Hon.Terry Aulich Executive Director discusses the ACSSO Blueprint at Annual Conference

School Values Forums

Did you know that funding is available for schools in each state and territory to conduct values forums?

According to the values education website, values forums

• are not intended to be stand-alone events, but rather an integral part of a school’s values education journey;
• may be a single event or a series of events;
• may be conducted by individual schools or as a cluster;
• will be funded on application;
• funding is dependent on a forum report by individual participating schools

How do I apply for funding to run a values forum in 2007

Click on your local link for details:

ACT

NSW

NT

QLD

SA

TAS

VIC

WA

ACSSO and Values

Since 2004 ACSSO has been posting 'good news' stories on its values website. Consider the following two examples:

Hastings Public School, NSW

"We take great pride in our student leadership initiatives. Examples include our School Parliamentarians - who take on organisational roles on topics of school importance and lead the sittings of our School Parliament - and our Peer Mediators - who assist students in the playground, organising games for younger children, mediating in playground disputes and providing a friendly referral point"

Do we Practise what we Preach?
Values can be found in our schools and homes in the way we act as well as what we say. A school can print a statement about its values but we also need to practise what we preach. For example, one of the key nine values selected by Australia’s education ministers is understanding, tolerance and inclusion but can we say, hand on our hearts, that we always treat our colleagues, parents and students with care and compassion? Do we sometimes just belittle someone in order to win a point or do we use aggressive language to restore order or have a quiet life?
Values Affect Successful Learning
And what effect does a lack of understanding, tolerance and inclusion have on other parents, teachers or students? Some experts such as Professor Terry Lovat of Newcastle Uni says that even student academic achievement can suffer if attention isn’t paid in schools to actually practising those key nine values.

Jennifer Branch
President

Test your self in the privacy of your own school then read our story at the end of this quiz. It is deliberately meant to challenge you so, don’t feel offended. We will never know how you answered.

Question 1
When parents come to your school do you know how they are met and usually by whom?

Question 2
Do you have a system or procedure in place to welcome parents? If so what are the key features of that system?

Question 3
Do you have a reasonable picture of the ethnic, occupational and educational backgrounds of your parents?

Question 4
Describe five ways that your school practises the values of understanding, tolerance and inclusion.

Question 5
Have you ever had an independent third party or your colleagues specifically analyse the language and methods you use to communicate with parents?

Question 6
Do you have a school website? If so are the messages welcoming enough or is it full of do nots?

Question 7
Have you ever made a list of parents who have never visited the school?

Question 8
What are the ways in which you try to get parents involved in the school?

Question 9
Do you and the teachers actively look out for students that may be isolated or bullied by their peers?

Question 10
Do you have a school wide programme to stop bullying and promote inclusiveness, tolerance and understanding?

Question 11
Do teachers frequently raise their voices in the class and around the school?

Understanding Other People, Especially Students
When ACSSO has asked kids, parents and teachers, what they most want from their schools, there is always the same number one priority mentioned. We want our schools to be safe places, both psychologically and physically. A student must feel cared for, included and safe. Everything else follows.

So, what do you think about the following comments by some politicians and teachers?

“Kids need to work out their squabbles in the playground without teachers interfering.”

“It wasn’t easy at school but it toughed me up”

“For me, being bullied was a useful training exercise for later life. It sure toughened me up.”

“I used to absolutely hate school because every play break, lunchtime and going home from school was just hell for me. I was constantly apprehensive because of the bullying”

“The girls were the worst, they could really make life miserable”

“The negative methods of control worried me the most. There were so many complex rules that you were always on edge trying to do the right thing.”

Communication Helps With Values Education
Communication is one of the tools we use to make people feel valued and included. We use it to get across messages that are important; messages such as your involvement and ideas are important, so is your child or, as a teacher, I respect your job so maybe we can work together to help my child etc. Sometimes our communication tools are clumsy and written without a real understanding of our target audience. We talk edubabble with words like outcome, KPA’s, paradigms, innovative, embedded values, depressive symptomology, implicit stakeholder inputs etc. Nothing wrong with each of those words but sprinkle them liberally and you make them indigestible.
So, whether it’s the school website, the note home to parents, the statement of learning, curriculum explanations, keep it simple and positive.

Welcoming People to Your School
First impressions can be important. How many times have we got the impression that someone is cold and aloof when, in fact, they turn out to be just plain shy. Think of those kids in your first class who looked so tough but were probably as scared as you? Think about the cultural differences which extend to body language; one person’s agreement might be someone else’s rejection.
So, when new parents come to your school, they may be bringing an awful lot of cultural or social baggage with them. Maybe school to them was an unhappy experience or it may have been strictly reserved for only those who could afford to pay.
Either way, everyone, from the teachers to the office staff, have to generate friendliness and respect rather than fear. And, remember what it was like to be a young child who takes rejection very personally?

Involving People in Different Ways
When it comes to involving people, there are horses for courses. Some parents just like to be involved in informal ways like attending a school concert or sporting event, others are drawn to school council meetings, some hate speaking publicly, others don’t like to sit around in semi-formal groups discussing abstractions like the Nine Values, others get their kicks out of it.
So, when you are planning to get people involved in your school, give them a variety of ways in which they can get involved and appreciate them for what they can do. Still, a little tactful mentoring, succession planning and match-making can go a long way.

We have all heard the adages "do as I say, not as I do", "practice what you preach" and "actions speak louder than words". These are essentially statements about values, and the fact that people's actions say much more about their underlying beliefs than what they say they believe in.

One of the challenges faced by schools is ensuring that the values they espouse are held by all members of the school community. Sometimes the actions of teachers are not in accord with the published values of the school. For example, does every child in every school receive a "fair go", irrespective of their family background, financial resources and ability?

Teachers take their lead from school administrators, who in turn take their lead from education authorities and state and federal governments. Are there consistently held beliefs and values at each of these levels, and across policy areas, especially at the governmental levels? For example, Some commentators see the current shift to redefine the term "multiculturalism" in favour of a more nationalistic, integrationist stance as fundamentally at odds with the values of tolerance and inclusion - which are rightly required of schools.

Perhaps these commentators have it wrong, but it is surely the responsibility of governments to explain and debate how their policy positions are in accordance with the values that they wish to instil in Australian children.

Parents will be watching closely the actions of new Labor leader Kevin Rudd. A committed Christian, Rudd has placed on record his belief that "Christianity must always take the side of the marginalised, the vulnerable and the oppressed", and as such is highly compatible with Labor. Public schools welcome all students - both the privileged and under-privileged - we wait with interest to see how the values of the new Labor leader are translated into the Party's education policies, and whether rhetoric and reality become indistinguishable on that side of politics.

ACSSO will further develop the theme of "values - practise what you preach" in future issues of Public Education Voice.