Lalor Park Primary School

1. Why was your school keen to become involved in the Festival?

Initially we were approached by Vivienne Archdall from Kildonan to link with our local schools - Peter Lalor Secondary College and Lalor West Primary School to participate on a joint project. As we were some way down the track with our Student Wellbeing and Management policy and practice documentation, we saw the festival as a tangible way to explore the values and bahaviours we were promoting within this.

2. How did you set up your school team - who was on it, meetings etc?

The school had two levels:

The first team comprised a Year 5/6 teacher, the performing Arts specialist and the Visual Arts specialist and myself (School Principal). Our task was to coordinate the artist program with the Festival For Healthy Living program and our own school organisation, and to facilitate performance development, rehearsal,etc.

The second team was made up of all staff in our Area Teams - Junior P-2: Middle 3 - 4; Senior 5-6 (we are multi-aged organisation school).

These Area Teams looked at the specific elements of a Whole School - Healthy Mind - Healthy Body Theme and developed a curriculum plan to explore the elements of our Student Wellbeing and Management policy. They identified values and skills appropriate to the students in their area. Their brief was to integrate these into the daily curriculum activities and to articulate them through literacy activities.

We set aside an item on the staff meeting agenda for weekly discussion on issues, progress etc.

3. How did you select the students to be involved in the presentations?

The festival presentation participants were selected after two sessions working with the artist and all senior area students. Twenty-five students were selected from across the three senior grades after discussions between the artist and the class teachers. The criteria was fluid but was a balance of students who had confidence, and those students who would not usually take up such an opportunity.

4. How and in what way did you manage to involve every class in the school?

The model we followed: -

As a whole staff we explored the links between the aims of the Festival and our own vision and goals for our school and students.
We established an aim of our own: What we could gain by all being involved? Some of these were student related. Others were team and community related:
- What are students good at in terms of social interaction, their confidence, personal self-esteem, conflict resolution skills, understanding rights and responsibilities, identifying and building on these in an overt way - articulating and practising these skills.
- Developing a whole school 'clear and transparent' model for student management. A supportive team approach with all staff accepting and taking responsibility for all students.
- Articulating this to our community - linking home and school through this social development. Matching school practices and behaviours to the wider family and community.
- This was undertaken as part of our weekly professional development session (approximately 45 minutes).

Next we explored the How

From previous PD we had already established the values we promote and the skills we would like students to acquire. Each Area Team developed a term plan of the curriculum activities and areas that would promote these. All classes had a block specifically built into their term timetable. Some classes worked together, cross-aged. Others shared activities within the team.
As a whole school team we planned to present a performance item - play, song, poem to present to our school community in the last week of term. We also planned to have an exhibition of student work derived from the class activities. These were pieces of writing, poetry, murals, art pieces, photographs of activities. These were to be collected for a display at the performance.
The news-letter featured weekly explainations and examples of the activities we were doing, how they linked to the Healthy Mind /Body theme and the importance of these skills to successful relationships and personal wellbeing.
The weekly staff meeting provided an opportunity to keep the focus current and enthusiastic, with teachers sharing the progress their classes were making. We also focused on areas where students were likely to demonstrate their skills without direction - recess and lunch times, self selected cooperative activities etc., and observed and discussed the impact our theme was having.
We had several visits from the Healthy Living Coordinators to explain the cross region program and to inform us of what schools had done in previous festivals.
A joint PD on Student Wellbeing and Resilience was held with the other two schools.
Our support acts for the Festival were chosen from our end of term performance by the Festival Coordinator and artist.
Our exhibition was transferred to the Festival event when the two performances for region/cross region were held.

5. Were there any particular highlights? Difficulties?

Highlights

Great team builder for staff - sharing of ideas and expertise, collective responsibility for every student in the school. An agreed and transparent way of implementing the policy by all staff led to all students understanding how we do things here - particularly in the area of conflict resolution.
Our Student Wellbeing and Management policy became more than just a document.
Parents loved the performance and the exhibition.
It was a great vehicle to show parents how we translate the skills and values into practice.
There was terrific feedback from the concert at Plenty Ranges.
Students were able to discuss issues and speak with confidence about the values and their demonstration.
There was a strong bond between the artist and the senior performing group. The process and performance brought out the best in our students.

Cautions/Difficulties

Make sure everyone has access to the information
Ensure the artist has a clear picture of your school, its culture and its way of doing things so that this is reflected in the performance.
Make regular visits to the performing artist working with the group. In our case we found that although the students had a great deal of autonomy in determining the direction of the piece, some of the messages were not immediately clear and although situations and dilemmas were posed, resolutions and positive outcomes were necessary.
Be flexible in your timetabling, especially, as we did, when working with students across several grades. It can take time away from the class literacy/numeracy programs when trying to fit in with rehearsals etc. Ensure class teachers feel OK about this as it can cause tension. Students from those grades who were not involved were also given regular updated reports and previews to minimise feelings of exclusion.
It is imperative that school leaders be 'to the fore' in promoting and facilitating the participation.
Promote diversity throughout the school, not competition to be the best. The sharing time was a good way to support less confident staff members to utilise everyone's talents.

6. What has been happening at the school post the Festival?

This year we are moving into the Healthy Body emphasis of the theme with PE, Fitness/Health being expressed through the integrated curriculum approach. We are also continuing to draw on the experience to have focus weeks eg. 'Courtesy is Catching' Week, in which the establishment of strategies to support positive relationships etc is made explicit through the What is it? How do we do it? approach and structuring curriculum activities to practise it.

Last Updated 29-Sep-2009. Authorised by: Pam Marland. Enquiries: Harry Gelber.