Behaviour action plan
PPTA News, November 2009, p. 4
At the beginning of this year a plan was hatched to help deal with the unprecedented levels of violence and antisocial behaviour in our schools.
Eight months and a number of serious incidents later the education sector is still waiting for it to be released.
The behaviour action plan was the result of a hui held in March to address the growing issue of disruptive and antisocial behaviour in schools. Representatives from the education sector and beyond put their heads together during the Taumata Whanonga behaviour summit to help identify the problems and how to deal with them.
At the time of printing, those consulted about the plan – including PPTA – were waiting on a letter with information about a further meeting in the hope that this will finally produce a release date.
PPTA president Kate Gainsford says the delay in releasing and implementing the plan is extremely frustrating.
“It means that schools and communities continue to grapple with the serious ?ve percent and the not-so-serious 15% of students with behaviour issues,” she said.
Following the Taumata in March it was expected that education minister Anne Tolley would receive the behaviour action plan in May.
“There have been delays since then – the last deadline we were aware of was the first week of last month when we were told there would be some sort of media release. That hasn’t happened.
“What would happen if schools took the same liberty with deadlines?” she said.
“The government is quick in making cuts and in investing in private schools – but not quick when it comes to this issue.”
Delays do not help provide security for schools trying to do their best for their students, she said.
“We have put faith in a hui process only to find that eight months later we are still waiting.”
Kate described the plan as needing to provide a weave of support for students, that should include different threads including alternative education, truancy, Child Youth and Family Services (CYFS), youth justice, youth health, RTLBs and school guidance counsellors to name a few.
“Currently there are patches, there are parts where it has worn thin and then there are holes.
“District truancy services are different in every region. What’s available in terms of child and family assistance, before-school checks, mental health, psychiatric and youth health services can be patchy or nonexistent from one place to another.
“Schools try to hold it all together – doing their own weaving on the run.”
The behaviour action plan needs to be multi-tiered, complex and comprehensive to help bring those services together for schools, she said.
Kate saw a number of positives in the process of putting the action plan together – but also felt the end result did little to address the problems that face teachers and students in secondary schools now.
“There has been genuine engagement across the sector. Teachers have really worked with the Ministry of Education. People who have knowledge and expertise in these areas have been listened to.”
Academic research, both from New Zealand and overseas, on student behaviour has been considered and this is a good opportunity to draw those threads together, she said.
There was a large degree of commonality in what hui participants need for services and interventions that can be used early in life and early on in the life of the problem.
A number of initiatives flagged in the action plan target children early on in life which was a positive start, but one of PPTA’s major concerns was the problems that occurred during the onset of adolescence, when a child reaches secondary school.
“In these cases the resources and initiatives risk looking pretty limited for servicing students and teachers,” she said.
Kate was dubious about any heavy reliance on an increase in the interim response fund (emergency money principals have access to during a serious situation that requires intervention.)
“All those involved in the pastoral care of at-risk students need to access a secure level of service in times of crisis rather than only have money thrown at them. Dependable expertise and timely services are what’s missing from the system at the moment,” she said.
Kate also believed that National’s Youth Guarantee should be included in the behaviour action plan because it deals with a set of students that disengage from school.
“If that’s what the extra time is being spent on then that’s good, but we don’t know for sure.”
Kate said members had seen no immediate impact in the levels of support for behaviour problems since the hui in March, and it would be “shabby if the high expectations we had of the process ended in little more than plans to plan or vague intentions”.
“We want to be optimistic though. Watch this space.”
 PPTA News November 2009
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