Aggressive behaviour, rule-breaking less, peer interactions improve
By Judy H. Fitzpatrick
"I have seen a lot of improvement in my son controlling his anger," says the parent of a nine-year-old.
"He has become more apologetic and thinks more before reacting to circumstances," says the parent of a 10-year-old. "The system has helped... [It] allows children to see that there are those who really care," the parent added.
Parents of pupils enrolled in the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) school social care/community school's programme are singing praises to the institution and its team for the positive changes they have seen in their children who passed through the programme.
The school has also documented the improvement in the behaviour of pupils in particular those who are at-risk, who are given tailor-made attention.
SDA is one of five primary schools that initiated the community school programme in collaboration with the Department of Education Policy Research and Innovations (DERPI) in the 2007/2008 academic year as a means of bringing the community and schools together to keep pupils meaningfully occupied after school hours. The programme offers support skills, homework guidance and creates a home-away-from-home setting and experience for students with working parents.
Education Commissioner William Marlin, a proponent of the programme and an educator by training, says education works best when everyone – community and school – work together. He said the programmes provide a safe environment for pupils and create opportunities for them to broaden their horizons and learn.
At SDA the programme, which runs from 1:00 to 5:00pm, places heavy emphasis on positive behaviour change through its social care programme. This has been highly successful.
"There has been a significant change in problem behaviour after students participated in the social skills programme," Social Care Coordinator Shirly Robley tells Weekender.
She said the frequency of problem behaviour was 58 per cent among the at-risk children selected for the social skills programme during the 2008/2009 academic year. Statistics for the just ended 2009/2010 year is currently being compiled.
After participating in the programme only 24 per cent of the students displayed problem behaviour. Problems with peer interactions decreased from 41 per cent to eight per cent.
She said the prevalent problem behaviour among students was in the area of rule-breaking (66 per cent) and aggression (74 per cent). "Students are still displaying problem behaviour in these two areas, but the occurrence of this behaviour has decreased significantly," she said noting that rule breaking has reduced to 16 per cent and aggressive behaviour has plummeted to about eight per cent.
And it's not just the school and parents lauding the results of the programme. Pupils are also reporting on their personal successes. "Pupils have reported that they have learnt to be assertive, and respectful," said Robley. "Some have written down the ways they have avoided getting into trouble and the times they were tease-busters. Some have itemised the things they did or said to avoid negative peer pressure. They have learnt to implement the various skills taught, such as listening basics; using correct posture, appropriate tone of voice, volume and eye contact. They have also improved on their use of manners, etiquette and speech. Being assertive, optimistic and positive is now a way of life. The greater benefits have come in these areas, as they have also learnt to be in charge of their feelings, use anger management and build a positive reputation. They have also learnt the importance of using the virtues in their everyday life."
The community school programme is an extension of the regular school system. Both systems work in close collaboration with each other so that challenges experienced in the regular school setting can be addressed in depth via the community school's social care programme and progress reported.
In explaining the approach to addressing behaviour issues, Robley said a portfolio is compiled containing the evaluation of each child by means of questionnaires that are filled in by parents, teachers, group leaders and Robley. A programme is then tailored to address the challenges identified. This programme is put in place to impart social skills to the students, which Robley said is geared towards assisting in curbing "unwanted social behaviour."
"It is heartening to note that over the past school year, 2008-2009, the result of the social care project has revealed that the systematic implementation of a social-emotional programme on a weekly basis has been very beneficial in controlling problem behaviour among students," she said. The school thanks REDA Sosial Carmencita Chemont of Stichting SEDNA for their assistance in guiding and helping to finance this process.
Community involvement: how it started
SDA officials were excited when they were selected by government as one of five schools for the pilot programme. The other schools are Methodist Agogic Center John A. Gumbs campus; Sr. Marie Laurence; Hillside Christian and Oranje. SDA already had an afternoon school programme running on a small scale for three years prior and was happy for the "stepping stone" opportunity to expand with the community school concept.
Principal Merlese Lake said the school turned to the community to ready a section of the institution for the project. A number of businesses were approached to aid in the renovation of an unused section of the school and to also assist with items such as furniture. While most businesses indicated at the time that they hadn't the financial resources to assist, they offered to help in kind by donating material.
The school was then able to renovate a space on its premises which was in disrepair and transform it through the joint effort and contribution of businesses, school board and staff, parents and friends. Renovated was an office, boys' and girls' bathrooms, a waiting area and a first aid office. Robley quantified the donation in cash and kind to about US $25,000, which was the budget that had been prepared for the project.
"Businesses gave used and new material, and in a few cases financial contributions were made. Parents and friends volunteered their services after working hours to help create this much needed space where interaction with parents, students and staff would occur. This support has continued to the present," Robley said.
The programme
Between 85 and 90 children per year have passed through the SDA school programme. During the past academic year, about five pupils were from the community and not students of the SDA school. The school can accommodate up to 100 pupils in the programme. Registration for the upcoming academic year is ongoing via Coordinator Ana Laura Woodley (586-9196). Vernon Illidge was coordinator of the programme up to December 2009.
The programme at all schools is sponsored by government through the Department for Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs and DERPI through Dutch Funding Agency USONA. Parents of children attending SDA pay US $40 per month, while those who are not enrolled pay US $75. The extra funds for non-students are to help cover costs such as insurance, for which SDA students are already covered.
As is the case with other schools in the pilot programme, government provides SDA with four youth leaders, two homework guides, three special instructors and a social care coordinator. Also working with the programme is a cook and cleaner, who also help guide students as part of the team.
The SDA programme offers social care, arts and craft, music, poetry, drama, sports instruction, health and homework guidance and computer skills. Swimming is offered as an extra activity that is optional for parents. A fee of US $25 is charged for this activity as the instructor has to be paid. Each child also receives a hot daily meal and fruit. They also get a 20-minute napping time just after lunch to recuperate.
The programme also has "career awareness" sessions in which professionals from the community are brought in to speak to students about their professions. In some cases, such as for mechanics, demonstrations are also done. Students are also sometimes taken on field trips to businesses as part of the career awareness sessions.
Lake stressed that the community schools programme is an extension of the regular school. However, efforts are made for students to feel comfortable and not as if they are in the rigid academic school setting. This is partly achieved by students getting the opportunity to change into regular clothing when the programme starts.
Apart from the positive changes parents are seeing in their children, Lake said several parents have reported that they feel more at ease knowing that their children are in a safe learning environment after school hours. Parents are also happy with the savings they have accrued in money they would have spent on transportation costs to take their children from school to another location.
Project Manager for Foundation Based Education Oralie Boirard said the idea of the Community School Programme is to have members of the community involved in the programme and for the school to be involved in the community in which it is located. She said most of the programmes have benefitted from the community support and involvement, but DERPI would like to see this increased where the programmes can depend on the continuous support from the community.
"We would want to see more persons in the community visit the programmes and share their knowledge and skills with the students in the various areas such as storytelling, drama and art, cooking and dance and any other positive learning expertise that might be available in the community. We would also like to see the schools take a more pro-active and visible role in the communities where they are located," she said.
In the meantime, as they prepare to enter the fourth year of the programme, the SDA School thanks all those who helped make the project a reality and said it will continue on the same path to continue to achieve results. The SDA school plans to mention everyone's name in a subsequent ad.
