CARE
We began this year with an informative talk presented by
Margaret Thorsborne, an expert on restorative justice in schools. Parents were
invited and this was followed by a quick “meet the teacher” opportunity. We
received positive feedback from parents about what Margaret had to say as her
approach was very thought provoking.
As a follow up, training programmes were provided for all
children who were interested in becoming Care kids. The Care team teachers ( Alice Lee, Kevin Wroth,
Jane Davies, Kristy
Benjamin, Brianna Rule and Michelle
Russell) used Linda Bell’s ‘Peer support in the primary playground’
which is a set of structured training programmes involving discussions and
activities to prepare students to guide their peers in solving disputes.
Those children who completed the programme received a Care
badge and proceeded to work out a roster for when they would be available to
support duty teachers in the playground by giving advice, helping and mentoring
other students, or reporting to duty teachers on problems requiring adult
supervision. They identified themselves with brightly coloured jackets.
Weekly meetings have been held with the Care kids to discuss
scenarios that occur and how to deal with them. This is a problem solving
approach. The programme has been successful and it has highlighted those Care
students who have leadership or mentoring skills, those who are particularly
caring and helpful and those who are diligent and organised about their ‘Care
duties. To reward these children for
their hard work and dedication, a special certificate will be awarded at the
end of the year.
A new system of Care heart awards was instituted this year,
which ties in with the allocation of house points. Children may receive a green
Care heart for caring for the environment (e.g. picking up litter, gardening,
mulching, weeding etc.) or a red heart for demonstrating caring behaviour. They
put these hearts into a box corresponding with the house they belong to
(Kereru, Kiwi, Pukeko or Tui). Each Thursday, a group of Care kids counts up
the number of hearts in every box and these are allocated as house points to
each house. Every Monday, one heart is
drawn out of each box and the person whose name is on the heart keeps, for a
week, the house mascot which is a soft toy bird corresponding with the name of
the house.
This
collaboration between Care and the house points seems to be working well at
this point. We expect to continue with these programmes next year.
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