Principals Reflection

In the United States a decade ago, a series of winter storms had closed schools for several days. A university researcher started wondering if all those days of lost learning would affect students’ test performance. The results of the investigation were not surprising; to frame the research results simply the study found that, in a year with five lost school days, the number of children who met learning targets was lower than in years with no school closings. In brief, student time on task is important to learning. Every day a child is out of school, for whatever reason, his or her learning achievement has the potential to suffer. This research was undertaken pre-pandemic – schools have put considerable time and energy into creating Learning at Home packages and parents supported the online learning associated with Learning at Home, however, our student and staff absenteeism this year has certainly been unprecedented and we, as parents and staff who are joint educators of our children, need to appreciate the dynamics at play when we review Reports and the attainment levels that are mid-year indicators of learning engagements.

Just being in school, however, is only the starting point. Researchers have pointed out a difference between the amount of time that schools allocate for learning, the amount of time during which students are engaged in learning, and actual learning time. Staff are aware of the need to eliminate as many classroom disruptions as possible; however, we need to be realistic about having overly simplistic ideals when we have been, and currently still are, in the midst of unprecedented student and staff absenteeism. An indication of how significant the absenteeism has been this year is seen in the following figures:

• The average number of days a student of St Patrick’s has been absent for during the 2022 school year is 12 school days, which is considerably more than what we would expect in an ‘average’ year.
• During the 2022 school year, but especially so in term 2, we have ranged (every day) from between two to eight staff members absent every school day with an average of four staff away every day; this is a considerable challenge for a school our size and students and staff and parents are to be commended on the respectful manner in which so many have acknowledged the need for flexibility and the need for a deeper discernment in appreciating the need to support changes that are out of our control. We are especially appreciative of the families of those classes whose parent-student-teacher meetings have been cancelled due to teacher absences – as per our Compass communication to these families, please note in your child’s diary a couple of times and days early next term (from Monday 25^th July) to meet with your child’s teacher should your child’s teacher be absent this week for scheduled meetings. We endeavour to try to ensure familiar faces are in classes during teacher absences and our school leadership team has been very supportive of teaching classes and supporting teachers and students in our efforts to try to ensure continuity of programming.

Thank you to the families who appreciate the pressures that both students and staff are dealing with due to such high rates of absences, and who support learning by making sure their child is ready for school every day – rested, well-nourished and equipped. Our parent-student-teacher meetings are one tangible way that we can all make best use of the learning time we have at our disposal and for our endeavours for every student can make the progress of which we all are striving.

It is opportune to reflect on the following African proverb, “Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today”. As educators, we realise that to be effective we try to teach well, assess frequently, and follow up relentlessly. In all our conversations with parents and students, we try to be future-oriented, whilst being mindful of the precious present, and the lessons from the past. Research suggests that when planning a future with students the number of students who failed to reach age-appropriate grades dropped by more than one half if they were asked what kind of future they would like to have, what hurdles they anticipated, how they might deal with them, and which of their friends would be most helpful along the way.  An important aspect of our forthcoming three-way conversations between teacher, parent and student, teachers will be expecting the student to identify one goal that they want to achieve by the end of term 4. The three-way conversation will do much to consolidate the possibility of the achievement of this goal, in addition to generating healthy and open discussion about mid-year performance and outcomes.

Regards

Rod Linhart

(Principal)