LITERACY & MATHEMATICS ARE IMPORTANT. WHAT ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH?
Neil Fraser - July 1, 2022
Schools often celebrate the academic successes of their students at prizegivings, public noticeboards, newsletters, annual reports and when reporting to the Ministry of Education. And the media loves comparing "successful schools" against each other. In many cases it appears to be a "business model for success": "bums on seats" x "input knowledge & skills" x "days" = 90%(& above) outcomes.
The problem with this traditional "business model for success"is that the "person" is not part of the success formula. Too often schools are guilty at celebrating the academic successes to ward off competition from other schools in the area and to attract higher enrolments at the expense of the child. And let's not blame only the schools - it's also what society is expecting: "The best schools are those whose students achieve 90+% across the curriculum".
Don't get me wrong. Literacy and Mathematics are the keys to unlock knowledge and academic success. But this should not be at the expense of well-being.
OUR PATHWAY TO BEING A TRAUMA HEALING SCHOOL
Over the past few terms our staff and the Board have undertaken a lot of work in shifting our culture from being "trauma aware" to one that is trauma healing. The Weekend NZ Herald article (25 June 2022) has again highlighted the importance of our focus on supporting students and whanau who are dealing with challenges daily.
Sadly, one notes from the graph above that our experiences at Ngatea Primary School is not unique to our school or our community. It's a national problem that only society itself can help to address.
Our staff and the Board have made significant shifts this year to better support our students who enter our school gates daily. While we have the data to show this, not everyone of these students need wrap-around support. But a large majority do. It may come as a surprise to our community that
- 1 in 4 of our students at Ngatea Primary School have experienced trauma.
- 79 students across all the 11 schools in the Hauraki Kāhui Ako (Community of Learning) have been stood down, suspended or excluded from school on 2020 - and 69 in 2021
Te Punanga is a space especially set up at school to better support all our students. A generous allocation of funds by the Board has now allowed us to place a staff member in the space for about 80% of the school week. Nearly 80 of our students are being supported through a wide range of programmes weekly. (Please note that Te Punanga has been set up to support every student at NPS, and not only those who need wrap-around support).
The Uniform Shop (old dental clinic) has been moved to make way for Debbie Henry to set up the space for Play Therapy. The Board has also allocated funds to support 200h therapy for our students. Please refer to these articles for more information
At Ngatea Primary School we will no longer be sharing academic successes at the expense of mental well-being. The signs of growing mental health issues are in our face. Daily.
We have a choice to ignore or, or do something about it. We simply can't afford to be ignorant - not the school, nor our community.
Ngā mihi nui
Neil
