So much for first impressions! Ofsted beware!
Sun, Nov 15th 2009
I have just spent two days working in a primary school. I am still tired and emotionally drained as the programme I facilitate means that I am right in the centre of what the staff have to face everyday. On the first day I work in the nursery and with KS1, running circle sessions with the children, whilst all the teachers, TA’s , and support staff sit on tables observing. I de-brief them, then go out in the playground to play with the children – and observe how they play and the adults interact. One more circle demo, then I eat in the dinner hall and go out for lunch time play. Another circle demo, ‘surgeries’ with adults about new strategies to try with individual children and then I run a staff meeting to highlight the issues. Day two – the same programme repeated – but in KS2. Phew, but however exhausting this programme is – it is only a mere fraction of what staff face in schools everyday, week after week. I am still reeling from the sheer bombardment of sound, movement and the overwhelming social and emotional needs of some of the children.
I am only going to be able to write about my immediate impressions, and of course, everywhere there were high numbers of calm, balanced children grounding the classes they are in…. nevertheless I was truly amazed at the high number of children needing vital, immediate input from staff in order to help them access any learning.
My first circle-time was in the nursery. So few children knew any simple clapping, skipping or nursery rhymes. Their language skills were impoverished, they were unused to make-believe so they needed strong imaginative input. Within each circle I facilitated over the two days, because the school was superb at inclusion, there were high number of children along the autistic/chaotic spectrum. Some were statemented, most were not. In each circle I would have at least one or two empty chairs within the circle – ready for the child sitting outside with his helper, to re-enter the circle when they felt they could cope with its demands of active listening, turn taking and co-operation. I have a strong impression of very vulnerable children becoming much more emotionally resilient through the way their individual supporters (TA’s, voluntary parent-governors etc.) sought ways of bridging them back into the fold.
For example one KS2 child had been given by a TA a much treasured toy rabbit. Through the rabbit being given a lot of attention, building its hutch, including it in the everyday life of the school, slowly this boy was emboldened, as its owner, to take his place within the class. He actually lasted a whole 60 minutes of circle time and didn’t need to leave the circle once. It was so reminiscent of my early days as a teacher in an EBD school in Clapham Junction where, as his class teacher supported by his psychotherapist, Robert, an elected mute gradually re-entered the classroom through his love of puppet work. Hidden behind a puppet stage we built, giving life to puppets in front of small selected audiences, he found his voice again.
In this mainstream school there were a higher than usual number of unhappy, unstable children finding their sense of self again. Louise Bomber has written a very good book ‘I Am Hurting Inside’. So many of the case studies she refers to could have come directly from this school. It is a very hard task for schools today. They need to provide a clear and consistent behaviour management framework of values, rewards, consequences and lunchtime policies to keep children emotionally safe – yet, at the same time, they need to balance these systems with weekly sensitive therapeutic work, where a child can explore his/her feelings and re-learn new and better ways of relating to himself/herself and others. It is onerous on a school, cos they have to provide either a full nurture group system as advocated by Marian Bennathon, or at the very least one of our Circles Of Support, where two adults help run the circle and support each other. I feel so much empathy for schools today. When I was teaching in special education we had supervision with a psychiatrist and the children had access to arts therapists. Today’s mainstream schools have often nothing.
The little school I was in is lucky enough to have dynamic caring head. Through creative budgeting (and sheer force of her personality) adult helpers were everywhere, supporting children with both physical and emotional additional needs. My predominant impression was one of how kind the staff were to each other and, consequently how kind the children were to each other. Kindness can heal so many hurts.
I left a raft of ideas on how they could shine up their systems and find further ways forward. They left me with an overriding sense of awe! These adults are working flat out, long hours in school and endless hours at home finding new ways to help children get excited about learning. They are constantly ambushed by the needs of children and parents, they are still smiling. They are still pushing back tables and engaging in circles of social and emotional learning. It’s an exhausting way of life and our society needs to find ways to show how much we value how much teachers do. Ofsted beware. Tread carefully into these brave and fragile schools. Crushing self-esteem is easy – equipping them to keep going forward with flair and dignity is far harder.
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