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.