Categorie: Viața școlii

 KINDNESS

Mark Twain said: ‘Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and blind can see’ and I think that the world could do with a bit more kindness just now.

In April, I attended the ECIS Leadership Conference in Brussels, along with our Managing Partner, Andreia Mitrea, and our Deputy Head, Marilena Nicolae, where hundreds of Principals, Directors and Board Members were gathered to share experiences, learn from one another and celebrate 50 years of ECIS-http://www.ecis.org/. All member schools have to adhere to ECIS ethical practice, and Avenor College is proud to be a Full Member of ECIS.

During the conference, we had the pleasure of meeting John Hendry, Director of Student Welfare at Geelong Grammar School, Victoria, Australia. https://www.ggs.vic.edu.au/

As the biggest boarding school in the southern hemisphere, Geelong has an outstanding reputation, and is a place where the care and nurture of the individual is embedded in the educational process. John spoke about forgiveness, kindness and restorative justice. He believes that international schools can create world peace. He has very kindly provided us with several of his own blog entries, and I am sharing ‘The Way Forward’ with you here in its entirety.

Denise Trickett, May 2015

 

The Way Forward

Kindness, Forgiveness & Reparation 

The Golden Rule…. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you..” and the Hippocratic Oath …”First do no harm..” underpin how we live in relationships at Geelong Grammar School

People live in relationships. When people live and work together disputes are inevitable and errors are made. Relationships are tested. The intimacy of a school community is such that effective dispute resolution is essential if people are to live in relationships where individuals and the community flourish. Disputes can be resolved if the disputing parties accept the need for and believe the reparation process will be transparent, fair and provide an opportunity to develop a shared understanding of the issues. The process can succeed if the parties feel they have been well treated, there is no residual resentment and there is a mechanism for restoring trust, honesty, integrity, compassion and hope. To do this, forgiveness must be exercised by all parties. The aim is to restore dignity to relationships.

Geelong Grammar School wishes to foster a community based on trust. When harmful behaviour or conflict occurs, we emphasise repairing the damage caused to relationships and finding mutually acceptable ways forward. This practical philosophy can transform the way community members think, feel and act towards each other.

Forgiveness underpins the School approach to dealing with mistakes. Many mistakes are made by young people through lack of careful attention to others or to rules. Often there is no intention to harm, and when harm is intended, the young involved may have little real understanding of the effects of their harmful actions. Actions impact on others and these must be understood for the safety of all.

Geelong Grammar School’s approach to relationships is based on moral precepts which value both the individual and the community. Our pastoral principles and behaviour management practice promote wholesome transformative relationships and eschew intimidation, fear or overt exercise of authority. The relationship reparation practices we use to resolve disputes encourage people to rethink, to learn, to appreciate, to understand, value and respect others. Our approach recognises and attends to difference, and is fundamentally educative. Parties grow through this approach to recognise mistakes, to understand that mistakes have to be addressed, and so better understand life. Parties recognise that relationships have been disturbed and need repair requiring a co-created positive approach.

The quality of a relationship has many determinants but fundamentally five present as being significant.  They determinants are 1. Trust, 2. Forgiveness, 3. Integrity, 4. Optimism (hope), and 5. Compassion.  The notion of a relational living world underpins how we live together.  Error is of course how we learn and error must be managed positively in a relational sense.  Resilience is about recognising an error and being able to repair in every sense the impact of the relationships resulting from the error.  This is complex for the error has to be recognised, accepted, fully understood in its impact and then the error maker must accept the pivotal role to begin to repair the relationships disturbed.  This of course begins with acceptance, then forgiveness of self for making the error and dislocating relationships and perhaps causing hurt and a sense of loss.  Those relational “partners’ who have felt that the relationship has been harmed also must accept and acknowledge the error, understand the error circumstance, forgive the error maker and then work “with” the error maker to co-jointly work to repair the relationship damaged. The co-creation of the repair process is essential for although the “heavy lifting” is substantially done by the error maker the damaged party share a responsibility to repair the relationship to the best that is possible.  The obligations exist and the process requires all the 5 determinants of a relationship to be addressed individually and in concert.  This process is determined by the relational “partners’ involved.  The object is to repair and to restore peace. The “heavy lifting” aspect of the relationship repairing process is the consequence associated with the mistake.

“The quality of a community (individual relationships, family, community, nation) is not to be judged on its successes but rather on the humane and constructive approach it employs to the management of mistake.” 

John Hendry

“Forgiveness gives us the capacity to make a new start… And forgiveness is the grace by which you enable the other person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew… In the act of forgiveness we are declaring our faith in the future of a relationship and in the capacity of the wrongdoer to change.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

John Hendry September 2014

Avenor College joined hundreds of educators, managers and board members at the ECIS Leadership Conference in Brussels in April 2015, celebrating 50 years of ECI Schools.

Avenor College is part of a huge trend in international education and membership of ECIS and official status as a Cambridge International School links us with organisations from all continents. The term International school no longer just refers to schools for expats- it means both private and state schools worldwide who prefer an international model of education. We found ourselves amongst like-minded professionals at different points on their schools’ educational journeys.

Assessing what we value- not just valuing what we assess

We had the opportunity to further develop our school’s relationship with Cambridge International Examinations. CIE is experiencing exponential growth worldwide, with IGCSEs being the most popular qualification in the world. Importantly, although students use IGCSEs and A levels to access international universities, increasing numbers are using them to get into universities in their own countries. We can be confident that our choice of IGCSEs for our new High School is a good one. For our whole school approach, we found that our aim to incorporate transdisciplinarity alongside subject-based academic rigour was strongly advocated by the Director of Education at Cambridge International Examinations, Dr Tristram Stobie.

A nation of critical thinkers would be difficult to govern

Graham Brown-Martin, founder of Learning Without Frontiers, and author of Learning {Re}-Imagined, posed this interesting question: How come children in the 19^th Century were able to use all the technology available to them, when 21^st Century students are not? We saw how technology is changing the lives and educational experiences of children in third world countries, whilst we debate whether or not to allow students to use tablet computers and smartphones in our schools. This linked with the inspirational work of Ushahidi in transforming the lives of Kenyans by developing the innovative Brik modem, presented to us by Juliana Rotich. We saw how it is not always appropriate to transplant practice from one part of the world to another, and how solutions and innovations work best when they are tailored to the specific needs of the country or city where a school is located.

Living a Larger Life

The idea that what works in one context may not work in another was further developed by Matthew Taylor, from RSA, in his challenging seminar Giving International Schools the Power to Create. Education is not engineering, he insisted; education is constructed in a social context.

By highlighting the role of teachers in enabling future generations to live lives which are fulfilling, happy and productive, he challenged us to reflect on what makes a good international school. The consensus was: more than one language present in the school; a curriculum based on one of the international models, wholly or partly; cultural sensitivity and teaching staff from more than one country.

Learning- the space/time continuum

Given that learning takes place in a physical environment, the International School of Brussels designed their 21^st Century curriculum by starting with a new building. Felim Bolster, Head of High School at ISB, took us on a virtual tour of a school where the walls are transparent, and where the boundaries between teachers have truly become invisible. In a hands-on, practical session, we were invited to design a timetable based on the open spaces and flexible learning spaces. The development of a school is an evolutionary continuum with the following features:

Commonality: clarity and consensus in approaches to learning and teaching /Community: learning is social, that schools are communities, and that a sense of belonging is important /Collaboration: everyone needs time and space to work in individual ways and collaborative ways for different purposes /Visibility: de-privatising our practice; seeing learning happening all around us /Agility: flexible purpose-driven learning necessitates flexible, purpose-driven learning spaces/ Connections to nature: students benefit from being in close proximity to nature/Mobility: movement, both into new spaces and through the use of flexible, adjustable furniture increases oxygen flow and makes concentration easier/Sustainability: innovative producers, informed consumers and responsible conservers.

How to Change a School Culture

By reminding us to be kind, and challenging us to look at trust, forgiveness, integrity, hope, and compassion, John Hendry, and truly inspiration voice in Australian education, reminded us that our humanity is what defines us. As Director of Student Welfare in one of the biggest boarding schools in the southern hemisphere, John shared his views about forgiveness, mistake management and restorative justice. He has a message for all teachers: Don’t try to teach it if you don’t practice it. In everything you do, you are a role model.

Peace

As educators, we shared a few minutes of silent contemplation in memory of the students who died in their university in Kenya; we pondered the role of international schools as agents of peace throughout the world, and we were reminded that almost exactly 100 years ago, the region where we held this conference was ravaged by the horrors of war. It was apposite that this was not remembered by a documentary, or an official news report from the time, but by a poem: In Flanders Fields. Through creativity, we can speak to all of humanity, across all of time.

Creativity in Action

In addition to inspirational speaker from the world of education, we also got to listen to Jay Schuster, who works for Pixar, and has, amongst his many credits, the creation of Wall-E. He took us through the entire design process- four years! He reminded us that hard work and perseverance are the cornerstones of creative success. We saw him as a boy, and he shared some of his childhood artwork with us, reminding us that we have, in our schools, future designers, creators, thinkers and innovators.

Education is the key.

 

 

Cum se fac poveștile? Cum se întâmplă impulsul care ne împinge în situația de a ajunge, din degustători de basme și povestiri in creatori? De unde această atracție?

Într-o zi de VINERI 13 februarie, elevii de gimnaziu de la Avenor au avut ocazia să afle unele din ”rețetele” alcătuitului de povești de la un scriitor în carne și oase, invitat să dialogheze cu cei curioși și dornici să experimenteze condiția de creator de basme. Este vorba de Florin Bican, reputat traducător în limba engleză și autorul a trei cărți pentru copii, delicioase și provocante: ”Cântice mârlănești” (Ed. Humanitas educațional), ”Reciclopedia de povești cu rimă și fără tâlc” (Ed. Arthur, premiul I la Gala de carte ”Bun de tipar” 2014”) și ”Și v-am spus povestea așa” (Ed. Arthur).

Cu copiii așezați confortabil pe mocheta din Biblioteca școlii, cu invitatul foarte aproape – fizic, dar nu numai – de gazdele întrebătoare, această reconfortantă întâlnire a fost cu totul ieșită din tiparul evenimentelor scrobite de gen. Florin a spart iute gheața aducându-și aminte, cu un haz nespus, de cum a încercat și cum nu a reușit de niciun fel să scrie primul basm din viața lui, la vârsta de cinci ani. Auditoriul a empatizat în mod natural, fiecare dintre copii, cugetând în sinea lui că a trăit experiențe asemănătoare și că, deși pare, nu e deloc simplu să inventezi o poveste: frumoasă, autentică, originală și de ce nu? înălțătoare.

Iată însă că volumul ”Și v-am spus povestea așa” ilustrează biruința spiritului creativ față de complexele scrisului. Florin preia teme și subiecte din basme clasice românești (Greuceanu, Harap Alb) și le introduce într-un malaxor care combină elemente tradiționale, cu fapte, personaje și aluzii culturale contemporane. Rezultatul este un produs literar spumos, recomandabil nu numai copiilor dar și părinților de orice vârstă și, de ce nu, bunicilor care se vor amuza sau scandaliza, după caz, regăsind structura basmelor obligatorii de citit nepoților într-o pastă nouă, plină de prospețime.

Copiii noștri s-au delectat auzindu-l pe invitat cum lecturează cu ritm și inspirație actoricească, un fragment dintr-o pseudo-poveste. Dar mai tare și mai tare s-au bucurat până la hohote tumultoase și aplauze la scenă deschisă la lectura super-amuzantelor poeme din volumul ”Reciclopedia de povești cu rimă și fără tâlc”, pe care, la sfârșitul întâlnirii s-au precipitat să și-o cumpere.

Mă gândeam să ofer cititorilor acestui articol un fragment (unul din multele) relevant din volumul de poeme ”fără tâlc”. Dar mai bine descos curiozitatea dumneavoastră și vă las să descoperiți tâlcul fără tâlc al întregului volum. Lectură plăcută! Garantat.

Many parents are confronted with challenges around meal times with their children. Phases such as refusing to eat or ‘fussy eating’ are yet again ways in which children manifest their need for independence. A child’s eating habits become an issue when they are causing him/her negative feelings or when the child is not eating enough food to stay healthy. They say that a problem which has been identified in a correct manner is half-way solved. If you have the feeling that your child has an eating problem, but do not know exactly what it is, start by keeping a record with the answers to the following questions:

• How much did my child eat and drink in the last 24 hours?
• What kind of snacks does my child have in between meal times?
• What is my child eating and drinking?
• What is my child not eating and drinking?
• Does my child het more attention by refusing to eat than by eating what is on offer?
• Do we have a mealtime routine (e.g.: sitting around the table together?)
• Are there any distractions I could stop? (e.g.: Is the TV on? Are brothers and sisters arguing?)
• How is my child feeling? (e.g.: Is he/she feeling worried, angry, upset?)
• What do I do when my child does not eat?
• Are there any physical difficulties (e.g.: choking?)
• What is my child doing before and after mealtimes?

Now that you have gathered consistent information related to your child eating habits, you are probably wondering what can you do to help your child. First and foremost: be kind to yourself and keep calm! Do not blame yourself for things you think you should have done differently in the past. Focus on what you can do now and in the future. Look after your emotional Self so that you can help your child feel relaxed and confident around food. Remember that children need constant encouragement to try new foods, so let your child have a taste of your food. Moreover, make sure that you notice and praise the positive behaviours, rather than the negative ones. A child who receives attention for a behaviour (positive or negative) will most likely to do it again. Environment and routine are two key factors in determining your child’s eating patterns. Here are some suggestions which might come in handy when you are out of ideas on how to get your child to eat:

• Make sure that mealtimes are as relaxed as possible. Children, just like adults, find it difficult to eat when the atmosphere is tense;
• Ask for your child’s help in preparing, cooking and tasting the food before you serve it at the table;
• Give your child an amount of food that they can eat;
• Eliminate from the menu any sugary foods and drinks;
• Limit the daily snacks so that your child does not feel full before mealtimes.

One piece of advice in the end: your child has to feel hungry in order to understand the utility of eating so, once in a while let them bring up the topic of food, rather than asking them constantly if they are hungry or what they want to eat. Good luck and bon appetit! 🙂

Târgul Internaţional Gaudeamus – an de an mergem la acest târg şi de fiecare dată copiii sunt încântaţi să se aventureze prin labirintul de cărți, descoperind multe pe placul lor – SAS-ghidul supravietuitorului, Jocurile Foamei – Revolta, The Maze Runner, Materiile întunecate sau Percy Jackson şi Olimpienii. Se împărtășesc impresii şi pornim către alte surprize ce îi așteaptă. După un popas la standul de limonadă, băieţii sunt nerăbdători să afle despre noile aventuri ale lui Tintin. Citite acasă cu nesaț și dezbătute cu entuziasm în cadrul orelor de lectură, titlurile alese suscită interesul colegilor, schimbul de cărți fiind deja o obișnuință.

Implicându-se în proiectul caritabil Donează carte, donează cultură, susţinut de Asociația Young Inițiative și Biblioteca Metropolitană, elevii noştri au ales cărți din biblioteca personală, pe care le vor dărui în ianuarie copiilor orfani din sectorul 4. Așezate sub bradul de Crăciun, închid între filele lor mesaje şi dedicaţii ale elevilor Avenor. Aceste cărţi vor aduce bucurie copiilor, purtându-i într-un spațiu liber pentru visare, închipuire și căutare de sens.

Sleepover Avenor – Noaptea cărților deschise – o seară de noiembrie… copiii sosesc, bucuroși să petreacă împreună. Au înțeles că, până la distracție, munca se situează pe primul loc – timp de 3 ore lucrează, în echipe, la proiectele lunii; recreează poveştile, cu fantezie, umor şi sensibilitate, făurind noi lumi: basme moderne, ţesute din fire de fericire şi noduri de întuneric, sau în care ei înşiși sunt eroi – vraci înțelepți, sirene ori dragoni de foc. Ne amuzăm apoi în bibliotecă, imitând personaje celebre, din filme sau cărți. Distracția continuă cu pop-corn, pizza şi un film ales de ei. Stăm la taclale până la miezul nopții, învăluiţi în muzică bună. Copiii sunt niște spiriduși, cât ai clipi sunt în alte locuri de prin școală, râzând şi împărtăşindu-şi mici secrete. După câteva ore bune de somn, dimineața, sunt preluaţi de părinţi. Fără ei, şcoala pare ciudat de tăcută… Asta până luni, când acele ceasornicului vor arăta din nou 8:30 a.m.

Pânza lecturii – artiştii de la Avenor au realizat o miniexpoziție cu personaje din cărţile sau filmele lor favorite – justiţiarii Batman şi Wolverine, simpaticii minioni, Green Lantern, Spiderman, Ştrunfii, Kung-Fu Panda sau President Snow sunt doar câteva dintre creațiile realizate de talentații elevi. Aplecaţi asupra colilor albe, atenți la fiecare detaliu, nuanță şi linie, copiii au dovedit că ştiu să şi inoveze – imaginile vorbesc de la sine. Au întocmit şi hărți ale acestor ținuturi magice unde şi-au întâlnit eroii, fluturaşi sau jurnale de lectură – Lord of the Rings, Tabăra, Hunger Games, The Hobbit, Delirium, The Fault in our Stars se numără printre cărţile îndrăgite de elevii noştri, adevăraţi călători în timp…

Prof. Ana Maria Nestor