One year to go!

This year has been quite a personal journey for me. Although I have known for years that public servants have to retire when sixty-five, I have only realised how close this is this year. To help me process this ‘divorce’ from my ‘baby’ I have started to redecorate the ‘principal’s office’ and start moving my personal items back home. Luckily Shereen and I have Elmer’s Space to operate from this has made the move slightly easier. A new carpet, new furniture and a warmer colour has now made this space a lovely meeting room for all to share until the new principal takes over in January 2025.

The other part of the personal journey is finding the right person to continue our journey. PNPS is a very special place; the primary school I wished that I attended in my youth so choosing a successor is difficult. The post was advertised early in September and is currently being processed by the education department and the Governing Body. The plan is to have someone appointed in January 2024 for January 2025 so the current Governing Body and Management Team can work closely with the appointee to ensure a smooth takeover.

After twenty-eight years of my life focusing on one school community, and building the school of your dreams, how do you release this mission and pass it on to someone? That I haven’t dealt with yet, and luckily I still have a year to come to terms with that. In the meantime, I urge you to support all the processes happening currently and the new person who is appointed as the right people will be choosing the right person on your behalf: the worst possible thing for me would be to hear the school community withdrawing their support. The school is only as strong as you, your children and the faith you have in the school. After twenty-eight years of building that, my wish is that the school would continue to flourish, grow, innovate and diversify even more, and continue to be a WCED flagship school on which ‘other school’s model themselves’ as we say in our Vision statement.

Safe places at Pinelands North

Over the years the school has adapted itself from a school we as adults attended, to one that cares about individuals within the whole. Not all children are happy to play outside at breaktime or learn in a room with another thirty children. Realising this has made us create spaces for children to ‘be’ when the world is too overwhelming.

One of the first spaces created was a quiet games space outside my office. We had noticed that some children couldn’t understand the team games at break and would often get into skirmishes with their peers. We regularly place logic games, puzzles, colouring equipment and gender-neutral toys like dolls’ houses and car garages on these tables and we find that pairs of children, even between grades, end up playing quietly in the passage during break and before school. Also, before school the library is open from 7:00. Children arrive at school and race to the library to play board games, complete puzzles or find a little hidden comfortable spot to read on their own. The library is also open until 16:00 in the afternoon and families use this space to read or work together too.

When we first introduced animals as ‘therapy animals’, we used Beck se Plek, named after Buzzy Beck, a former deputy of the school until 1996. In this enclosed outside quad, bunnies, guinea pigs, chickens and ducks live happily together and provide a welcome respite to children during breaktimes. Every single break, children from mainly grade 1 to 3, find an animal to cuddle and feed until the bell rings for class time again. Grade 3 pupils who have consistently assisted with the animals are appointed ‘bunny monitors’, and they wear this name with great pride! 

In 2017 the theme of our year was “Pushing Boulders”, named after the book by the same name by Athol Williams. Athol was, at that stage, an uncle of children at the school and is still a famous poet and author. During that year we focused on grit and determination with the children and gave them some strategies to use when confronted with difficult parts of their lives. This space is still used as a quiet space: there is a large chess set to play with and children sit around in quiet groups during breaks, away from the hustle and bustle of the other playgrounds. 

Another quiet ‘playground’ is the Mandela Peace Garden. This little quiet garden connected to aftercare, was created by Aunty Suzi, the previous head of aftercare, and a few aftercarians who wanted a calm space to be in the afternoons. They planted indigenous cuttings and collected artifacts such as bird cages, tea pots and fairies to decorate the space.

Learning support has always been a safe place to be: inside the room there are always adults to help children debrief and in the passage there are more games to keep unhappy children busy. A place which was never a safe place for us adults when we were at school, was the staffroom – I remember we weren’t even allowed to walk past that section of the passage! At PNPS children are welcomed into the space: as individuals, as groups to teach and as places to meet. The veranda alongside the staff room is often used as an extra classroom for small groups of children. 

This year the staff created Elmer’s Space. Situated in one of the classrooms with two doors permanently open, this space has been decorated with a huge wooden Elmer, created for one of our previous school plays, and two smaller patchwork Elmers, created by the Wyatt family. Shereen Stadler, the deputy, Thaakirah Fritz, our media intern, and I are now based in this space, waiting for staff and children to join us. Sometimes we are joined by children and staff needing support and sometimes children are sent to us for a debrief if their day is not going well. Sometimes this is just a good quiet place to sit when your classroom is too rowdy or a place to quietly recover from a bout of crying. Baloo, my Indian Ringneck parrot, is also based there and he entertains all who go by. Accessibility is the key to this space: the furniture is arranged to make it look inviting and the staff are based on the outside of a horseshoe, which makes the visitors feel included.

For many children at school in South Africa, school is not a safe place to be, but here in the little suburb of Pinelands, all children have many to choose from – a school I wished to attend when I was small!

Can school be fun?

 The role of fun at school is crucial for creating a positive and engaging learning environment. When pupils enjoy coming to school, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, participate in class activities and develop positive relationships with teachers and peers.

Here are some ways that fun can be incorporated into the school day:

1. Laughter: 

Laughter is a great way to relieve stress and promote a positive atmosphere in the classroom. Teachers can incorporate humour into their lessons or use funny videos or jokes to break up the monotony of the day.

2. Links between teachers and pupils: 

Creating a personal connection between teachers and pupils can help to build trust and respect. Teachers can share personal stories or interests with their pupils to help them see them as real people, not just authority figures.

3. Seeing staff as human: 

Teachers can also show their human side by sharing their own struggles or challenges. This can help pupils to see that everyone has difficulties and that it's okay to ask for help when needed.

4. Lightening the day: 

Taking a break from academic work can help to refresh pupils and give them a mental break. Teachers can incorporate fun activities or games into the day to help pupils relax and recharge. Walking around the field quickly or doing cartwheels on the playground between lessons creates a little excitement to assist those who find it hard to sit still in the classroom as well as creating a lighter moment in the day for all.

5. Stress relievers: 

Schools can also provide stress relievers such as mindfulness exercises or relaxation techniques to help pupils manage stress and anxiety. At Pinelands North there are several spaces for children to relieve stress: the Mandela Peace Garden, Elmer’s Space, Quiet Quad, Beck se Plek, learning support and outside the principal’s office.

6. Conversation starters: 

Fun activities can also be used as conversation starters, encouraging pupils to share their thoughts and ideas with each other. This can help to build relationships and create a sense of community in the classroom.

7. Making school memorable: 

Fun activities can help to create positive memories of school, which can have a lasting impact on pupils' attitudes towards learning and education. Children won’t remember the tests they do but they will remember School in Action days, Readers are Leaders, Hooked on Books and Derby Days.

To incorporate fun into the school day, teachers and staff can brainstorm ideas for activities or games that align with their curriculum and pupil interests. They can also survey pupils to find out what activities they enjoy and what they would like to see more of in the classroom. Finally, it's important for teachers and staff to model a positive attitude and a willingness to have fun themselves, as this can create a culture of fun and learning throughout the school. Staff at our school have monthly Fun Days where different grades will decide what the staff will wear on a particular day. Fun days we have had recently are: wear a strange hat, crazy hair day, different shoe or sock day and a touch of bling. This dressing up by adults makes children laugh at the beginning of their day and so their load is lightened for the day. The important thing to remember in creating fun is that it doesn’t have to cost anything to implement – all it requires a little imagination and some good ‘gees’!

Building Community at Pinelands North

One negative about Covid was that it kept people away from each other. Pinelands North has always encouraged families to be part of the education solution and so Covid broke down the community vibe because we couldn’t interact as partners face to face. This year we have to focus on rebuilding our community and her a few ideas we have used to do this: 

• Welcome family members back into the passages and classrooms

While children are being dropped off or collected, staff are available to chat casually to families. Besides our usual parent meetings each grade will have their own ‘school in action’ day this year so that all family members can actually follow their children through a normal day and experience schooling today for themselves. Trust is built when parents understand exactly what goes on in every classroom.

• Focus on gratitude

We thank our parents, the staff and children for playing their part in our big picture, even if not everybody is playing a big part. Showing gratitude for small things makes others want to please the organization more and then more people will want to play a positive role to the benefit of everybody.

• Invest in the people of the community

We look out for opportunities to coach, share or workshop with parents, grandparents, pupils and their caregivers, interns, volunteers and staff. Every learning opportunity gives someone else a skill that they can use in furthering their learning in their own lives. This year we have employed thirteen Presidential Interns too: these are young unemployed youth are now assisting with art, sport and music classes, facilitating children with special needs and providing another set of eyes in classrooms.

• Encourage pupil voices

The best way to ‘know’ what is really going on behind the scenes is to ask children informally. Good adult and child relationships in a school allow children to voice opinions about staff, about safe and unsafe places at school and about their own home realities. We have staff specially trained and available to ‘listen actively’ and to act upon the advice or information given.

• Have fun, play and laugh at school

Laughter changes vibes. School should be to create opportunities to laugh, play and make schooling fun. Our staff regularly hold fun days when they might wear two different shoes to school, encourage children and staff to wear pyjamas or wear their clothes backwards. Just tiny things like this lighten the load of life and create smiles in classrooms as school starts.

• Daily shout outs

Why not catch people in the act of doing the right thing instead of the wrong? Our staff and children to look at the world through new lenses and encourage kindness, generosity and good habits by announcing what they witness over the intercom during the day.

• Shared conflict resolution language

Our school uses several ways of dealing with conflict, with families as well as the children. By sharing the language used at school to resolve conflict with our families, we encourage them to also resolve conflict at home in a similar way. If parents need to be informed of some school conflict, they will  then understand the process used too. One great way of resolving conflict is to use narrative therapy; our school tries to change people’s stories, about themselves and about others, through this process.

• Acts of kindness

Encourage acts of kindness; between people at school and those at home. Remembering a birthday, calling when you hear a family pet has died or just checking in because you thought of someone are all kind acts which show you care about the people in your community. We try to follow up regularly with our families – short emails or Whatsapp or voice notes let our families know we are thinking of them in difficult times.

• Pay it forward

A great project for the whole family is to work out who is in need around them and ask them then to ‘pay it forward’. Simple ideas like buying a pair of shoes for someone in need, offering to babysit a colicky baby or the neighbours’ dog are some ideas families have used to bring happiness to others and therefore also to themselves. We have used this idea as a holiday project for our families and it worked so well – each child was given a tin to fill with coins and then the money inside was used to ‘pay it forward’.

None of the above ideas cost money: they just take time and a little extra effort on behalf of all members of the school community. When a school community is happy, feels welcomed and safe, then the children in the school benefit hugely!