The best school is a school that dares to choose
By making clearer choices about what is and is not important, primary schools themselves can influence the level of basic skills and the work experience of teachers. Birgit Koeman, teacher in special primary education, wants to start the discussion with practical ideas and proposals with this opinion article.
Picture: Type tank
There is a culture in many primary schools in which administrators and teachers generate an unnecessary amount of work for themselves and for each other. This culture is maintained with an annual calendar, which leaves little room for individual teacher input. In this piece I describe ideas and tips that primary schools can use to take a critical look at their activities.
This opinion article appeared in the Onderwijsblad. Would you like to receive the magazine? Become a member!
Annual calendar
Rebuild the annual calendar from scratch with priority for the basic subjects. Determine how many weeks must be worked according to the fixed weekly schedule. What else can be added? Be frugal when planning side activities. Dare to make choices about how to spend the remaining time, outside the basic subjects. Don't focus on being 'the nicest school' for the outside world. It will automatically become fun with more relaxed students and well-rested teachers, who can do the things for which they entered education.
Don't focus on being 'the nicest school' for the outside world
Administration
The Education Inspectorate requires less administration than is often thought. Work with concise documents and avoid duplications. Typing documents because the inspection requires it and then doing nothing with them is a waste of time and demotivating. Do not plan other time-consuming activities during periods when teachers are busy with test weeks or reports.
Keep the weekly schedules simple, as they will need to be adjusted regularly as the year progresses. Of course it is important to have a good overview of your students and to monitor them, but do not do this in too much detail, because this creates a false sense of security that does not add anything to the quality of education. At my previous school I had to type weekly schedules that indicated each day what time and for how long I and the teaching assistant would work on which goals with students. In practice it turned out that I could work exactly zero days according to that schedule. Every day something popped up that threw this plan into disarray.
Keep weekly schedules simple
Choose and cluster
Choose a maximum of two national theme weeks, such as Children's Book Week and Spring Fever Week. Also choose from other similar events. For example, organize a sports day or the King's Games and don't feel obliged to raise money for a good cause more than once a year.
During a period of specific activities for a year group, do not plan other events that require preparation time from teachers. Eliminate the basic subjects as little as possible. For example, if there is no attention at all for the basic subjects during the school camp, it is simply extra vacation, which is at the expense of the effective teaching time. Clustering activities and lessons creates more time for basic subjects: For example, hold the sponsored run during the sports day or incorporate social-emotional development lessons into expression lessons and movement education.
Choose a maximum of two national theme weeks
'Average' students
Plan extra time for 'average' students. These students benefit from attention in a small group, just as students who qualify for extended instruction or extra challenge. With focused attention they will perform better and flourish. They will also feel more seen by the teacher.
Average students benefit from attention in a small group
Breaks
In many schools it is the most normal thing in the world that breaks are omitted, while scientific research has shown that breaks are necessary during work. So make sure that the teachers have an uninterrupted break of at least fifteen minutes.
During a break, a teacher must be able to leave the group. You can protect these types of breaks by, for example, setting up a first aid point for students and including its occupancy in the schedules. Do not use the tea breaks after class as a meeting time or for business announcements and recognize that the first fifteen minutes after the school bell should not be considered break time, because the teacher is still busy with students and parents.
During a break, a teacher must be able to leave the group
Conversations
Many conversations can be shorter and more efficient. Multidisciplinary consultations that need to take place with parents and supporting agencies are best suited to 30 or a maximum of 45 minutes. Create a clear agenda, with a time per agenda item and monitor this during the conversation. If more time is needed, make a new appointment and agree whether all parties should be present.
During parent meetings, the teacher can type the report while parents watch on the digital whiteboard. That saves work afterwards and it is transparent towards the parents.
Evenings are available for the regular discussion rounds and the information evening. Outside of this, the conversations should take place within the teacher's working hours. Parents like to request conversations outside their own working hours, but teachers also have a family and their own life at home.
Parents like to request conversations outside their own working hours, but teachers also have a family and their own life at home
Meetings
Appoint a note taker and a time keeper who will indicate when the scheduled time for an agenda item has passed. If the agenda item has not yet been dealt with, it will be decided whether it will be moved to the next meeting or whether a few colleagues will take up the subject.
Appoint a note taker and a time keeper
The standard annual task
Some of the work of teachers is not explicitly mentioned in the standard annual task. I call this 'hidden work'. Consider a sponsored run where the teacher has to inform parents, send a form and then collect, count and store the money. Other examples are kitchen duty, tidying up or cleaning, conversations that extend outside working hours and breaks that expire. I have already shown that long conversations and lost breaks can be prevented. The other hidden activities must officially become part of the standard annual task.
Hidden activities must officially become part of the standard annual task
Digital report portfolio
The paper report has been replaced by a digital report portfolio in many schools. For a group of about thirty students, this generates much more work and I have noticed in practice that not all parents and students are interested in this. There are other ways to look back with students on what they have made and done during a school year. For example, by looking at each other's work with the group during expression time and discussing the creative process. You can also choose to view photos with the group that you have sent in the parent app. This can be done during school hours and does not cost the teacher any extra work.
There are other ways to look back with students on what they have created and done
With all these examples I have drawn from my own experience. Not everything is possible in education and teachers must dare to speak out about this, also to parents. I hope this piece can inspire teams and start a discussion in schools.
About the author
Birgit Koeman is a teacher at a school for special primary education in Harderwijk. Before that, she worked for eight years at a Dalton school. This article previously appeared as an opinion article in the Onderwijsblad.
