What is Kenakena School's Approach to Student Welfare Management?

We always receive a number of responses that raise the question about increasing the resources allocated to children with special needs. Special needs can be behavioural, social and/or academic, or related to issues of health and safety. Special needs come under the umbrella of student welfare management and success can not be achieved purely by giving these children more one-on-one teacher, or teacher aide, time.

Before describing details of Kenakena School's approach to student welfare it would be useful to list (in alphabetical order) the external agencies and organizations we regularly use when managing student welfare issues:

Barnardo's and Birthright: These two social agencies are quite often involved in providing welfare support to families in trouble, usually with single parent families. Both agencies are often part of the Strengthening Families Process (described under KKSCC below) and do a fantastic job. Sometimes we refer families to these agencies for direct help, especially those troubled families who have no other wider family support in the area.

Child, Adolescent and Family Service (CAFS): CAFS is a service provided by Capital Coast Health, the region's major health service provider. CAFS staff will undertake psychiatric and psychological assessments on young people as well as tying these in with medical history, physical and other health problems to provide very comprehensive reports for parents and schools on diagnosis and action plans. CAFS workers will often visit the school to observe a child in the school environment as well as meeting with the child and the child's parents as part of the assessment process.

CAFS has its main office at Porirua and also has a clinic in Paraparaumu. Referrals to CAFS can be made by the school or by parents (directly, or through the family doctor). A referral to CAFS might be made when a child appears to have psychological problems, major behavioural problems, suspected ADHD, autism, Aspurges Syndrome, etc. There is no financial cost for CAFS service. CAFS can also be used for emergency help directly following a suicide threat or attempt. Emergency response is readily available. Sometimes there is a waiting list of up to 12 weeks for non-urgent referrals.

Under the umbrella of CAFS is Maori Mental Health Services, which provides the full CAFS service with a maori cultural perspective. The maori service workers will usually spend a lot more time liaising with the families of maori student referrals and will help deal with wider family (whanau) issues and cultural issues surrounding student welfare.

Child, Youth and Family Service (CYFS): This is the NZ Government's national welfare agency, previously known as the Department Of Social Welfare. CYFS is the agency that manages referrals made on grounds of safety, suspected abuse and mistreatment. The school has made direct referrals to CYFS and, quite often, CYFS will contact the school to talk about a child who they have received a referral about from another source. CYFS is the agency we rely on to keep kids safe out of school time. CYFS will often liaise with the Family Court to arrange and service custody and non-molestation orders.

Community Health Services (CHS): CHS comes under the umbrella of Hutt Valley Health, one of the region's other main health providers. The school has a designated Community Health Nurse who is available to help us liaise with families over health issues. The issues may vary from health education to helping families with things such as head lice infestations and eating disorders.

Group Special Education (GSE): GSE comes under the umbrella of the New Zealand Ministry Of Education and has regional bases throughout New Zealand. GSE employ educational psychologists and support workers to help schools cater for children with learning and/or behavioural difficulties. There are two ways of enlisting direct assistance from GSE:

- RTLB (Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour): When the school is having an ongoing learning and behaviour issues with a child and is having difficulty resolving the issue, an RTLB referral can be actioned. RTLB are teachers who have received special in-depth training on managing and designing programmes for children with moderate to severe learning and behaviour problems. RTLB are funded by the MOE and are organized into clusters. Each cluster has a management committee to coordinate work and funding. RTLB are based at a school site within the cluster. RTLB will work individually with the child, the child's teacher and the child's parent(s) to employ strategies for improvement. The RTLB will keep the child on the RTLB roll for as long as it takes to make effective change. For some children, especially those with intellectual disability, this could be for months, or even years. RTLB visit the school at least once per week and facilitate planning meetings involving teachers, parents and personnel from other agencies involved in the improvement process.
- BEST (Behaviour Education Support Team): BEST is the next level up from RTLB and deals with children with severe behavioural problems. BEST is a GSE service that employs educational psychologists with a focus on behavioural psychology. BEST workers will work with schools and parents to find solutions to behaviour problems. Both BEST and RTLB can access funds for teacher aide or part-time teacher support for teachers of children with severe behavioural problems. BEST will liaise with RTLB who have been working with children and will also initiate referrals to CAFS when necessary. Both BEST and RTLB play a major coordination and liaison role between home, school and agencies working with children and their families. BEST also has maori liaison workers to assist with cultural and wider family issues and to access marae based funding for programmes and resources.
- Student Support Manager: If a school feels it is getting nowhere with the resources currently at it's disposal (including RTLB and BEST) it can go to the Student Support Manager for extra help, which may include emergency funding or "where to from here" help.

Kapiti Coast Safer Community Council (KCSCC): The KCSCC is funded and governed by the Kapiti Coast District Council. The two KCSSC services we use the most are:

- Strengthening Families Co-ordinator: If we have a school family that has, or is in need of having inter-agency involvement, any of the agencies involved can suggest/request a strengthening families meeting. This can be organized by contacting the Strengthening Families Coordinator whose role it is to arrange a meeting of all the agencies and organizations involved. This is an effective way of getting all the agencies working together to achieve an improvement in the welfare of the family involved. The coordinator organizes the first meeting and, at the conclusion of that meeting, designates one of the agencies present to be the "lead agency" to organize and run future meetings.

Arranging the first meeting is the greatest hurdle. Dates for subsequent meetings are then organized at each meeting while everyone is present with their diaries. At the meetings goals are established and actions allocated which are then reported back on at following meetings. Where a school family is involved we will always send a representative from the school. The Strengthening Families process has been one of the most effective strategies for dealing with family welfare issues. Strengthening families meetings the school has been involved in have included representatives from the following agencies: CAFS, CYFS, Police Youth Aide, KCSCC Family Support, Barnardo's, Kenakena School and members of the family, including grandparents. Other strengthening families meetings have included representatives from GSE (BEST), CAFS (Maori Mental Health), Birthright, Salvation Army, WINZ (Work and Income New Zealand).
-Family Support Service: KCSCC has two home-school liaison workers available to assist families under stress and coordinate actions between home and school. The service has been used mainly for single parent families who have no other family support in the area. Family support workers will assist in any way possible and coordinate with whom they need to provide welfare support for the family. They may also take part in the Strengthening Families process. We have had families whose situations have been made a lot better through support from the family support service. It also follows up on problems with truancy on request from the school and receives funding from the Ministry Of Education to carry out this work. The service is also partially funded by schools.

New Zealand Police (Youth Aide Officer and Community Constable): We work extensively with police youth aide and the community constable in a family liaison role when children are becoming involved with petty crime. Both officers will also be involved in the strengthening families process when necessary. The community constable will also help us out when we are aware that some of our students are mixing with undesirable elements outside school time and it is impacting on attitude and behaviour at school. We will do this with or without notice to parents depending on how much parental effort or responsibility has been shown to date.

THE KENAKENA APPROACH

Although a member of the senior management team is the designated Special Needs Coordinator, our approach to managing welfare issues is essentially a team approach. We define special needs as not only learning and behaviour needs but also welfare needs, with the three areas often inextricably linked.

The Special Needs Coordinator keeps the Special Needs Register; a database of our special needs kids, their needs, and the actions taken to meet their needs. She arranges referrals for help from outside agencies, organizes teacher-aide assistance and timetables, coordinates the writing and reviewing of IEPs (individual education plans) for special needs children and provides an annual report to the Board Of Trustees.

The makeup and leadership of special needs or welfare teams will depend on the child and his/her particular need. For most special needs children the team will be made up of the teaching team leader, the classroom teacher, the special needs coordinator who will work in conjunction with the teacher aide (if there is one working with the child), the principal (when his skills are requested or required), an RTLB or other external worker. Initial Strengthening Families Meetings might be attended by several members of the team and then, subsequently by one or two designated team members depending on the level of school involvement required.

Although the team approach is effective, the meetings can be time-consuming. Many meetings will take place during lunch hours and before or after school and this puts pressure on teachers in terms of time management. For some of the more demanding cases we are organizing classroom release time for teachers to attend meetings but this can be quite costly to employ relief teachers from an inadequate budget.

IEPs are required for any children receiving teacher-aide assistance and are generally updated via IEP meetings with the team and parents every six months. Some teacher aide time is externally funded through GSE and ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) but most is funded through the school's operational grant.

As part of the school's operational grant we receive Targeted Funding For Educational Achievement (TFEA) to help cater for our children with special needs. The amount of money a school receives for TFEA is roll dependent, but is also calculated on a formula based on the school's Decile Rating. All schools in New Zealand are rated from Deciles 1 to 10. Decile 1 represents schools whose clientele are predominantly from very low socio-economic communities. Decile 10 schools are school's whose clientele are predominantly from the highest socio economic communities. Low decile schools receive greater levels of TFEA funding and high decile schools receive low level TFEA funding. The logic behind the funding is that schools in low socio-economic communities will have more children with special/welfare needs compared to schools in high socio economic areas and will, therefore, need more resources to meet their needs. The problem with this system is the formula used to calculate decile ratings. The Ministry Of Education sends schools a programme disc, which randomly chooses and records 1/6 of the school's families and their addresses. This information is used to tie these addresses back to census data for those households, which then determines the socio-economic status of the school's community and, therefore, its decile rating. The random nature of the 1/6 selection appears to result in some inaccurate ratings. Kenakena School is rated Decile 9 yet we spend far more money on children with special needs than we receive in our TFEA grant. Anecdotally, we know we have an increasing number of low income families who struggle financially.

Children with ongoing behaviour needs will generally be placed on a three-step behaviour management programme where meetings are held with the child, their parent(s), classroom teacher, team leader and sometimes the principal. These meetings focus on behaviour goals and are often linked to welfare and other family issues. Common goals and reward systems are negotiated under the "Catch Me Being Good" umbrella and the goals are reviewed after a negotiated timeframe. These meetings may also involve RTLB or BEST personnel.

Significant levels of mentoring are put in place for children in tough situations. Generally, it is boys from broken homes or abuse situations who require the most mentoring. This mentoring is often the role of male staff members, who spend time with children counselling, role modelling or just talking. Male teacher aides have been employed specifically to work with boys with major self-esteem problems. However, both girls and boys are receiving excellent mentoring and pastoral care, reflective of the school's values, from male and female staff. In my role as principal I also take on a proactive mentoring role.

Much of our success with dealing with welfare issues can be attributed to two important factors in the team approach. The first is the confidence with which our experienced staff members, including our office staff, have taken on leadership roles when tackling welfare issues. Secondly, the modelling that they have provided for less experienced staff members has resulted in those staff becoming confident, willing and able to tackle welfare issues confidently. Talking through the issues to be discussed before the difficult meetings take place and focussing on the appropriate approach is enabling welfare issues to be tackled effectively and in a coordinated way.

All this is backed by effective policy and review of procedures. We also keep good anecdotal notes over time when information giving rise to possible welfare concerns comes to hand.

Programme-wise, we run an in-school programme called Keeping Ourselves Safe that empowers children to take the appropriate action when faced with a range of situations that jeopardise their safety or welfare. We have found that, as a result of the programme, children have made disclosures about their own situations, or about the situation of friends who have talked to them about things that have taken place. The KOS programme is supported and resourced by the NZ Police.

What would improve our situation?
In areas where lower decile schools (deciles 1 to 4) predominate, the government has established a trial "social workers in schools" programme where those schools have easy access to designated social workers. I would like to see all schools having access to designated social workers. The nearest thing we have here that is reasonable accessible is the Family Support Worker. This is a good local solution but still needs to be better resourced. Our local principals association has lobbied the Kapiti Coast District Council for more resources to expand the home-school liaison service.

Our school staffing profiles need to change so that more management release time is allocated at lower school roll thresholds so that senior management staff can fit the ever-increasing welfare load into their time out of the classroom.

In 2003 we began our Parent Education strategy as part of the school's Strategic Plan. The Parent Toolbox course we are running as part of the Positive Parenting Programme are designed to equip parents with strategies for raising their kids in today's world.

We need more operational funding via the TFEA grant to enable us to pay for the needs we are meeting without jeopardizing the funding of other operational areas.

Central government needs to fund CYFS at a higher level. The workload of the local CYFS office is so high because of under-staffing that some cases that need urgent attention are not attended to soon enough. The same applies for CAFS, which will drop everything to deal with emergencies such as attempted suicides. However, with a rising incidence of such emergencies, the waiting list for non-urgent assistance is sometimes up to three months. By then, some of the non-urgent cases that could have been sorted have then got to the urgent stage.

Conclusion
Building networks of trust, confidentiality, responsibility and commitment amongst staff, students and parents has been a major contributor to our ability to effectively tackle the welfare needs of most of our students. The establishment of good systems, thoughtful approaches, successful experience, and confident school-wide leadership has enabled us to work effectively on welfare and special needs. We work successfully with external services and agencies but at times we really have to chase hard to ensure the work is carried out. By ensuring we remain a powerful presence in the Strengthening Families arena we can keep the focus on better
outcomes for our students by keeping other groups accountable.

Why is there a turnover of teaching staff?
Each year concern is raised regarding disruptions caused by the departure of teachers during the school year and that teacher placements need to be more 'permanent'.
What is the reality at Kenakena?
All of our full-time teachers are in permanent positions. Sometimes we employ full-time teachers for fixed-term positions if we receive short-term increases in staffing through roll growth, or for specific short-term projects. We have a very low turnover of teaching staff; usually one or two per year at the most. Some of our part-time teachers are in permanent positions and some are on fixed-term contracts. Some part-time teachers are employed for specific fixed-term projects while some positions are dependent on roll-related staffing allocations, which may change from year-to-year. Some of our part-time teachers have worked at Kenakena for some time and their hours may vary from year-to-year depending on levels of staffing and funding. We do benefit from having a stable staff. It has enabled us to develop and maintain a consistent high quality learning and teaching culture at Kenakena School.
What causes disruption?
Teachers, like other people in professional occupations have career path options. When career opportunities arise and teachers are successful in gaining promotion to new positions at other schools, they will take these opportunities. Teachers retire, resign to travel or change to careers outside of teaching, and they move away to other areas when their partners and families have to move. Ideally, it would be great if teachers only moved on at the end of the school year, but this is not always the case. When we have to replace a teacher during the school year, some disruption is caused. The disruption is more likely to do with children adapting to a new teacher than to learning programmes, which are consistently applied through team planning.
How is the transition managed?
Our first priority is to employ a good teacher to take over the class. Whether the new teacher is employed in a permanent or fixed-term capacity, we always try to get a teacher who can take over that class until the end of the school year. Whenever possible we arrange for the departing teacher and the incoming teacher to meet to share information. We involve the new teacher in team planning meetings to be brought up to date with planning, assessment and team operation. Teachers keep good assessment records and achievement data so that the incoming teacher is able to quickly develop an awareness of student learning needs. The new teacher will carry on with the same reading and maths groups that the previous teacher already has established.

Because planning and assessment is done in learning teams, the children will carry on with the same programmes and be exposed to the same studies as they would have been if the departing teacher had still been there.

Why does Kenakena School haveTeacher Only Days?

Why do we have teacher only days during the school term rather than during the school holidays?

Why do we have teacher only days?
The teaching team needs opportunities for corporate professional development and for organisational planning and review. These opportunities are essential for enhancing organizational effectiveness and professional standards in the school.

When do we have teacher only days?
Teacher only days are held during the school holidays and during the school term. This year, two teacher only days were held during the Christmas Holidays and one will take place on the Friday prior to Labour Weekend in October. When teacher only days are held during the school term we plan them for the day prior to a 'long weekend' to give families the opportunity for an early start if they are going away or have something special planned. When the school is closed for a teacher only day, the time is made up either through out-of-normal-school-time activities that the children are involved in or by adding a day onto the end of the school year.

Why aren't all teacher only days held during the school holidays?
Teachers are already involved in organised work-related activities during the school holidays; team planning meetings, management team meetings, professional development courses, meetings with parents, resource organization meetings and time spent on work planning and assessment for the teaching programmes. In addition to this, teachers are often required to attend night-time meetings and work during weekends. On days such as the school's jubilee celebration they were required to be here on a Saturday. They also come at night to help supervise discos and on overnight school camps they are working twenty four hours per day. Teaching is a very rewarding but highly demanding job, and teachers need time to refresh before the beginning of each term.

How does Kenakena School Deal with Bullying?

In "Catch Me Being Good" - Kenakena School's guide to behaviour management" on our "I Will Not……" (Page 7) we state clearly for our students; "I WILL NOT BULLY - Threatening Behaviour
Malicious Name Calling Physical Intimidation"
Kenakena School regards bullying as a serious behaviour. There are bullies in every school. They are usually a minority but their behaviour can have a serious impact on other children if left unchecked. The most important thing is the way schools deal with bullies as well as with the issue of bullying. We need to protect our children from bullying and help bullies understand why it is unacceptable. Some bullying is very obvious and easy to prove and some is very subtle and more difficult to verify.
Why do children bully others? Usually to make themselves look good in the eyes of their peers, to gain respect. They often do this because they feel they have very little else that will gain the attention and respect of those that matter to them. It is essentially about low self-esteem. They think their peers won't like them unless they throw their weight around, but are often disliked because they do. Bullies will often pick on those who they perceive to be smaller, weaker and less able to retaliate.
Anecdotally, we find that most bullying takes place between children of similar age. We encounter very few incidents of older kids bullying younger kids.
Most of the bullying incidents I deal with occur with boys aged 8-10 and generally involve physical bullying by small groups on individuals or other small groups.
Some of most cruel bullying occurs between girls when they form into groups or cliques that exclude others and when they make 'bitchy comments' to other girls. This seems to be worse between the ages of 8 and 11.

DEALING WITH BULLYING

Beginning with the bigger picture;
o We run programmes such as "Keeping Ourselves Safe", "DARE", "Kia Kaha" and "Skills for Growing", which deal with building self-esteem, strategies for dealing with unwanted attention, and peer pressure.
o Our Catch Me Being Good behaviour management programme focuses on rewarding and encouraging positive behaviour. The Consequence Steps are also effective in dealing with children who are regular bullies.
o We give out positive playground awards to children who are involved in positive, friendly activities in the playground.
o We work closely with professionals such as psychologists and resource teachers for learning and behaviour (RTLB) to improve the behaviour and self-esteem of some children who are bullies.
o For very serious cases, where there are also care and protection issues, we work closely with families (including a "Strengthening Families" programme), The Child, Youth and Family Service, the Home/School Liaison Service, and Police Youth Aide.
o We have as successful 'Buddy Class' system where older kids work on regular basis with a younger buddy.
o We model positive behaviour.
o We have trained "Peer Mediators" who work with children in the playground to resolve minor conflicts through mediation.
o The playground is well supervised by teaching staff.
o Importantly, we work very hard to ensure the school is a safe place for students, staff and parents.
Dealing with incidents
o If your child tells you they are being bullied, listen to them, let them know that what they are telling you is important and find out the details of day, time, and place. Phone or visit the school to talk to your child's teacher, or use the Communication Book to write to the teacher about the incidents. Do not take it upon yourself to talk to the bully at school. Your child's teacher may already have information about the incidents and may be able to tell you what has already been done. Incidents of alleged bullying will be investigated and they will be dealt with.
o Sometimes, it is important to talk to other children who witnessed the incidents in order to gain all the facts so that the matter can be dealt with effectively.
o Children who bully will be required to apologise. The incident is discussed with them and they are made aware of the consequences of any further bullying.
o Depending on the regularity and/or severity of the bullying, further action may be taken, (some of the options are listed in the "Beginning with the Big Picture" section, above).
o Sometimes class meetings are held with, or without the bully present, depending on circumstance, where the bullying is brought out into the open for discussion and the formulation of a combined course of action which encourages the enlistment of peer support.
o An effective means of resolving bullying issues is for a meeting to be held where the bully(s) and the child(ren) being bullied are in attendance and the issues confronted face to face. Goals and timeframes are then set and followed up to ensure a change in behaviour has occurred.
o We encourage children to let us know if they are being bullied and we visibly demonstrate that we deal with these situations and that they will be protected from further bullying. However, for reasons of peer pressure or the attitude towards "telling", some children will not say anything. This now tends to occur less often but sometimes it's still a problem.
o Parents will sometimes report the bullying of their children but want to "protect" their children, who have urged them not to tell. Come and see us anyway because we have ways of dealing with these problems in a way that does not expose your child. When it has been dealt with, then we can talk to your child about the importance of saying something.
o We give children strategies for responding to bullying situations.
When bullying is not bullying.
When we investigate some "bullying" incidents we discover that what a child has reported as bullying may actually be retaliation or annoyance. When that happens, we talk to the children about the difference. This is the benefit of investigation. Occasionally, we have situations where a child has driven other children mad through annoying, attention seeking behaviour and then been on the receiving end of group exclusion or physical reaction. While we can understand these kinds of reaction, we work with the children involved to get them to think about other ways they can deal with the situation.
Finally, some kids are unfortunately magnets for bullies. Ian Grant, the Executive Director of Parents Inc. writes, "It might be their smaller size or something about them that makes them stand out as different. But it is usually more than just that - They develop a wounded response that arouses the cruellest instincts in other children. They give off vibrations that there is a victim in the neighbourhood". (Toolbox Groups 6-12 years - Parenting With Confidence Inc - Page 2.12)
If your child is bullied by more than one bully and it is a problem that persists over time, and especially if it persists even when you have changed schools then we would also explore ways of helping your child develop in a way that reduces their chance of being bullied. So, it's a big topic! We're confident that what we have in place at Kenakena School enables us to deal with bullying effectively.

BRUCE McDONALD
PRINCIPAL

Is Your Child Too Sick For School?

Some Useful Guidelines

Each day many parents are faced with a decision: should they keep their sick child at home or send them off to school? Often the way a child looks and acts can make the decision an obvious one. Please consider these guidelines:

Cold/Persistent Cough Minor sniffles are not enough to keep children home but if they are irritable, lethargic, or taking over-the-counter medicine for a cough or congestion, they probably won’t function well in the classroom.

Diarrhoea Any episode of watery diarrhoea warrants a sick day. Keep home for 24 hours after diarrhoea stops.

Vomiting After vomiting, children are to be kept home for 24 hours.

Fever If a child’s temperature is more than 38 degrees keep him/her at home. They should have maintained a normal temperature of 37.2 degrees for 24 hours before returning to school.

Flu Keep children at home until symptoms – body aches, high fever, chills, congestion, sore throat and/or vomiting – subside, usually within 5 to 7 days.

Rash Children with a widespread rash, unusual looking rash, or a rash accompanied by a fever should be kept at home until the rash has been diagnosed as not contagious.

Chicken Pox Chicken Pox develops about 2 weeks after exposure to the virus. Children are infectious from 5 days BEFORE first blisters appear until the last blister has dried. Children may return to school when the last blister has scabbed over and dried, usually 10 days from onset.

Headlice Children should be lice and nit (small white egg cases) free before returning to school.

Conjunctivitis Symptoms are tears, irritation and redness of the eye lining, sometimes a discharge. Children are infectious as long as there is a discharge from the eye. Do not send to school until the child has been on antibiotic medicine for at least 24 hours or until the eye is clear.

Impetigo/School Sores Children are infectious until they’ve been on antibiotics for 24 hours. Do not send to school before this.

A sick child cannot learn effectively and is unable to participate in classes in a meaningful way. Keeping a sick child home prevents the spread of illness in the school community and gives the child an opportunity to rest and recover.