Hutt Central School principal Tony Horsfall
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
The lens of the learning process is widened for two local principals on their trips of discovery. Hutt Central School principal Tony Horsfall spread his trips out over time and has spent around four weeks visiting North Island schools. One point of a sabbatical is rest and relaxation, so Mr Horsfall tied in meeting up with old colleagues alongside his investigation into how schools cater for students with learning and behavioural difficulties. ??There were more issues than I had anticipated in terms of how behaviourally difficult children impact on the school, children and teachers,? Mr Horsfall says. He travelled to schools in Te Awamutu, Ngaruawhia, Hamilton, Tauranga, Whakatane, Gisborne, Napier, and Wellington. In many lower decile schools there is ?inadequate help and resourcing? and some schools are in ?crisis mode?, he says. ?Students with behavioural difficulties place a great amount of stress on teachers, which has a negative effect on other students? learning. ?Teachers are passionate people, and they don?t want to see children suffer ? they make do with what they have,? he says. Schools in Ngaruawhia struck him as having an especially hard time dealing with difficult students. ?The schools in Ngaruawhia, we just have no idea, it?s a real battle day to day for some of these schools. ?The kids are leaving school at young ages with very little skills,? he says. Now in the final stages of writing his report for the Ministry of Education, Mr Horsfall hopes to help develop programmes to assist teachers and teacher aids. Returning to Petone was akin to ?paradise? compared with other schools, where problems are ?snowballing?. ?We have great schools here and good communities that support kids with needs. ?A big issue is with entry level to primary school, and that the basics are not there as they should be. ?The schools have to lean back to pick up those children and bring them up to speed. Children entering school with any recognised learning or behavioural needs are supported by various agencies at preschool, but when they enter school this support suddenly disappears ? leaving it up to schools to cope. The first two years of learning are critical and these children need as much support at this time as they can get? says Mr Horsfall. The ?New Curriculum? is a welcome change, which he says has completed ?a big circle? back to when schools could be reflective of their community. Wilford School principal Judy Grose is also positive about the change and is preparing for the new curriculums entry in 2010.?Mrs Grose has recently returned from a intensive tour that took in four Adelaide schools that use William Glasser Choice Theory and Reality Therapy to create a positive school culture. She is going to Melbourne in October to give a presentation on her schools use of the theory. Her school?s behavioural and learning culture is based on Choice Theory and Reality Therapy. The approach is very successful and other schools have expressed an interested in it. ?The schools [in Australia] that are using Choice Theory as a basis for their school culture are hugely successful. My experience was very interesting and affirming. ?The Choice Theory approach develops self managing and resilient learners, so the key competencies in the new curriculum fit very well into our model,? she says. The school has developed an Inquiry Learning model that gives students the freedom and power to follow their own interests and plan their own learning journey. Students have been exploring the concept of ?Adaptation? in Inquiry and are now at the planning to take action based on what they have found out. ?They plan an action that will benefit their class, the school, the community or the world,? Mrs Grose says. Wilford senior school students are: planting trees, raising money for ?Save the Whales?, making movies or power points on endangered animals or animals that live in a specific habitat, presenting a case for ?Emission Control? to John Key, and making books for the Junior School.
