A new term

Steve has been telling me off – I haven’t written a blog post for several months and he is demanding not one but two this weekend so here goes!

We have been back from Australia just short of four weeks and half that time I’ve been touring Uganda with Steve, sister Lyn and cousin Ian (subject of the weekend’s second blog).  I have not been ‘on holidays’ exactly as I have been preparing the next instalment of teacher professional development and analysing and reporting on data collected in the last week of term I.

I was able to bring back some resources for the schools from Australia.  Baimbridge College was getting rid of some primary school stuff so I put some in my suitcase and some in some tubs that will come to Uganda in a container later in the year.  I also snaffled some scientific glassware that was surplus to requirements at Baimbridge.  It has been wrapped carefully in old socks and packed in plastic tubs for the container.  I also grabbed about 40 Jump Rope for Heart skipping ropes.  Hamilton UC has given me about 250 pairs of children’s undies – some came back in my suitcase, some are in the container.  It will be wonderful to unpack all the goodies when the container arrives!  A few skipping ropes did find their way into my suitcase.

The three lots of survey data I’ve been working on in Australia and here over the past 6 weeks are to gauge teacher, parent and student perceptions of what happens at our schools.  They look at teaching and the academic curriculum, ‘extras’ like art, music and sport, treatment of children and discipline, and facilities and physical environment.  The data has been a nightmare to analyse but very instructive in ways not envisaged.

My surveys for students and parents were of the sort each of us (Australian adults!) have done a million times.  You know the kind of thing - “Rate each statement on a 1 – 5 scale where 1 is Strongly Disagree and 5 is Strongly Agree”.  I have filled in heaps but never written one and it was a learning experience!  I tried to make the statements simple and unambiguous.  I tried to have a balance between positive and negative statements (so all the ticks didn’t look as if they should be be down one side) and I made the surveys short – 15 statements for parents and 20 for students plus the opportunity to give a general rating and suggestions for improvement to the schools on a single A5 sheet.

Lyn and I did the sorting and compiling of ‘completed’ survey forms.  One thing was clear immediately – most of those surveyed had never filled in a survey form like this before!  Some had interpreted the “Rate each statement …” instruction as only tick 1 or 5 – either that or all their opinions were strongly felt!  Statements starting “Teachers do not …” seemed to be confusing as these had the most responses at the two extremes.  There were no ‘bell curves’ style distributions for many statements!

The students did well on ticking only one box for each statement though we wondered how much subtle influence the teachers brought to bear; parents often ticked several boxes for each statement or none at all.  If my statements were ambiguous some responses were even more so.

There were a few things we could all agree on.  The teachers are hardworking, competent and caring.  The children are well looked after – food, clinic and nurse rated highly! – and happy to come to school.

On other things there was little consensus.  Our schools have a strict policy against physical punishment, indeed in Uganda physical punishment of children in school is a criminal offence, but community sentiment is that discipline is only effective if it involves beating.  Parents were strongly divided on the statement “I am happy children are not beaten.”  Parents were strongly of the view that students need to do more art music and sport; students, on the other hand, thought they had sufficient.  Perhaps, in comparison with friends in local government schools, they do very well in this area of the curriculum.  Students also felt happy with their library time – again, very lucky to have one!

The teacher perceptions survey was much more detailed – more than 50 questions about the schools, facilities, students’ attitudes and abilities, their own and colleagues’ attitudes and competencies and much more.  There was far more consensus among the teachers than there had been among parents.  We are fortunate to have such a positive, cohesive and optimistic teaching staff.  I think statements starting “Teachers do not …” and “The school does not …” confused even many teachers so I will need to rewrite some questions before archiving all these surveys for future use.

Completing surveys accurately is probably a skill we need to teach our students if we hope to get accurate information from them that will be useful in grant applications and in future planning.  It may be a future PD for staff so they can instruct the students (and parents!).

I have also been busily planning teacher workshops.  As in the December / January holidays, the last two weeks of the students’ off time will see most teachers back at school writing schemes of work and lesson notes, and doing professional development workshops each day from morning break until lunch, and even after lunch in the case of rehearsals for the June Grand Opening.  (Again, the students don’t get off scot-free as they have their “Holiday Packages” to keep them busy.)

Some of what we do will be teacher initiated.  We need to do more work on behaviour management – teachers say they ‘often’ have to speak to students about disruptive behaviour and failure to do homework.  Some will be areas the Australian Board feels strongly about.  The Head Teacher and the Director of Schools will also lead workshops in areas they feel need strengthening.  I suggested some ‘elective’ sessions in special interest areas but have been told the Ugandan way is for everyone to do everything!  We’ll see how that goes.

On to the second blog now!  Jenny