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Eastern Caribbean Child-friendly Schools Newsletter Vol 9, 2016 n WELCOME - pg 2 n ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - pg 4 n UP CLOSE - pg 5 n IN FOCUS - pg 7 - Teachers At Look Out Primary In Montserrat Give Up Lunch Time To Ensure School Safety - pg 7 - Bethel High School - St. Vincent & The Grenadines- Implements INSIDE Disaster Management In The Curriculum - pg 7 - Adrian T. Hazelle’s School Safety Team Prepares Students to Deal with Natural Disasters - pg 8 - Speyside Anglican and Roborough Anglican In Tobago – Anti-Bullying Campaign - pg 8 n STUDENT VOICES - pg 9 n PRINCIPAL’S CORNER - pg 10 WHAT’S WHAT’S n NEWS FROM THE FIELD - pg 12 1 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 9, 2016 WELCOME Welcome to the 9th issue of In Touch. The aim is provide educators with good practices at schools implementing the Child-Friendly/ Effective School (EFS) framework in the Eastern Caribbean Area, which they can consider for possible implementation in their own classrooms. In the Eastern Caribbean, the implementation of the Child-Friendly School (CFS) / Effective Schools Framework (ESF) first started in 2007 with the main focus on positive behavioural management. This was primarily done in an attempt to reduce the use of corporal punishment by teachers and to address issues of interpersonal violence among children, which were becoming a concern for regional governments. Recognising that a holistic approach must be taken to improve the psychosocial environment for students, the CFS model in the Eastern Caribbean has been expanded to include the following: Healthy and Health Promoting Practices –including teaching Health and Family Life Education Student centred Education School Leadership and Management Safe, Protective and Nurturing Environment To date more than 50,000 students in the Eastern Caribbean are being exposed to CFS / EFS practices and the numbers keep growing. The countries where Ministries of Education are implementing the framework in their schools are:  Antigua & Barbuda  Anguilla  Barbados  Dominica  Grenada 2 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 9, 2016  St. Kitts & Nevis  Montserrat  St. Lucia  St. Vincent & the Grenadines  Tobago One aspect of the CFS/ESF framework is the focus on Safe and Protective Environments for children at schools. SAFE SCHOOLS ARE SCHOOLS THAT:  Are free from bullying and schools where children know what to do to address bullying  Emphasize positive approaches to discipline;  Are free from any form of abuse and schools where children are sensitised about what to do to in the event of any form of abuse  Teach children about disaster preparedness and mitigation This present issue of In Touch focuses on efforts in countries to ensure Safe and protective environments for children as part of their CFS/ESF interventions. Please do not hesitate to share your stories and news with us at [email protected] 3 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 9, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS UNICEF ANGUILLA acknowledges Social Development Department O’ Reilly Kelly Primary School the contributions Adrian T. Hazelle Primary School of the various St. Mary’s Pre-school entities that have ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA made this edition Ministry of Education, Sports, Youth and Gender of BARBADOS In Touch Ministry of Education, Science Technology and Innovation possible. Child Care Board UWI School of Education DOMINICA Ministry of Education and Human Resource MONTSERRAT Ministry of Education and Youth Affairs ST. LUCIA Ministry of Education Early Childhood Unit ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES Early Childhood Unit Ministry of Education TRINIDAD &TOBAGO Department of Education, Tobago 444 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 7, 2014 4 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 9, 2016 UP CLOSE Terron Azille has been teaching at the Adrian T Hazell Primary School in Anguilla for the past 7 years. In 2015, recognizing that the grade 5 boys at the school were falling behind academically, the principal and her staff decided to have separate classes for the boys and for the girls. This was done in an effort to motivate the boys.The theme they developed as part of their motivation strategy was Educated Girls Rock and Educated Boys Rule. Mr. Azille was charged with the task of teaching the all-boys class and coming up with a positive behavioural management strategy that would appeal to the boys. He shared his experiences with the In Touch Magazine. In Touch: What was your reaction when assigned roles: for example there is the the principal asked you to be in charge historian; the buddy readers; some were of the all-boys class? responsible for taking attendance. Mr. Azille: When she discussed the idea with The boys were required to apply for these me I was skeptical at first because I knew positions and if they did not keep up with their some of the behavioural issues that some responsibilities, that is: Job responsibilities of the boys struggled with. However I did my and good behaviour they would lose their own research about behavioural management position and would have to reapply. They did and strategies for teaching boys and decided not want to lose their positions and eventually I would try it. improvements in their behaviour were evident. In Touch: What were some of the At our school there is also a session called interventions you implemented in the “Golden Time”: This is a 30 minute session class? where the students actually decide what they want to do. On Fridays during Golden Time we Mr. Azille: The first thing I did was to establish play basketball and through extra-curricular a behavioural management system for the activities like this, I have gotten to know my boys. This system was based on student students a lot better. involvement and inclusion. Students were 4 5 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 9, 2016 In Touch: Have you seen any changes among the boys within the past year since you started? Mr. Azille: The behaviour amongst the boys has definitely improved. I believe it is because the barriers have broken down and they have found someone with whom they can share. There are also less office referrals. Some of the behaviours that some of the female teachers may see as problematic, I can deal with because I understand that they are just being boys – for example, I didn’t expect them to always be quiet. Apart from their behaviour, their academics have also improved. Their reading test showed improvements from 28% reading at and/or above their reading age to 44 % percent. In Touch: What has been some of your challenges? Mr. Azille: It was a really large class so that was the biggest challenge - managing such a large number. Another challenge was that you always have to find activities to keep boys interested such as using a wide variety of multimedia and also engaging in educational activities that keep them physically active. In Touch: What have you personally gained from this experience? Mr. Azille: Patience. The biggest thing I’ve learnt is to be patient and also the importance of getting to know my students and letting my students get to know me. Once that connection was made it became easier for them to feel free to open up and express themselves and also this made them more receptive to the things I was trying to teach. 6 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 9, 2016 IN FOCUS Individual schools shared their efforts to keep their schools safe. TEACHERS AT LOOK OUT PRIMARY IN MONTSERRat GIVE UP LUNCH TIME TO ENSURE SCHOOL SAFETY Like many other schools in the Caribbean, the Look Out Primary School in Montserrat, has established a Lunch time monitoring system. To ensure that the system works, teachers at this school give up their lunch time once per week so that the children could be adequately supervised. During this period some of the teachers can be seen engaged with their students in organised activities. In addition all staff members have been issued with name tags and all visitors to the school’s compound must visit the school’s office first to receive their visitor’s pass. BETHEL HIGH SCHOOL - ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES- IMPLEMENTS DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN THE CURRICULUM The Bethel High School in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the first secondary school to pilot the Effective Schools Framework in that country. One of the first steps toward implementing the Effective School Framework was the formation of 4 committees by the These committees are all comprised of Principal: These were the: staff members who are responsible for implementing changes in the specific areas Positive Behavioural Management of focus of the committee. committee To date the Health and Safety Committee Student centred learning committee have ensured that disaster risk reduction, management and school safety are being Physical enhancement committee introduced in the HFLE and geography curriculum and all students are exposed to The Safety and Health committee the topics. 7 IN TOUCH Newsletter Vol. 9, 2016 According to Sean Marshall, Science Teacher SPEYSIDE ANGLICAN ROBOROUGH and Head of the Committee: “The role of the ANGLICAN IN TOBAgo – ANTI-BULLYING committee is to ensure that there is a healthy CampaiGN and safe learning environment for all students and all individuals who use and frequent the The Speyside Anglican and Roborough school.” Anglican in Tobago have developed an anti-bullying campaign to ensure that their He noted that the students have been students and staff feel safe and protected. responding quite well and that one class wrote Below are some of the posters developed by a song about Disaster management students as part of this campaign. For more information on implementing CFS at Bethel High school – put link to the video. ADRIAN T. HAZELLE’S SCHOOL SAFETY TEAM PRepaRES STUDENTS TO DEAL WITH NatURAL DISASTERS The Adrian T.