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.