What Makes A Good School?

I have to be honest and state that I do not believe there is anything such as a bad school. Certainly, there are schools that face a variety of different challenges and problems which may be quite unique in character and perhaps specific to particular characterictics of the community in which they operate, but schools, like children in my view, are all fundamentally good.

There is little doubt in my mind either, that what I am about to suggest here as elementary ingredients of a good school, is open to debate and probably criticism. So be it! At its core, a good school is one that prioritises the development of warm, caring and empathetic relationships within its community, ie. between students, students and staff and staff and parents. A school has to work hard at this. As one parent just recently and no doubt quite accurately suggested to me, that while we would all wish it were so, parents do not necessarily have as their greatest priority the school at which their child attends, or more accurately, its day-to-day operations. In particular this was in reference to ensuring that there is a regular and “received” level of communication.

But, it is the consistent and at times, persistent efforts at ensuring the messages are received that helps make a good school. It is through this that levels of consistency in expectations are developed and agreed. Schools are people places and as a result, demand attention to the establishment and maintenance of strong and supportive relationships in order that reasonable, realistic and importantly, achieveable goals for a child can be cooperatively pursued.

In my opinion, bricks and mortar do not make a good school. There is no doubt they enhance a school but in themselves, they do not make it good. There is no shadow of doubt in my mind that the cornerstone to a good school is very clearly determined by the quality of the staff who work there. The professionals who work with our young people and deliver the curriculum in an engaging and meaningful way are the key. It’s not just about the teaching though. It is about the hours of time these people spend, just being with the children (not just in classrooms), talking to them and listening to their issues, offering a few words of encouragement or advice here and there in an effort to provide support in times which can be very confusing. I have used the word children deliberately - because I think we can sometimes be at risk of forgetting the fact that our students are still children, albiet their experiences are significantly advanced of what ours may have been when we were of a similar age. In this sense, I believe our young people can often be quite a way ahead of themselves and herein often lies the basis for conflict, both at school and at home. This, to some degree is another issue, although schools that are good will always try to work with the parents in providing a consistent and supportive approach.

We should never be apologetic for espousing and demanding standards of acceptable behaviour and conduct in our schools. Hopefully these are consistent with those which are emphasised at home, although sometimes, too often unfortunately, they are not. A good school demands certain standards and these are reinforced throughout by all staff, from Kindergarten to Year 12, without favour and in the interests of developing well rounded, empathetic individuals who have a strong sense of what is right and appropriate. There is something good, as well, in the development of a strong sense of esprit de corps and affinity with a school community in which we all have a part to play and where no one person is more important than another within its fabric. Yes, there should be an acceptance that we may all have differing roles to play, but we are all as important as each other.

Academic achievement may well be the most important ingredient for some in gauging what is a good school. I do not wish to debate that, suffice to say that schools are more than just a TE score or a position on a media driven and promoted league table (quite mischieveously and irresponsibly in my opinion). Ultimately, a child’s capacity to make informed and realisable choices about his or her future pathway at the end of their schooling is determined by results. From my perspective, however, if the school has provided them with many of life’s tools in order to be able to do that, along with a personal sense of achievement, perhaps including an appropriate TE score from which to advance, then it will have gone some distance towards earning the tag of a good school. Along the way, hopefully, these same children will have learned to accept a high level of personal accountability, to the extent where they can acknowledge what they have achieved, along with the individuals who have also played a part throughout the journey. If they are honest, depending on their own levels of effort, I am confident they would recognise the staff with whom they have interacted as being major influences.

There is much to being a good school. Nothing along the way is necessarily easy, nor is it achieved without high levels of sustained effort and work. However, the knowledge that a school provides a secure, safe and supportive environment where each individual is valued as a special part in its tapestry and in so saying, has a dedicated and concerned staff to facilitate, develop and enact its ideals is one large step along the way to ensuring a school such as Fahan is a good one.

Real Benefits in School Continuity

There are real benefits in a student undertaking and completing an education at one school. In this sense, schools like Fahan, that offer an educational continuum over a student’s school life provide a significant advantage for children and I suspect, their parents.

Yet, every year there is a sense of restlessness among those in Year 10 (at most schools I suspect). Why? In large part it is caused by a lack of understanding or factual knowledge about what occurs in a school that offers an education continuum beyond Year 10. This includes ignorance of subject offering and diversity. There is also a lack of appreciation for the more collegial relationships that begin to develop with staff as student interest and thus willingness to seriously and more deeply explore the subjects they study, become considerably more developed than in their previous years. In part it is also due to what I would call “the green grass syndrome”. This is a curious view that develops in our young people that, everything will be better elsewhere - more freedom, maybe no uniform, apparently greater independence and so the excuses mount up. There are also other reasons offered, such as, “I have been here too long, I need a change.”

I think there remains a need for our young people to learn about the concept of going the distance, in the sense that it now becomes their turn to lead the school, to make a positive impact in a number of new areas, through their presence and contribution and to finish their schooling on a high note.

Despite the rumblings among certain sections of their peer group, thankfully, the vast majority of students (and their parents) sensibly recognize the real benefits of remaining where they are for the final, and arguably, most critical, couple of years that will complete their schooling.

An important reason to stay on is that the staff are generally well known to most students. Certainly in a smaller school such as Fahan, there is considerable familiarity with those teachers who teach Year 11 and 12 courses. Many of them have taught across Years 9 and 10 as well. The girls have established friendships, familiarity with routines and the school, an enviable record of students’ achieving the best of which they are capable. Along with these advantages there is the serious prospect of an enjoyable school life with added responsibility opportunities and some of the other “rights of passage” to which they can look forward.

It is also worth emphasising that the co-operating Schools’ relationship provides a signicant breadth of subject offering that is not often appreciated. Even students in the larger Colleges are not guaranteed being able to study all the subjects they want, yet in the vast majority of cases, Fahan students do.

Above all this is the fact that there is actually no need to change in the first place. Rarely have I heard a logical and substantial reason . All our students have to do is to work consistently and do their best and a successful outcome is a strong likelihood. Importantly, there is already a continuity in their learning - so why risk losing all the advantages on what I consider to be, very largely, a flawed logic?

It is appreciated when our parents are willing to work with the school in order to bring about the best outcomes. This is but another of the challenges with which children can present us. It is, then, especially worth holding fast to that which is good.

It’s Our Turn

I wonder how often we have taken the time to remember our school days? For some of us I am sure such musings will occur frequently, for others rarely. For those of us who do remember those years, there can be no doubt about the variety of feelings and emotions the exercise will bring forward. There will be the names of friends and peers, staff who made an impact upon us (for whatever reason), activities in which we participated, games we won or lost, maybe even the smells of boarding house food or those emanating from the canteen…..there will be lots of memories that come flooding back.

One thing is for sure - the facilities we enjoyed while we attended school were most probably, in large part the work of others who had gone before us. These parents, families, benefactors and supporters of our school made it what it was for us to enjoy. In the same way as a relay race unfolds, so does the life and history of a school - its just that now, its our turn to carry the baton.

What are we to do with this responsibility? I hope we are prepared to grab hold of it with determination, just as those who carried it before have done. Our significant priority has to be of the school as it currently stands - agreed. However, we also need to consider the bigger picture and at least pay some thought to the concept of handing our baton on to those who follow, having left the school a little better than when we were responsible for it.

It is a serious responsibility we carry. Imagine our disappointment if the baton we were to receive was dropped before we wrapped our fingers around it? Our chances of finishing the race well placed would be significantly dashed. We are fortunate at Fahan, because we have been handed a baton in good time and it has placed us well for our our leg. It’s now our chance to carry it proudly and edge to the lead in order to ensure we are as well placed as possible to hand it to our team mate who is waiting.

How can you do this? I encourage you to speak with Ric Fletcher, our Director of Development, who I know will outline a number of tactics for you - to make your part of this race a winning leg.

Time to end Division

All Tasmanian parents have a right to reasonable government support of their children’s education, regardless to which school they choose to send them.
I am pleased to see the Labor Party adopting a more positive, reasoned approach to education policy, committing to parental choice by maintaining funding support for all students in schools. Government education policy should be about supporting individual children as opposed to the schools they attend.

Why should parents, who are willing to dig deep into their pockets to fund the education of their children, not receive support from the government?

I think it’s time we stopped attempting to maintain what is fundamentally a beat up debate between those who make the choice to educate their children in state schools and families who make a choice to send their children to independent schools, often at a considerable financial sacrifice. Ultimately, the right to choose an education for one’s children should be reasonably supported by a fair level of financial assistance, per child, to achieve this.

Isn’t it time the propagators of unfairness in educational funding gave it a break and let each system get on with doing the best it can to ensure a solid educational foundation for all the students we have in our schools?

What about a National school starting age first?

While I have some reservations about what might really be proposed in a national curriculum, I believe there is a more important issue at stake in this whole debate.

Serious consideration of a national curriculum is of little relevance until such time as the critical matter of school starting ages is addressed. The current national environment where students, to a significant extent, complete their secondary schooling in Queensland aged on the lower side of 17 compared to those in southern and other states who are generally above this and closer to 18 (generally), makes it very hard to understand the pedagogical logic in a national curriculum.

This is quite a mouthful and probably reflects the confusion and levels of disparity that exist between states in matters of education. It is a fact that every child develops at a different rate. How can valid comparisons of performance between students in states where school starting ages are so different be made? It is a reality that the age difference may almost be as great as 18 months. Given an individual student’s age and years at school, it is very hard to see such a national curriculum focus providing a level playing field for students around the nation.

Apart from the need to ensure that there are elements within a national curriculum that take account of region specific details perhaps (eg in history), the real matter for resolution first, in my view, needs to be agreement to school starting ages around the nation.