THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION NAPD has always been concerned with the future of education. Since 2007 NAPD has had a series of Symposia exploring Vision and Values in Irish Education. In 2007, Dr FitzGerald in a paper entitled Vision & Values: Second Level Education’s Role in the Emergence of Civic Republicanism’ challenged teachers, led by Principals and Deputy Principals, to fill the moral gap left by the effective collapse of the authority of the Catholic Church upon which we had depended for so long. Today at this symposium we have a new challenge. If one person is bullied, it is one too many. But the statistics are alarming and the high percentages of incidences of bullying are symptomatic of something not functioning as it should. NAPD is strongly of the view that we must continue to develop a vision for education and that we must continue to work with our education partners in developing that plan. Whatever

• ur current woes the future awaits and it should be an exciting future full of promise for the

young student who will enter our schools. NAPD committed to working with all partners to enhance the education and life chances of students A PRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE One Principal in his annual report said, “Often, when we reflect on schools and their achievements, we tend to focus on exam results and on sporting or cultural successes. It is more difficult to measure atmosphere, values and ethos, however these constitute the very fabric of how we achieve all else and must be nurtured with equal energy” NAPD will be commending today’s deliberations to all our members. As an association of Principals and Deputy Principals we are committed to the principles of inclusion and to inclusive practices and if today ushers in an era of empathy, a new time of tolerance, a new period of appreciation of difference and acceptance of diversity then we will have done a good day’s work

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