Dysfunctional homes and student achievement

As part of my Ph.D studies, I am currently engrossed in reading the report drawn by the Social Mobility Commission (2017).

This report emphasises the fact that at secondary level, pupils from a low income household, make less progress than their more affluent peers. Thus, these pupils who come from a disadvantaged background, have limited opportunities of further education, at the end of year 11.

One case study school, which took part in the study,  identified material poverty as limiting low income pupils’ capacity to complete homework. This school is identified as School Five.

“The bigger barrier comes really from children not having a space at home to do the work in, they’re all sharing bedrooms, no child that I know here has their own bedroom.  Not having a space to do homework, not having the family understanding that they need to do homework”  (Social Mobility commission, page 26).

This has led me to think about John, the boy whom I talked about in previous blogs. During parents' day, his grandmother came to talk to me personally. The main thing that emerged was that due to his dysfunctional family, John is suffering mentally, and this had also impacted his academic achievement, which has taken a down turn.

In fact, John fits squarely into the quote above. The boy has no privacy whatsoever. His grandma admitted that he sleeps with her, and that he does his homework and studying on the kitchen table. HIs relationship with his mother is turbulent. He has no father. Given that John has recently lost his grandfather, on whom he looked up as a father figure,and came to our school last September, it stands to reason that the boy has been passing from one trauma to another. This past term was not the best for John, indeed.

Christmas Activities this week

This week was choc-a-bloc with activities. Staff and I took the year 9s to watch a film, for example. We went to watch 'The Nutcracker', which was very well received by all the students.

We also had a whole school mass, which was held in the parish church of the village where our school is situated. The school also has a choir, which animated the mass. Some photos can be seen below.

Yesterday was the last day of school and the students had a pizza party and a disco, which was enjoyed by most. For those who do not like to dance,board games were organised. Others started recounting stories, and cracking jokes.

School ended at 12 noon. I could hardly believe that a term had already passed!

Whole School Mass

Christmas Disco Party

When parents excuse their children's behaviour

On parents' day, I had several parents who came to talk to me. Most came with positive comments, lauding me for the work I am doing. On the other hand, I also met Tom's mother, who came to my office to get her pound of flesh.

Tom (not his real name) was a boy who had been bullied in primary school. His mother came in mid-October to alert me about her son, and that we should take extra care of him. Since then, Tom has not shown any traits of being bullied, rather he is showing signs of being the bully now, and egging others to fight and to show disrespect to the teachers.

A case in point is the Physics lesson where the student advised another class mate, who complained that the teacher was bothering him, to throw a chair at the said teacher. This term, I have had frequent complaints about Tom's behaviour and his lack of willingness to cooperate in class; he is talkative, distracted and does not hand in homework. I spoke to him several times but his behaviour has not ameliorated. These traits came up in most of his teachers' comments during Parents' Day. 

Last Wednesday 12th December, our school had its parents' day and after talking to teachers and hearing negative comments, his  very angry mother came to my office. To cut a long story short, she is refusing to admit that her son has problems in attitude. She does not want her son to have a bad reputation. She said that his behaviour at school is due to the past, because he had been bullied.

I tackled her about the homework and she said that he is old enough to do all alone. Moreover, she also stated that she has enough things to do and rhetorically she told me "what do you expect?" She said that she has no time to sit down next to Tom and watch him do his homework.

I told her that to safeguard his reputation, Tom had to pull up his socks and work hard. However, she kept on beating around the bush and uttering the same phrases, until I finally managed to usher her out of the office.

Even though Tom is being followed by the college counsellor, I think that it is going to be an uphill struggle to deal with the boy, come next term!

Christmas Tree at our school

A photo of the Christmas tree, made up from 1598 plastic bottles, at our school. This tree has won the Maltese National Record of the biggest Christmas Tree made from plastic bottles. We are very proud of our students, and staff who have managed to reach their aim, that of clinching the title of having the biggest Christmas tree on the island.

The Maltese traditonal Christmas at our school

Next Monday 17^th December, our will be open to the public. During this day, the students will be organising a day full of activities related to the Maltese Christmas. These activities begin at 9am.

Among the activities that the students, together with their educators, will be organising, there is a bazaar where ponsiettas will be sold. One stall will be selling books and other paraphernalia which can be given as presents. One might wonder what have these got to do with the Maltese Christmas? There will be Maltese authors who have written about Maltese traditions, and who have enriched the Maltese Christmas. One of these authors is Trevor Zahra, who will visit the school on the day to talk about this subject.

Apart from this, one cannot talk about the Maltese Christmas without talking about food. During this activity, there will be Maltese sweets for sale. These have been  prepared by the students together with the help of their teachers. Among these Maltese sweets, there will be honey rings and the traditional chestnut and chocolate drink, imbuljuta.

There will also be information how the Maltese crib and pasturi are done. There will also be information about the history of the terramaxka. There will also be a terramaxka at school which will be played in front of the student and the public who will be present on the day.

These activities will end at around 1pm, when the public and the students will gather in the main school  yard for the closing ceremony where there will also be a surprise for the students. We are all looking forward to this whole day event.

Parents' Day at our school

Today is the eve of a public holiday in Malta. This morning, we had parents' day at school. This gave the students two consecutive days of holidays. The students were at liberty to come to school with their parents/ guardians, to be able to show them around our school, which is quite huge.

At half past eight in the morning, the school was buzzing. Parents swarmed in to talk to the year teachers, subject teachers and also to meet me, as the assistant head in charge of the year 9s. The atmosphere was very festive, with Christmas music softly playing in the corridors, a stall selling traditional Maltese Christmas goodies and another stall selling brand new books at very low prices, amongst others.

Whilst roaming the corridor, the feedback from the parents was overwhelming. The comments varied from, what a nice school, what a happy atmosphere, how clean the place is. Others thanked me for my efforts and for taking care of their children, and how happy were their sons/daughters to be attending this school. There were also the problematic cases, some of which will be discussed in future blogs, and which I tackled discreetly in my office

It was my first time experiencing Parents' Day as a member of the SMT. It was a truly wonderful experience. The day passed way too soon!

Individual Education Plans in the Maltese Education System

Individual Education Plans are done twice a year in the Maltese educational system - at the beginning of the year, which means in November and at the end, that is, in May.

As from this year, these individual education plans have started to be written online. More emphasis has been added to life skills and to the emotional and social needs of the child. IEPs have become shorter but more incisive. The targets are chosen from a pre-defined list. Although with this new way, it is quicker for the LSE to do the  IEP, it is also a hassle when the child does not fit into one of the targets already written down in the pre-defined list.

I have17 special needs cases in my year 9 group and it has been my duty to meet the parents and to discuss, along with the learning support educator, the individual educational plan, now commonly known as provision mapping. In some of the cases, where the LSE is on a one to one basis, the inclusion coordinator is also present.

These past three weeks have been full with these IEPs. Sometimes, I had one, at other times two a day. Needless to say, these IEPs have been a tiring process, draining me of a lot of energy. Alas, I am not yet done. Some of the parents cancelled their child's  IEP due to sickness and so I still have another two to do. With next week being the last week before school closes down for the Christmas holidays, it is very unlikely that these remaining two will be done next week.

Writing the literature review

Immersed as I am in school activities, I am still focused on writing up my Ph.D. Last week I was on campus, at the University of Warwick for a fleeting two day visit. Then on Saturday I also attended the post graduate conference at the University of Birmingham. I wrote about the conference in last week's blog.

While on campus, I met my supervisors, who have always been very supportive. They congratulated me about my new job appointment, and we discussed my progress. They showed concern that my new job might hinder me from adhering to the time schedule which I had drawn up for my upgrade last year.

However, while I do admit that it is very difficult, as sometimes I am so tired, I am not easily discouraged. My supervisors liked the work that I have done so far. I have done the interviews and transcribed them into English. Now, the hard part of writing up is about to commence. I have been given until May 2019 to finish writing the literature review. Although this past week was busy, I hope to be able to reach my target and work whole-heartedly on the literature review in the coming months.

Post graduate conference at the University of Birmingham

Yesterday, I attended the post graduate conference at the university of Birmingham. It was my first time over there. I really enjoyed every aspect of the day, be it, the posters, the interesting presentations and most of all the keynote address by Professor Diane Reay from the University of Cambridge.

Professor Reay spoke about the habitus, Bourdieu and  English working class students. How these students are at a disadvantage, as they do not have enough cultural capital when compared with their more middle-class peers. We must take away the competition and work more on collaboration.

The posters were all of a high quality (including mine!) which can be found below. The subjects ranged from students perceptions on their alternative education to apprentice ship learning, from Algerian and Chinese students mental well being to the well being of first year undergraduates.

I also attended several presentations, which, although not related to my area of studies, were also highly interesting and informative. These included those about the history of grammar schools in Manchester, Pupils premium, Syrian refugee children and also others about ontology and discourse.

I would like to thank the organisers of this conference. Well done and I hope  to see the University of Birmingham students at the PG conference which will be held at the University of Warwick next 11^th May, 2019.



The poster which I presented yesterday at the post graduate conference organised by the School of Education, University of Birmingham.

Preparation for Half Yearly Exams

Exam preparation is a crucial thing in our system. In fact, SMT have started collecting the half yearly papers since the end of October. The Half yearly exams are held in February, with the next session due to start in mid-February 2019. The exams will last two weeks.

Apart from collecting the scripts, we as SMT, have started preparing for the amount of photocopies of exam papers that need to be ordered. This is done on an excel sheet and next week will be sent to the persons concerned. 

Before the Christmas recess, my colleagues in charge of year 10 and 11 have to work together to finalise the exam timetable. This will become available to the students when we enter back to school in the first week of January. After giving out the timetable, then we will work on the invigilation schedule, and who is marking whose exam papers.

 Exams are a normal process in schools, taken for granted by everybody. As a teacher, I had never realised that it involved so much preparation. These new experiences are helping me to grow and are also making this year more and more memorable.

Are psycho-social services working in schools?

The psycho-social meeting  at our school was held this week. What should have been done at the beginning of October, was done in the middle of November. My first impression was that something was not on. As the assistant head of the year 9s, with the latter being new to the school, I should have been alerted to these most sensitive cases immediately. In fact, the other way has happened.

The meeting consisted of me telling them who I know about and what I have done, in my capacity to support these students. When I told them that I should have been alerted first, especially since this is my first year as assistant head and also as the students have started a new school, I was met with blank stares.

Such meetings should be held at the beginning of every school year, so that the assistant head in charge does not stumble upon the person with problems, by chance, as has happened to me. I have come to know these students and their problems quite by chance, as I have described in my previous blogs.  Knowing about these students before would have helped in handling their cases better.

To add insult to injury, psycho-social services cannot help two particular students, as nothing else can be done for them. So what is the exact role of the prefect of discipline, counsellor and other staff? How come that other students are being deprived of their learning because these students refuse to learn. Are these students going to have to put up with these two particular students for the remaining years of their secondary education? How come this resistance about talking to John (mentioned in a previous blog)? He is already known by the psycho-social services that he has problems at home. Can he be supported? Why do I have to fill referral forms when he is already known to them?

A solution needs to be found and quickly. When I stated this opinion aloud, I was met with a wall of silence. 

Anonymous phone calls at school

Last Thursday dawned a fine day. It was also one of those hectic days where I felt rushed off my feet.

My office is in a big room situated in the middle of the corridor, where I can have a view of the going about of the students. I share my office with my colleague who is in charge of year 11. 

The first thing that struck me, when I was first shown my office was the view.The view is brilliant as you can see different parts of Malta as far away as the sea. However, my colleague quickly told me that I would not have a lot of time to mull over the view. How right she was!!

So on Thursday, my colleague called in sick. This was a huge blow for me. It was the first time that I was going to handle both the year 9s and year 11s. This was double the work, but I was up to the challenge.

Then at around 10 in the morning, an anonymous phone call came in, reporting a teacher. I made it clear that I did not accept such types of phone calls and that she has to identify herself. The woman replied that she would not as it did not make a difference to me. A short battle of words ensued, where she threatened to report me higher up, that is to the higher echelons in the Education Department, that I was not doing my work and that I did not care about my students. I told her that she would still need to identify herself to report me. At that point, she hung up.

I must admit that her attitude really got me down at that moment, but then, I realized that I had a multitude of things to do and continued with my chores. All in a day's work!

The view from my office

The Christmas Crib Competition

Now, that mid-term has passed, all educators look forward to the next six week block. This is an exciting time for us at school, as it leads to the two-week break connected with Christmas. A myriad of events are organised in our school. One staple feature of the run-up to Christmas is the Christmas crib competition. The poster is shown below.

The main point of this competition is that besides making the students think about the significance of Christmas, they also use a variety of recycled materials.  In addition, the school is decorated with the cribs that the students themselves would have done. This enhances in the students their sense of pride and ownership of the school.

The competition opened this week. My year 9s showed a lot of interest and asked a lot of intelligent questions about what they could use or could not, to build a crib. The staff and I are looking forward to the end of this month to be see what the students would have created.

How mental health is affected by the situation at home: a student's example

This week, while patrolling the corridor, I came across John (not his real name), crying all alone in the corridor. It is very unusual to find somebody outside the classroom during lesson time. I have been drumming into my year 9's that a forty minute lesson has to last forty minutes and they have to make the most of it. They are following this maxim to the hilt.

So, I was immediately concerned when I saw John all alone. I ushered him to my office and let him calm down. He took a glass of water which I offered and slowly, his crying subsided. When asked what happened, he said that there was nothing amiss. Everything was fine both at school and at home. He would not explain his sudden outburst of crying, which occurred when he was going back to his class after visiting the bathroom. He said that recently he started having these fits of crying. The latter comment started the bells ringing. He asked leave to go back to the lesson and I accompanied him there to show the teacher that he had been with me.

On my return to the office, I phone home. The person who answered was his grandmother, and when asked about John's well-being, a whole sad story tumbled out. John's mother had him when she was only 15 years old. She does not know who the father is. John also has a younger brother, also from an unknown father. The grandmother, a widow, is doing her utmost to bring up the two children well. 

However, she admitted that John was suffering mentally, possibly even from depression, as his mother was aggressive towards him and his brother. In addition, the mother left the siblings all alone while she went out partying in the weekends. All these things were affecting John badly. His grandmother added that in middle school, he had been followed by the college counsellor. I promised that I would do my utmost so that John benefits from this service in our school and hung up.

Next Wednesday, there is a scheduled a meeting with the college psycho-social team. John's name is going to top the list.

My Ph.D studies

This year we had five days of mid term holidays, including Saturday and Sunday. In Malta,  up till a few years ago, on the 1st and 2nd November, we celebrated All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. Now, these feasts have been superseded by Halloween.

These days have helped me to unwind from the school and also to concentrate on my Ph.D. Currently, I am in the fourth year of my studies, which I am doing on a part-time basis with the University of Warwick.  I am studying the perceptions of students who are involved in an alternative education programme. This means that these students follow a different curriculum than their peers, even though they attend a mainstream school.

Thus, my main research question is: How do students who are on the verge of early school leaving, and who have a track record of absenteeism perceive the alternative education provided to them?

I gathered the data last scholastic year between October 2017 and June 2018. The methodology used was of a qualitative nature.Twenty students were interviewed out of their free will. These were chosen at random and asked about their perceptions on the education that they were receiving. The interviews were conducted one to one at a time which was convenient to both of us. Each interview lasted between 15 and 20 minutes. The interviews were held in Maltese, the students' native language. 

During the interview, the students were asked a series of semi-structured questions, which the students expanded upon. All interviews were digitally recorded. Currently, I am translating these interviews into English and transcribing them. I hope to write a blog soon about my findings.

 

Oppositional defiant behaviour

Today was marked by one great episode. On Tuesdays, there is a 10 minute period at the start of the day where the year teachers meet their class. This is known as form time.

This morning, the year teachers were instructed to distribute the lanyards which the students had paid for at the beginning of the year. The lanyards denoting my year are orange. These have to be worn on school premises all the time so that everybody knows in which form one  is and in which transport route one is part of.

This particular girl, when given the lanyard, immediately opposed to it. This girl is diagnosed with  oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). The latter is a condition in which a child displays an ongoing pattern of an angry or irritable mood, defiant or argumentative behaviour, and vindictiveness toward people in authority. The child's behaviour often disrupts the child's normal daily activities, including activities within the family and at school. Many children and teens with ODD also have other behavioural problems, such as attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, mood disorders (such as depression), and anxiety disorders. Some children with ODD go on to develop a more serious behaviour disorder called conduct disorder.

This girl fits into this picture perfectly. She is supported by a learning support educator on a one to one basis. Usually she is very quiet. Today, her reaction to the lanyard was explosive. She began screaming, shouting and running away from her LSE. She used obscene language in my regard, and also in front of the other assistant heads.

Her mother was contacted and after some persuading about the gravity of the situation, she left her workplace and came to school. The girl was also angry at her mother, especially when my colleagues and I told her about the events of the morning and how she had escaped from the learning support assistant four times.

The saga ended at around eleven in the morning, when mother and daughter left the school together. The event had drained me of all the energy. I am so looking forward to the mid-term holidays!

Marital separation and its effects on children

This week was hassling due to the things I had to do. Parents, student problems of whatever kind, form assembly, meeting parents are some of things I did this week. Time really seems to fly by!

I am today going to focus on one case in point, which remains imprinted on my mind. One day of this week, I phoned a parent of a Year 9 student because his son was misbehaving at school. He had also disrespected a teacher. The father is very willing to cooperate with the school SMT. In fact, when I phoned him, he offered to come to school on that day since he had a day off from work.

We soon realised that he wants the best for his unruly son. However, behind this man’s exterior, we could realise that there was a broken person. Slowly the  story of marital separation began to emerge.

As SMT, we decided to confront the boy in front of his father. The boy was surprised when he was summoned from his class to the headmaster’s office, and saw his father there. The boy’s mother is nowhere in the picture. The boy is also broken by his past, he needs professional help and the school will be providing this service.

At our school, we take the pastoral care of our students very seriously. We want their well being and we also want to ensure that they are emotionally and mentally stable so that they can focus on their academic endeavours.

Pink October

As in previous weeks, this week was also chock-a-block filled with activities. These included a start of the year mass at the Parish Church, talks about Health and Safety and also Pink October. This was celebrated last Friday.

As most of you would know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is a worldwide annual campaign involving thousands of organisations, to highlight the importance of breast awareness, education and research. The aim behind this month is to get as many people as possible involved in raising awareness and funds for breast cancer research.

 Last Friday, we had a strawberry milkshake day, whilst there was also a special assembly and the Honourable wife of the Prime Minister also came to visit the school. 

She is the chairperson of the Marigold Foundation. This Foundation works in various ways with different organisations to create awareness, amongst others, of the different types of cancers.

The Prime Minister's wife talked to the students about cancer awareness, and they listened attentively. She also saw the art exhibition, where the students drew posters and slogans in relation to breast cancer awareness.One activity thought of by the students was that of creating bookmarks. The latter were created in the students’ free time, and were done in a range of colours, mainly pink, blue and black. These were sold by the students to the staff and their peers.

October is fast drawing to a close but, after last Friday's event, I am sure that the students learned a lot, and are more aware of breast cancer.

Of high expectations and other things

Today was one of those extremely exhaustive days,

It started off with assembly time for my year 9s. In it, I spoke to them about the rules of the  school. This is a new school for them. They all come from the nearby middle school, which does not have as high expectations as ours. I reminded them that any fighting was not allowed. Jokes involving touching other people were also not permissible. We have high expectation for them and I made sure to drill this message into my students.

After seeing them off to their respective classes, I contacted the SEBD specialist for my most difficult student, Peter (not his true name). She gave me an appointment for the end of the month. The prefect of discipline will also be paying him a visit at the end of the week, so hopefully, things will start moving in his regard. I am determined that he should get all the help that he needs whilst attending our school.

My role involves also giving a lot of support. Teachers also came to give the names of those students who were disrupting lessons. Others came to the office to have support regarding the curriculum and others to ask questions about the Pink October activities which will be held on Friday.

The list is endless. The afternoon was filled with students who came for one thing or another. One had an altercation with her teacher and she was sent to cool off in my office. I called another boy to discuss his behaviour in class and also on the school transport. I called another one to talk to him that teachers were concerned that he had not gotten his homework.

All in all, I was very happy when the bell rang for dismissal at 3pm!

A day at school

This October is really flying by so fast! It is already the middle of the month. Last Monday we had mass to commemorate the beginning of the scholastic year. This was held in the parish church, which is a stone's throw away from our school. 

I walked it to church with my year 9s. Next to me, I had Peter ( not his real name). He has a plethora of problems at home which overspill into his academic work and how he behaves in class. It is a new school for both him and me, as our school caters for year 9, 10 and 11. After the weekend, Peter came to school highly energetic. He could not stay still and I immediately smelled trouble. Whilst walking to church, I tried to distract him, by encouraging him to talk about his weekend, hoping that his tensions would diffuse. But it was to no avail. 

During mass itself, he continued with his misbehaviour, even though he said that he was an altar boy. He continued to play with the stress ball, sometimes throwing it in the air, and he was moving from one bench to another when I went to another part of the church to see that all the classes were in order. This caused disruption during the service as the students were turning round and looking at him. Some of them were even laughing and I had to tell them to turn and face the altar again.

After mass, we returned back to school..... time for a cup of tea! That is what I thought! However, it was not to be! The college prefect of discipline, summoned the previous week, came in the office. We started discussing Peter's behaviour and how best to handle him. We also summoned him in front of us. However the meeting ended abruptly.

The girl who had a fit some two weeks ago, had another one. By the time, the fit ended and her parents came for her, I was exhausted! 

The afternoon brought the usual trickle of students, some of them saying that they were feeling sick and so, I had to phone home. Others came to talk and ask for advice about this and that. It was truly a remarkable day!

Pastoral care of year 9s

As part of my duties as assistant head, I was assigned the pastoral care of the year 9s. This is a very enriching experience but also very exhausting and stressful. But what is exactly pastoral care of the students? According to Konu, Alanen, Lintonen and Rimpela (2002), it is the awareness of the health and wellbeing of students which is increasingly being attributed to school conditions, school relationships, means of fulfilment and health status.


At our school, the wellbeing of our students comes first and foremost. We value them and heed to them. However, students and their parents/guardians also have to do their bit. A case in point is a special meeting for students and their parents/guardians in which they had been warned that students must not touch each other. They must not indulge in playing with their hands. Fights were not to be tolerated.

This week was highlighted by several issues such as a couple of fights between rival gangs of students in my year 9. At my school, we pride ourselves on our efficiency. These have been dealt with swiftly and thoroughly. Students involved were given a one day exclusion. This was done to the utmost chagrin of some of the parents, who insisted, sometimes vociferously, that they had not known about these rules as they had not attended the meeting. Others threatened to go to the Education Department. They felt that it was unfair that their child, who had not started the fight, but had just retaliated, would be excluded.

In this second week at the helm of my year 9s, I also had to attend a two day course about the school finance - how it is structured, how the computer programme works and a vast array of other paraphernalia.

However, nothing beats the satisfaction when I see the smile of a student who, after talking to me, leaves the office with a smile. That surely makes my day!

The first week of my new job as assistant head

My first week as assistant head

This first week has been a whirlwind. I have had everything - a crash course in school finance, disciplining the handful of unruly students, met parents and also helped a student during a panic attack.

What is really fascinating about this first week in the job is that it is so varied and a world away from the job of a teacher. Time seems to fly by so fast.

Since now, the best parts have been that of monitoring the students, checking on them during the change of lessons, assembly time and also checking on the students' pastoral needs.

The school building in itself is very nice. It is a state of the art building, inaugurated in 1998. My view is fantastic. The internet works well and everything is in order. I am so lucky! I could not ask for a better school!

I look forward to many more such days, managing my year 9s and getting immersed in  the school life.