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.

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.

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.

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!