Student health and wellbeing
Pastoral care structures in New Zealand schools often include a role of dean. The dean’s responsibilities are often defined by schools to satisfy growing expectations of schools’ responsibilities for student wellbeing and achievement. This study explored the role of year-level deans within one state co-educational secondary school. Senior managers, deans, teachers, and students were interviewed, and deans completed a daily activity log. Findings indicate challenges exist for providing care for all students owing to the reactive nature of the role and unclear reporting lines. Results indicate that collaborative approaches to pastoral care may improve its provision.
Pastoral care structures in New Zealand schools often include a role of dean. The dean’s responsibilities are often defined by schools to satisfy growing expectations of schools’ responsibilities for student wellbeing and achievement. This study explored the role of year-level deans within one state co-educational secondary school. Senior managers, deans, teachers, and students were interviewed, and deans completed a daily activity log. Findings indicate challenges exist for providing care for all students owing to the reactive nature of the role and unclear reporting lines.
School pastoral leaders have halved the use of suspension and exclusion from New Zealand schools in the last decade. This article offers community re-authoring of young people’s identity stories as a further support for reducing suspensions and exclusions. It demonstrates how developing new stories of “who I am and what is important to me” can lead to a marked reduction in troubling behaviours. The article highlights the importance of invited peers, teachers, family, and community members in exploring and maintaining alternative identity claims and changed behaviours.
School pastoral leaders have halved the use of suspension and exclusion from New Zealand schools in the last decade. This article offers community re-authoring of young people’s identity stories as a further support for reducing suspensions and exclusions. It demonstrates how developing new stories of “who I am and what is important to me” can lead to a marked reduction in troubling behaviours. The article highlights the importance of invited peers, teachers, family, and community members in exploring and maintaining alternative identity claims and changed behaviours.
An early warning system can draw the attention of teachers to students’ learning needs early in the course of study, allow monitoring of progress in student learning, and guide the implementation of instructional interventions. In this article we report on a study in which we examined teachers’ views on using early warning systems to identify students who are “at risk” of failing to complete their NCEA qualifications, and we describe the measures that can be put in place to better support such students to achieve their learning goals.
