END OF WEEK 3
A lovely little boy gave me a great big hug when he arrived at school this week but when I looked at him I saw he had a very interesting nose. Being me, I squealed that I hoped he hadn’t got snot on my cardigan and offered him a tissue. The cardigan was green so nothing would have shown up but that wasn’t the point. He said thank you for the tissue then proceeded to wipe the snot across his face rather than blow. His mum and I did giggle and she proceeded to do an amazing wipe and he went off to class sparkling. We do say that people in industry get company cars and in teaching we gets nits and snot on our clothes!
We had a really interesting staff meeting this week called Reinforcing Positive Behaviour. The lovely presenter had a really nice voice and the delivery of the session was perfect for a Wednesday evening. As a school we completely understand that all behaviour is telling us something and we need to find time to unpick what that is. One of the first slides he presented was quite compelling and I wonder what you think about it?
If a child doesn’t know how to read… we teach.
If a child doesn’t know how to swim… we teach.
If a child doesn’t know how to multiply… we teach.
If a child doesn’t know how to behave…we punish.
As a staff we were really shocked by this because we absolutely teach the skills children need to achieve happily together at Tavistock. At the moment in Year R for example the children have their positive pathway for looking after the felt pens/how to behave when using the felt pens. When I was at infant school in the first instance we didn’t have felt pens but in the second instance we would just have been told off, rather loudly, for not looking after pens and they would be put in the cupboard never to reappear. Instead as a class the children have talked about how they need to put the lids back on, put the pen back in the pot and put the pot back in the right place so they can use the pens again. I witnessed the children talking about this when they were colouring in their lovely medals and encouraging each other to do the best they could. So much better than a big shout and having them confiscated.
I wonder if your memories of school are the same as mine or you were nurtured and taught at school? It is the same as parents really isn’t it. We are our children’s role models and they learn from us. Our job is to love, protect and keep them safe and we are also their teachers. I am absolutely NOT the perfect parent by any means and looking back I didn’t always get it right with my daughter. It was hard to always have the patience and time to teach especially being a single mum and working full time. I’d been so busy looking after other people’s children all day that my patience has worn a bit thin by the time I got home. We muddled through though and I did try my best to teach.
In the meeting we also talked about big feelings that children have and how they haven’t the words to explain them and the resulting behaviours that might occur. We dipped into a refresher on neuroscience and how the brain works. In MyHappymind the children start to learn all about their brain and how to look after it when they are feeling sad, scared or worried. The children get to know the character Team H-A-P, the Hippocampus, the Amygdala and the Prefrontal Cortex. They love the big words and they love learning about how all the parts of the brain need to work together so we aren’t always in flight, fight or freeze mode. The children learn how to do Happy Breathing and I think I could have done with knowing how to do that when I was a young mum! By the end of the staff meeting we were all pleased and confident that we do a great job at Tavistock trying to teach everything we can, in the right way that nurtures and supports the children.
Anyway, next week will be week 4 and no doubt lots more learning will take place. Have a lovely weekend filled with kindness, compassion and fun!