The Role of the Principal in leading a school towards Inclusion

Research says that ‘the principal is pivotal in creating and promoting an inclusive culture’. Inclusion is all about including children with ‘exceptionalities’, not disabilities. This does not have a negative impact on other children's academic achievement and in fact, in most circumstances, we all learn better from teaching others. There are huge social benefits for both ‘regular’ and ‘exceptional’ children in an inclusive classroom.
Where do you, as a principal, begin the process?
Firstly, you need to understand inclusive education yourself. You will find that inclusion is a ‘state of mind’, or ‘a heart for human rights’. If you believe in everyone’s right to the very best education, you will never again be able to turn away a child who needs to be taught differently. An educational psychologist, Catherine Normand Michell, who visited our school last week, said after she had been, “Although I know it is not an easy ride for a school, it seems to me to be the only choice if we wish to make an educational difference to children, and align ourselves with the constitution.”
Find good examples of inclusive schools to visit and ensure you take along the staff ‘influencers’ – those strategic staff members who will be able to influence the ‘naysayers’. Spend time learning as much as you can - on school sites, on the web, speaking to all people who might influence the decision of your school – psychologists, paediatricians, parents of children with low, high and moderate needs, teachers who feel successful, and unsuccessful in dealing with children with special needs in their classrooms.Connect effective school teaching practice with good inclusive school practice. Good teaching and creative problem solving techniques is actually all you need to help any child achieve their best!You also don’t need to be a wealthy school – your school can become an inclusive school without adding money to the mix!You do, however, need lots of courage. You will need to be brave to deal with skeptics at every level of education, and to deal with current staff members who will choose to leave because ‘the educational standards will be dropping’.
Focus on change!‘
We must be the change we want to see,’ said Mahatma Gandhi many years ago. If you understand the change process, then you will know the small ‘steps’ that will need to be taken to get everyone to ‘buy-in’ to the process and the ‘end result’. I use ‘end result’ with a smile on my face as we have found that, after small steps started in 1997, we are still in 2014 not at the end…….in fact we’re beginning to believe that there might not be an ‘end’! When every year, we are challenged with a different ‘difference’ to problem solve, we have begun to think that this process is ‘without end’. We don’t know now what challenges tomorrow will bring!Start by developing a broad plan of action with as many stakeholders as possible. You will find that most adults today will find this process hard.  When we were at school, those children with special needs were either in a special school or a special class – certainly this is true for South Africa. Because of this negative connotation, adults with this experience find it very hard not to think that making the school inclusive will drop the educational standards.Realize that not all your staff will 'love' the idea! The way we have dealt with this is to say, “There is a right place for every person at the right time.” This has allowed staff who cannot change to move on to schools which won’t change. Support all efforts by all role players to change behaviour, thinking and speech. We found that we censored each other’s words: we don’t use ‘naughty’, ‘disobedient’ or ‘disruptive’, ‘difficult’ or ‘bully’ anymore because we now understand that a child only ‘acts up’ when overwhelmed by something in his life. If we find out what it is that is causing stress, we will remove the ‘bad behaviour’!Provide time for teachers to visit schools, provide money for attending courses and celebrate every small step towards your goal! Accept that you will not have all the answers at first, and that the school will always be changing, adapting, and progressing.
Create a safe space in the school for people to 'risk'. This means that when teachers want to try something new, the principal needs to be seen to be supporting the ‘trial’ and if the trial doesn’t work, also needs to be heard being positive. If you create a culture that encourages 'learning by doing', then no one will feel a failure if something tried doesn’t work – it becomes another problem to solve in a different way! Real change takes a long time! After almost 20 years in the making, Pinelands North, our inclusive school, is still ‘on the path of discovery’.
Create your team!
Find people to support you, the teaching staff and the school. Identify ‘champions of inclusion’ from amongst your staff, those staff who understand the concept immediately, and invest in their training and growth. Ensure that your leadership team feels empowered to assist the staff who they lead. Include people from the district offices and education departments as much as possible. We have found that if we keep people informed, they help you in small ways when you need help. We have now received a small amount of money towards our efforts: we have part of a teacher’s aide salary paid, we have received equipment to assist pupils, and have also received professional help when it is needed for a child.Find volunteers to assist your staff. We have found that there are many people out there with spare time that are happy to give to a good cause. We have had counsellors, readers, book-coverers, and even volunteer teacher aides and facilitators throughout the years. Lately we have also worked with an NGO that places special needs adults in a supported working environment. These special needs adults have worked in our library, in our aftercare and school garden, helped coach sport and physical education classes, and have assisted with admin tasks like shredding and filing.Involve parents in their children's learning. The more they understand about the learning process, the more effort they volunteer. Remember though, that parents also need to come to terms with their children not being the ‘perfect’ little specimen they conjured up when they found out they were pregnant! Some parents need a few years of patient discussion, but once they realize that the school is really just trying to help their child best, they change their attitude and start to work with the school, for their child’s benefit.
The path of progress

Progress is slow – in some cases very slow! Solve practical problems, one at a time, with creative ideas. Encourage experimentation amongst teachers and also encourage them to problem solve co-operatively. Celebrate all progress, even the small steps, particularly with staff who aren’t finding the changes easy. Realize too, that your goals will keep changing as your school grows more inclusive. Each time we think we have a particular ‘difference’ pinned down, we find out that the goal posts have shifted much further, and maybe even out of our reach for a while.Keep asking questions and learning from those schools and people who are further down the path towards inclusion.
Share all successes with all stakeholders! Every little step forward should be celebrated publically, and communicated widely. Use your own newsletters and school website, the local press and all school community meetings to tell everybody about the positive spinoff for everybody at the school, of the school’s move towards inclusion. Keep communicating with everybody all the way through the process – mention examples of practices at Governing Body meetings, when attending conferences and at staff meetings.
Trust the children to speed up your progress! They will always challenge you to think about the next step sooner than you thought you would need to! Look at what children can do at school, and do not focus on what they can't!
Replace those teachers who leave because they are struggling with the ‘new rules for behaviour’, with those who believe in inclusion and it’s benefits. Believe me, there are teachers out there who have come to our school because they have felt isolated at their previous schools because others didn’t see things the way they did. They know that being at an inclusive school is hard work, but good teaching is also hard work!
Don't lead the process alone, the more people in the school who take up the challenge the better. Try to get everyone at school knowledgeable. We have found training our ground and cleaning staff has been well worth the hours! They care for our children around the school when we are not there, and they understand which children need special handling!
Don't follow policy to the letter. Each school will change, adapt and develop better policies than those presented! Each school is different as it serves a different community – this means that each school will need to tweak the policies, maybe only just for some children!
Make sure you teach children with exceptionalities yourself to model good practice! Many principals have given up their primary focus when they became principals. For me, my special joy is teaching on Fridays! I teach three combined classes of very bright children between the ages of 7 and 13, and when I return to my office after teaching, I am bursting with enthusiasm to share the little anecdotes about who said what, who surprised me today, who was ‘hanging from the chandeliers’ and who had just produced a fully professional movie on Leonardo da Vinci for their latest project!Because I teach, and because I teach ‘different’ children, I can share my teachers’ frustrations but also share some of my ideas that have worked when dealing with those who are ‘energetic’.
Keep evaluating your school practice. This is very important as some ideas will work and some won’t. Accept that you won't always get everything right and that sometimes children need more help than you can provide. Just about every child with every syndrome is different anyway so saying that your school can deal with children who have Down’s but not with children who have autism, is misleading.Walking along the road to inclusion has been an exceptionally positive move for our school. We have lost some good teachers but have gained others, lost some fabulous children but gained others, deflected some negative publicity but gained other very positive! Your school’s road will be very different from ours but is certainly will be worth every step! Ours has been!

WCED Acknowledgement of Academic Excellence

At the Metro Central District Awards for Language and Maths, on 26 February, Pinelands North received 6 awards, more than any other school in the district! In each of the district’s 6 circuits, the top 3 schools received Excellence Awards, and if the school had improved by 10%+ in either subject since the previous year, schools received Improvement Awards.  In circuit 4, Pinelands North received:

• Excellence in grade 3 Maths
• Excellence in grade 3 Language
• Excellence in grade 6 Maths
• Excellence in grade 6 Language
• Improvement in grade 3 Language
• Improvement in grade 3 Maths

PNPS Representives proudly displaying our certificates.

This is an amazing result for an inclusive Full Service School! Being a Full Service School means that we choose to enroll children who are different! At least 100 out of our 448 pupils are diagnosed with special needs such as specific learning difficulties, ADD or giftedness but we firmly believe that all children have special needs at different times! This makes us really proud too, when you realize that there are 26 schools in our circuit, and 151 schools in this district!

A result like this takes much work over many years! So, although we acknowledge our current teachers in the role they have played in this achievement, many other influences have created it. Our thanks and salute therefore go to those who have supported the pupils, the school and the teaching staff over the years:

• to our parents and care givers who have ensured that their children have come to school on time every day, ready to engage in all the learning opportunities at PNPS,
• to all those supporters who ensure homework is done every day,
• those who have read, and been read to, on a regular basis,
• those who play Maths and Language games as a family, for fun,
• Governing Bodies and PTA members who have created resources to support learning,
• support, admin and aftercare staff who daily create an atmosphere of learning,
• those community members and NGOs like Help2Read who have supported our school,
• past pupils who worked hard, mentored younger pupils and demonstrated good work ethics to the rest of the pupils.

These awards made me aware yet again, of the fabulous school I work at and the wonderful learning environment Pinelands North Primary School children are privileged to attend every day.

IP and FP HOD's with 2013 Top Grade 3 and 6 pupils.

The 'Coolest' Principal......

This morning I was interviewed by Ayden Thomas on Heart Radio. This was because Ayden Lottering in Grade 5 nominated me for the Coolest Teacher Award in a competition run by the radio station. During the interview I had to answer as many questions within 60 seconds as I could, and all the questions were about ‘cool’ things that children at school know about. In preparation for this interview several grade 5 and 7 pupils spent time coaching me on the things that were ‘cool’ so I learnt about cool movies, cool clothes, cool people and cool songs. Reflecting on this event and the process we went through, made me realize a few things.

Firstly, and most importantly, these events are what makes school a memorable place for children. Yesterday afternoon I had to eventually throw the children out of my office to get them to go home at 17:00. We had just spent 2 hours chatting and laughing together, while they showed me how to walk, what to wear and they played me some songs I should know. This experience has left me warm inside as I loved interacting with my senior pupils, and they loved interacting with me! When I arrived at school today, dressed as they had suggested, they straight away said…….’Nou is jy ingejak!’ In ‘cool speak’ that means that they thought I was well dressed……I didn’t know that expression until yesterday afternoon!

And that brings me to my next thought…..How much do our children know that we don’t? What do they know that we should know? I typed 3 full pages of information that they told me about, at least half a page just on sms speak. Would you be able to translate this? OMG WUU2 LIB L2M LMHO Translated, this is: Oh my gosh! What you up to? (I am) lying in bed, listening to music and laughing my head off. How much more would our children learn from us as parents and teachers, if they saw us acknowledging their experiences in our teaching? So, a comprehension on Justin Bieber, his relationship with Selena Gomes and information about his songs is much more likely to gain positive responses than one about the boy who put his finger in the dyke to stop the flow of water.

Finally, the things that the children said were cool about me, were actually wonderful things about the school…the fact that we have animals around us, that they could come inside to play games and make puzzles outside my office on cold mornings, and that the teachers ‘play’ amongst themselves and with them…..That’s fly!

Pinelands North has had only five principals in sixty four years...............

Last week was the school’s sixty-fourth birthday, and on Founder’s Day every year, our school representatives lead the assembly and remind us how far we have come as a school. One of the things they mentioned was all the previous principals this school has had over the years.

This is when I am reminded that I am one of only five principals who have lead this amazing institution through its history. Five principals in sixty-four years, you ask? Averaged, that is almost thirteen years for each term of office.

I have been principal at Pinelands North for fifteen years and I can’t imagine being anywhere else! Let me tell you why……

Our school draws amazing families from all over the peninsula – families who come to interviews and tell me why they could never imagine their children anywhere else. We are truly an integrated society of wealthy and poor, of all religions and races, who have learnt that by their children living and working side by side, they learn to live in peace too.

Our school governors commit themselves to hard work every three years, particularly in the finance department. Because of astute management in the past, and constant vigilance, our finances are healthy, and we are able to plan for the future, and carry out extensions to buildings and buy new equipment when necessary.

Our children are taught and disciplined gently, at school and at home, and so they learn that you can live ‘gently’ in the world. This gentle way of living only becomes obvious when new children join us in the older grades – these new pupils stand out because they react so differently in conflict situations initially. I therefore seldom have to be the ‘bad wolf’.

Our staff are exceptional! Any new opening results in many applications because, in education fields, our school is known to grow people. Expectations are high but so is performance! Our staff engage in professional development throughout the year, often during holidays and weekends, so they are at the cutting edge of new education thought. Departmental officials know that if they want a new theory piloted, Pinelands North is a good school to use. 

Our campus is small but well utilized. Our children have spacious classrooms, fields and a pool, a brand new aftercare centre and an environmentally friendly playground.

Indigenous gardens surround the buildings and our school ducks roam unhindered.

Few principals could say that they love their jobs – I can say honestly that I love mine every day of the year!

‘Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.’

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011 

Steve Jobs, the CEO and founder of Apple, the richest company in history, died in October, 2011. The above quote was the topic of one of my assemblies in May 2011, as sadly that year was fraught with sadness for our community. Several staff had family and friends die, school families lost loved ones and many families were affected by poverty, divorce and depression.

When these unhappy things happen, one is prompted into reviewing one’s life and so there is never a better time to make some positive changes. In the assembly with the children, we discussed how easy it is to ‘live someone else’s life’, and we determined then that we need to take every opportunity to make life a series of moments that you will treasure forever.

At Pinelands North, we try to make school into a series of momentous moments. Every child will be taught information at any school you send them to, (some will be taught more than others!) but remembering the day that I was allowed to walk on the wet field without my shoes on, or the day that I sat quietly during break, watching day-old ducklings wandering around me, are moments that will be forever embedded into the psyche.

So 2011 was also been filled with small treasures, some personal and some communal. I will always remember how awed I was when our seven grade seven children spoke to the Western Cape Parliament in June, and how proud I was when I heard their well researched speeches and watched the confidence they portrayed when speaking to the press at the media briefing afterwards.

Another special day for me was when we were publically acknowledged by the Minister of Education for our inclusive policies! If you spoke to our children themselves, however, they would probably give you a different list of ‘moments’. Maybe they would tell you about the day the teachers played netball against the pupils, maybe the camp or tour they spent time at, or maybe just that this year their teacher really understood them or that they made one new friend this year.

To read about the many varied ‘special moments’ in the life of this fabulous school over the years, read our website – you will be astounded that we even have lots of time to learn too. Plan today, or during this next school holiday, to make some time for your family to celebrate some special moments together – you never know when time will run out and those moments will be over forever.

Catering to the needs of our brightest pupils.....

Research has proved that the brightest children are often not those who come top of their classes – often these children underachieve, become the class clowns or spend their days working out just how far they can try their teacher’s patience. They do that because they can! Being bright means that they can work out just how little they can do to pass each grade, and unless they are motivated, they continue to do as little as possible throughout their schooldays.

Pinelands North treats these children differently. Besides being given work that motivates them to achieve, they also need counselling and a set of social skills to help them cope in an unfriendly world. Bright children are often not accepted by their peers because they view the world differently and see things others don’t. Giving clever children more work in class, of the same type, is certainly not going to motivate them to achieve what they could.

Our Creative and Talented programme includes six months with our learning support co-ordinator to build self esteem, discuss friendship issues and learn to deal with authority successfully. This part of the programme makes Pinelands North unique in the Western Cape – some southern suburbs schools provide extension for bright children but none focus on the skills needed in society which are often lacking in exceptionally bright people! 

Besides this six month semester, pupils focus on thinking skills and learn to be creative in multi-age classes once a week. They also have a small group lesson where they learn how to research and to record evidence of learning.

By the middle of this year, our grade 5 to 7 pupils were writing a fourteen paragraph essay comparing the world of 2000 with the world of 2010. All they were given to write the essay was an A3 page of pictorial data! They had already written their autobiographies, and produced a book of very intricate paper mechanisms. The grade 3 and 4 pupils studied oliogochaetology, conducted experiments to discover how worms move, see and smell, and used Science kits to discover sound, weather, magnetism and energy.

In their small groups in the library, pupils have done problem solving, general knowledge, number puzzles and have researched from historical resources. They have also learnt to ask questions that require complex answers and figure out puzzles that play tricks on the eyes! In the counselling section of the programme, the children have grappled with terms like ‘normal’, ‘perfectionism’  and ‘self esteem’, and how to define these terms. They have had an opportunity to discuss what they are particularly curious about, and come to understand that often asking a question, is more important than knowing the answer! Children have been challenged to articulate how and why they have particular feelings and have then been given opportunities to share their feelings in a safe place.

For the first time in their lives, these children now feel understood and accepted, and have better coping skills with which to survive an often hostile world. One child reported this year that ‘the only way he gets through every week is that he has Creative and Talented lessons on Fridays!’ What would he have done if he hadn’t been at Pinelands North Primary?