Covid and how it has affected youths

 In my job as assistant head of school, I am lucky enough to work closely with young people. I love my job, I get to know about the latest fashion trends, songs and popular slang words.

This year, I am in charge of year 9 students and these past two months since I have started caring for them have shown that Covid has left a dreadful impact on these young people's mental health. This year, I am seeing more depressed youths. When I talk to them to try and find why they are like this, one thing emerges. This is the fact that they were cut off from their friends at the beginning of the pandemic when schools closed abruptly at the beginning of March 2020. Many have been complaining of loneliness, others say that they have developed OCD conditions, still others are despairing that life can ever be the same again. This has caused great anxiety, with these 13 year olds asking me whether they will ever get to enjoy their youth without any restrictions whatsoever.

Students' mental health and well-being are very important as they also impact the students academic performance. I am grateful that I am being supported all around, I have had meetings with parents, and students are being looked after by guidance teachers. Next week, class interventions will be done in those classes which have the most number of depressed and anxious students. These interventions have been timed to happen before schools break up for the Christmas recess, to help cushion the effect that students might have if they are at home alone during the holidays. This is one small step in my journey with this cohort of students - as a school we care for their holistic development and that with time, slowly but surely, they will feel better,

Schools in Malta amid the pandemic

Six months after the first case of covid-19 appeared in Malta, schools are still closed for pupils. With Malta placing the third in the EU for deaths pro rata, the situation looks very bleak.  While schools opened last Monday for educators, students will start coming in to school in a staggered way starting from October 7th till the 14th.

The situation was under control at the beginning of July, but after airport was opened, and a series of mass events were held, the situation relapsed and the number of those infected started increasing daily. There have now been registered 35 deaths related to Covid 19, and more than 700 people are infected with the virus.

Schools closed immediately in March after the first few cases were diagnosed. Online teaching was implemented. However, now it is essential that schools open as students cannot remain cooped at home. They need to socialise and even though they will be in bubbles, there is nothing better than meeting one's friends face to face. This also goes for the learning. It is better to teach students when they are in  front of you and you can monitor their behaviour.

Looking forward to this scholastic year, with all the problems and obstacles it will offer!

Malta scores low in PIsa results

Once again, Malta has scored abysmally in the Pisa results. What is of particular concern to me is the fact that state schools still rank behind church and independent schools. This is an injustice to the majority of students on the Maltese Islands who attend state schools.

More needs to be done. Whilst one cannot deny that a lot is being done structure wise, with new schools being built, and older ones being refurbished, unfortunately, this is not the way to go.

Social justice for these children can be gotten by raising standards and expectations of all students, once again instilling discipline in schools, and putting importance on kindness, and respect, both towards authority, towards each other and also towards the environment.  Being smart is also a value which has gone with the wind.

Letting students come to school with their tracksuits, or letting boys wear earrings is not the way forward. Whilst I have nothing against equality, schools should be allowed to set their own policies and not have them imposed upon by the Education Department. Giving students everything they want is strictly not on. In life, one cannot get everything one wants. A rethinking of the way that Maltese state schools are heading is to be urgently done.

The full details about the Pisa results can be found in this link:

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/education-system-in-the-dock-as-students-score-low-in-major-survey.

SAB POSTU F’AMBJENT TA’ TAGĦLIM ADDATTAT GĦALIH

A student speaking about his experiences at a vocational school. He says that he is very happy as this is the ideal place for him to learn and thrive.

This school is found in the central town of Paola and caters for students aged 15 to 18 years.

Education Exposed: Leading a school in a time of Uncertainty

I read this book, which was published at the end of January, in just three days. As an assistant head of school, I got to know about it through twitter. Further perusal of it, made me conclude that this book would be useful to me and I pre-ordered this book, so that I could read it as soon as it got published. Even though my context is different, as I live in Malta, I could very well understand and empathize with what the author was stating.

This book has many interesting topics which are all important for school leaders. The book starts with behaviour, which is a crucial aspect of any school. The salient point about behaviour is that behaviour has to be taught. I fully concur with this. The school should show to students where the boundaries lie and what it does and does not accept.

The author also comments on the learning outcomes. This method of teaching is being introduced slowly into Maltese schools, along with continuous assessment. I concur with Strickland in that the children knowing the learning objectives is not beneficial to them.

Strickland also mentions another point: that of the importance of team work among teachers in a school. It is also essential that the school head invests in the people who work around him. As he states, a good school is one where students have one good teacher after another.

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to all those who like me are in a position of
leadership in a school, as it gives you much to think about.

Continous Assessment and changes in the Maltese education system

Last Friday, at school, we had training about continuous assessment. This will be introduced as from next scholastic year, in year 9 in all subjects. This change will affect all Maltese schools. The students will be made to complete between three to five tasks , spread over three years, that is, from year nine to eleven.

While I am not averse to continuous assessment per se, I have my doubts whether this system will be successful. The Education Department is assuming that we live in an utopian world where all students are keen to learn, where they will all do their tasks and complete them by the deadline date. The stark reality for those who work in schools could not be further away from this. Nowadays, with the inclusive system in place in Maltese schools, schools are co-ed, and all academic abilities are grouped together in secondary school. Students with challenging behaviour are always a force to be reckoned with. The intake in schools depends on the catchment area, which severely defines the school culture.

These changes being wrought to the Maltese education system have all been done in the last few  years. These changes have occurred at such a fast pace that sometimes, it becomes quite a headache to keep up. Thus, next year, teachers at my school will be facing the advent of the learning outcomes framework and also this new system of continuous assessment. Half yearly exams have also been scrapped.

While I will be there to support teachers in the implementation of these system, I have very grave reservations about these. Will they lead to a better education for our students? Are these systems equitable for all students? While I am in favour of inclusion, only time will tell whether these changes will be a success or not.

Working out the classification

These past few weeks, my time has been taken up by the classification of students.  As from next month, my year 9's will be starting their year 10 and as per school practice, I will be following them until the end of year 11.

One of the tasks which I had to do was to classify the students for year 10. It has involved a lot of work, but luckily, I am now ready. The basic subjects used to classify the students are Maths, Maltese, English and Physics. However, in a couple of cases, I also used my discretion. After a year chasing them up and down, I know the students quite well by now. I know their behaviour and attitudes. I know who should be in class with and who should not. Apart from being classified for the whole class,  students are also set for maths, maltese, english and physics,  a foreign language (either German, Irtalian, French or Spanish), PSCD, and two options.

The classification, done on excel, yielded interesting aspects, which were to be expected. One of them was that those who had spent the whole year laughing and chattering in class, did very badly indeed. Some went down by two or three classes. Those who put an effort, performed very well and went in better classes. I had been alerting my students that the classification would be done by marks since March and I had been urging them to study and prepare for the exams. Some started laughing in my face! Well, now it is really a case of what you sow, you reap!

So, I was very satisfied with the outcome and I am looking forward to seeing the looks on my students' faces, when I will call them out for their new class come the 25th September!