Creating a Safe Learning Environment
“It is clear to anyone who has been in education for any length of time that children are now acting differently in school and community than children did 20 – 30 years ago” (Vincent P F, 1996)
A 2006 school violence survey revealed that one in seven primary teachers surveyed reported being physically assaulted. Truancy is at an all time high and there is a clear link between this fact and youth crime rates. Bullying was nominated as the reason 10% of secondary students are absent on any given day. NZ principals identify disruptive behaviour as the most common in-school obstacle to learning.
Family life has changed with children now being more likely to experience a number of different family arrangements than in the past. Sole parenting is common, parents are older and large numbers of children have no resident father figure.
It is UnitedFuture policy to:
- Include parents where possible in developing and enforcing agreements between students with disruptive behaviour and the school prior to resorting to exclusions and/or stand-downs.
- Require the government to respond to the recent call from NZEI Te Riu Roa (primary teachers’ union) to provide clear guidelines for teachers as to how to manage and reduce disruptive behaviour.
- Support restorative justice styled disciplinary programmes in schools to combat bullying and other misbehaviour, requiring the student to understand the implications of his/her actions, involving the parents, and arriving at a punishment (e.g. community service) that is an alternative to suspension or expulsion.
- Expect principals and senior staff to regionally to develop on- and off-site alternative provision for suspensions longer than five days, with all exclusions properly recorded.
- Make discipline a key factor in evaluating school performance.
- Resource alternative education providers to work with at-risk youth who have dropped out of mainstream schooling.
- Break down the information that the Ministry currently collects on truancy and stand-down rates by schools, not just by region.
- Improve classroom discipline by developing ‘responsible behaviour agreements’, to be signed by disruptive students, their parents and the school principal, setting out expectations for improved behaviour, steps to be taken, and consequences for failure.
- Merge District Truancy Services and the Non-Enrolment Truancy Service, increase their funding, and require the new organisation to work more closely with schools, police, welfare agencies and non-governmental organisations (e.g. Maori Wardens) to ensure that they respond quickly to truancy before it develops into a bigger problem.
- Work with schools to ensure that they remain drug-free by promoting treatment options in conjunction with punishment for drug offences.
- Undertake a campaign to promote academic role models amongst youth, but particularly targeted at boys.
- Expand the Social Workers in Schools programme.