Poto Williams – Seclusion Rooms in Schools a disturbing symptom of Education’s tragic legacy under National
Last week it was revealed that seclusion is a method used by some schools to manage the behaviour of children. I for one was really disturbed that the schools even contemplate this as an option for any child, let alone special needs children. What was even more disturbing was learning that the Minister of Education had known about this for two months and appears not to lifted a finger until she was outed by Autism New Zealand and concerned parents.
Now she has called for a report by officials and the Office of the Ombudsman is investigating. I think this marks another chapter in her sad and tragic legacy as Minister of Education as this week she announced her decision to quit.
It started with Novopay and the lack of oversight and ignoring the warnings that the system was not ready and full of bugs, she signed off on the launch anyway. Then under a barrage of fire from schools, teachers, principals, support staff, opposition and general public, she could only sustain the fire for so long and sent her Associate Foss into the fray to take some of the heat. Then when all was lost and she couldn’t manage to get the thing back on track after months and months and months of incorrect payments, Steven Joyce, had to step in and fix it up for her.
Then she managed to upset a whole lot of quake affected families in her rushed plan to close and merge Canterbury schools, many of the decisions being based on flawed information and no demographic study at all. Don’t get me wrong, the rebuilt schools are beautiful and most of our children have settled. But there is a cohort of kids who don’t cope with the Modern Learning Environment, for whom there is little alternative, despite inclusion being a right for children who access mainstream schools, schools that should be able to cater for any child with special needs.
Here’s the thing, in answer to written questions from my office about the ability for schools to provide quality learning environments for all children, in particular, children with Autism, her response to me was, “we base our delivery on a child’s needs, not their diagnosis”. She could not tell me how many children with Autism are in mainstream schools, nor did the Ministry conduct any surveys to find out current numbers or future projections. I believe if you don’t know, you can’t adequately provide support. I have a view that a diagnosis is an important factor in determining how a school can prepare to teach a child and provide the best learning environment for them.
This doesn’t surprise me as I have been approached by a few schools in my electorate to support their pleas to the Ministry about additional resource required to cope with increased issues of behaviour. This is not only about special needs children, it is about our cohort of quake kids. Statistics paint a bleak picture of increased rates of suicide and self harm, behaviour that is unmanageable, inability of mental health services to cope, in particular the waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services.
On top of this, schools in my area are experiencing increased rolls as families move to Christchurch East to take advantage of cheaper rentals, as many of the quake damaged “as is, where is” properties become available. The Ministry of Education determines the level of staffing six months out from the start of a new school year. Therefore some schools will have many more students to house in classrooms than teaching staff to deal with appropriately.
I have had to make direct representations to the Minister on behalf of inidividual schools who are finding they cannot cope, and neither are they receiving the support from local MOE officials. I shouldn’t have to do this one school at a time, the Ministry and the Minister should know!
But if any of you have had the pleasure of hearing the Minister answer questions on this and other matters during Parliaments question time, you will know she is the master of double speak. I often attempt to decipher her answers along with my bench mate in the chamber to see if we can understand what the Minister actually means.
Here’s the Minister’s response to a question about unenforceable seclusion guidelines:
“The sector wanted to take the approach of how do they improve the professional practise of schools given that they have been working to eliminate the process of the confusion between timeout for restraint and seclusion and because boards are required under the national administration guidance number 5 to provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students it was expected that’s these guidelines would assist boards to carry out responsibilities they already have”
The saddest thing about this whole saga is that there are children missing out on getting the kind of education all of our kids deserve. We expect a lot from our schools and our teachers deliver every day, to the best of their ability and resource available. However all of our kids are being short changed if we cannot recognise need and fill that need appropriately, which ever child experiences that need. Our special needs children are not naughty, they are different in their responses to situations and they need time, love and special routines to be able to get the most out of their time at school. We need to get this right, because second best is not good enough.
Poto Williams – Labour Party MP
Novopay was not the start of Ms Parata’s sad and tragic legacy as Minister of Education.
The start was the day she was given the baton of the sad and tragic legacy of Ann Tolley.
A philosophy of children succeeding sounded laudable but being part of a braindead ideological plan meant the certainty of children of this generation and those to come, being short-changed.
With no reasonable grasp of children and learning she has been the perfect puppet for her masters.
The current Minister does indeed leave a sad legacy. And yes, schools are underfunded. As a retired secondary teacher, I know well the frustration of trying to ensure that there is a good learning environment in one’s class while at the same time coping with students with special needs, including those who are disruptive, often antisocial and therefore unsafe in a class environment. [As an aside, my teaching career began in the developing workd where education was much sought after and deeply appreciated. We never seemed to have ‘difficult’ students there… funny that.]
Will better resourcing help? Yes, it will help a bit.
There is however no easy solution. Given the number of students with special needs, a massive amount of money would be needed to employ the specialist support staff required. Add that to the dosh needed to fix our increasing health needs, provide adequate social housing, look after the environment, fund the police, border security and the armed forces adequately, improve public transport….. frankly we are simply going to have to accept a less than ideal infrastructure.
The more so as the world runs into increasing resource constraints (more people but a finite planet). That’s a conversation that few people are willing to contemplate. Endless economic growth? I don’t think so. That’s not to say that I support the Nats’ approach. if we are going to have to do more with less, then let’s rein in the tax evaders, the super-rich parasites, the merchant bankers with their sense of entitlement. Then we might be able to say that society has its priorities right. But I reiterate – no easy solutions exist.
Labour’s legacy when it comes to disabled kids fully participating at their local school is equally abysmal as National’s.
Really? Never heard of these abuses going on under Labour.
Yes, don’t believe the hype. Both Labour and National are as bad as each other when it comes to the rights of disabled kids at their local schools.
Disagree. You are very wrong there. In comparison, Labour were more supportive than National.
Do a little bit of reading.
What hype? Disagree that Labour and National are as bad as each other. In comparison I don’t think any government has been as brutal as this National government. Labour supported funding to schools for special needs classes, and it is a fact that that was one of the first things National took away from schools when they came to power. That forced schools to either fund the classes themselves or close them down. A lot of schools did the latter.
The big problem that National has introduced is the National Standards. At a time when most countries racing ahead to remove punitive standards and encourage creativity for the new future of entrepreneurs, innovation and creative economy, NZ has gone backwards with a set of standards and assessments for children as young as 5 years old. There is absolutely no research than supports this, and plenty that say how dangerous that approach is and particularly damaging for boys that tend to develop slower and have more energy.
Let’s face it, should a 5 year old be assessed and then categorised with less than one year of school? When children develop at different stages and come with different backgrounds – should a child that excels at art be considered inferior to one that has been rote taught to count to 20? With the rise in technology is teaching kids to sit on the mat and not experiment, rote learn and pass tests to be rewarded, while those who get bored easily by this, want to move around are labeled trouble makers?
Teachers wasting their time with paperwork and assessments instead of actually teaching the kids and having the flexibility to answer questions and interests specific to the kids they are teaching?
Many parents I talk say about all the problems their kids seem to have. Behaviour, learning, laziness and so forth – there seems to be a lot of blame on the kids themselves if they do not engage with the National standards, and the education system seems quick to label them if they do not achieve the standards that the government (with zero research and actually most research has showed this is harmfu)l has imposed?
It is no surprise that a ‘time out’ room was both needed and used at schools. Teachers should be supported by the minister.
National Standards for primary should be abolished so that teachers can actually spend time teaching kids and being flexible with encouraging their ability to love learning, and not wasting education time filling in assessment forms for the ministry. The ministry is creating a crisis that did not exist before they changed to this flawed system.
EDUCATION
THE CREATIVITY CRISIS
http://www.newsweek.com/creativity-crisis-74665
Hekia Parata seemed to be heading in a far more serious direction.
Her concern about the level of ability, the “standard” in children starting at primary school surely would have seen her demanding testing of kids entering school.
Everything she has done has been framed like that. There was no way to be consistent she could not do that. Dumb, yes, but that’s her way.
A better way:
https://newsununity.com/2016/10/27/at-this-school-kids-dont-get-sent-to-detention-theyre-sent-to-a-mindfulness-room/
The education system, for the most part, stinks no matter whether under National or Labour. It needs complete revamping, complete re-structuring.
KIds need a supportive and fun and healthy place to learn – not the
privatized ; profit oriented piece of competitive crap it has become.
Good riddance to Hekia Parata and Ann Tolley who were both “out to lunch” ! and did more damage than good.
Most schools are damaging our children and setting them up to fail.
There are healthy alternatives :
Maria Montessori and Joseph Chilton Pearce are LIGHT years ahead of
the pack in the field of education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVBXqJ_u8io
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExDCFlARrlk
http://www.montessori.org.nz/education-future
WHERE IS MY COMMENT ? ? ?
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Now I have to sign in with each comment and before it was automatic.
Can you please help me with this as it may be part of the reason why
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