A difficult time

The lunch supervisor called the Head Teacher to comfort and listen to a distressed child making accusations against other children. His mum was phoned and told us her son was so unhappy that the family was considering leaving the island. An immediate investigation began and other incidents came to light. There was disbelief that such a terrible thing could happen in our supportive wee school, in our close community.

The truth emerged. There was a 'nobody tells tales' code among the children, and there was name calling and 'games' such as 'Let's all hide from X' and 'Let's pretend X is invisible'. The dominant group of children were excluding other children. The excluding children saw it just as 'a game'. 'Bullying' was not how they saw it or described it, and in the eyes and minds of parents and pupils, 'bullies' were stereotypically bigger, tough boys who hit younger, weak children. Our dominant group of pupils were not like this but their 'games' were still a kind of bullying that caused real distress.

The small size of the island and its community, strengths in so many ways, also make exclusion of any kind particularly painful as there is no alternative community or group to turn to. Self-sufficient small communities can also seem less welcoming to 'newcomers' or even to those who live in more distant parts of the island. We were fortunate that our strong School Board and its non-teacher and non-parent members were able to take a constructively dispassionate view of the situation and to support us through the three hard months of resolving all the issues. A workshop for parents and the School Board was organised on the subject of Bullying. The adults were asked to help draw up a school policy on Anti-Bullying and the pupils were fully consulted. All the pupils had lessons on the subject of bullying and the message given clearly that children must tell and adults must listen and observe. The staff learned that bullying can happen in any school, that its prevention must be given a high priority and that monitoring is needed in and out of the school.

Golden rules and taking children's views seriously

The pupils are consulted about the priorities in the School Development Plan - what do they think the school should improve and how do they think this could be achieved? The school is part of the whole community but the children are its reason for existing.

Each session the children draw up rules for indoors and outdoors. The over-riding Golden Rule is 'Let pupils learn and teachers teach'. This year pupils were asked to look carefully at their work in class and their play outside and to produce rules that would improve any behaviours that impeded the main rule. The friendly informality of a small familiar community was threatening to become just too informal and chatty - important business was not getting done. Their observations were astute - they decided on:

	Listen without fiddling with things
	Remain silent when teachers are talking (our bairns are direct in speech, the original wording was 'Shut up when teachers are talking')
	Follow instructions, (again, the original wording was 'Read for yourself before you say you're stuck')
	Complete all tasks carefully
	And for outside:
	Include everyone in games
	Take care of school property
	Be ready to say, 'Sorry'

The reward system takes the form of small slips of paper quietly placed on a desk for the child to date and sign then put into the former Worries Box. Then on a Friday afternoon there is a lucky dip to see who will get free time with a friend. The more slips any child earns, the greater his or her chance is of winning. There is a Suggestions Box in the porch, originally intended for parents' use but pupils also post messages into it so it is brought in on Fridays and the issues inside discussed. Some requests can be agreed or not allowed at that time. Others may have to be discussed more widely or go to the School Board.

Sometimes a slip will have a pupil problem such as:

'People should not be allowed to go on other peoples property without permishon. Because Jane went on my rola blades after school without permishon. Helen'

This was plainly an opportunity to discuss courtesy, ownership and sharing. Sometimes there is a request for equipment, in this case readily granted:

'Can we get a basketball net on the wall outside for playtimes?'

Sometimes other suggestions have policy implications:

'When the weather is nice can we do our work outside?'

With our commitment to an ecologically sound way of life on the island this request made sense but it must be planned in ways that don't detract from teaching and learning effectiveness. However, a request that pupils be allowed to ride their cycles in the playground during breaks was refused on the grounds of safety for smaller or non-cycling children.

The children know that their notes will be given careful consideration, action taken when appropriate and reasons given for the action or non action. The important thing is that their messages are taken seriously.

Accepting responsibility for self and others

Being a small school with a small staff presents logistical problems. Having the full range of stages with differing abilities within these is difficult. Each child has the same entitlement to an appropriate education as they would if they were in a class only with their age peers. So staff must be resourceful and pupils collaborative and flexible. An example of this is in the teaching of basic German, intended originally for older pupils but actually learned by all, mainly through video and songs. Although the older ones learn more, even the five year olds ask, 'Darf ich auf die Toilette?'.

We have a Kumpel (buddy) system in which older and younger children are paired, partners changing termly, as requested by the children. If the teacher is busy then younger children can go to their big Kumpels for help. In project work pairs often work together. It is the older child's responsibility to look out for their wee Kumpel at playtimes. At the end of the day, tidy-up tasks - the list was drawn up by the class - are also done in pairs. For the older children, all this will help them adjust to greater autonomy when they move to secondary school in Shetland.

Children need to feel good about themselves if they are to accept responsibility for others. Another idea we had to promote respect for self and each other and a sense of belonging, was to have a classroom wall, Wir Waa (See Picture C), for the children's display of anything they want to share with the others, for example, photographs, a toy, weaving or drawings. Each child chooses whether, and what, to contribute and may substitute a new item whenever she or he wants.

Our next Parents' Night will be run by pupils themselves, with pupils selecting most improved work to show, answering questions on their own learning, making and serving the tea. The Head Teacher will just be a background resource.

Becoming entrepreneurial

Pupils have increasingly been given opportunities for decision making. We decided to undertake an enterprise project to produce goods to sell when visiting cruise ships call. Passengers come up to the community hall where island crafts get displayed on stalls. We wanted to make money for a school trip. The older pupils took marketing advice on the kind of items that would sell and that pupils could make. They managed the project which involved developing skills and understanding right across the curriculum, including 'customer skills' of which they had little understanding because of their own inexperience of being customers.

All the children took turns at the stall (See Picture D). We received the Motorola Award for Excellence in Education for Work and Enterprise in August this year. We made enough money for a school trip to Orkney aboard the hundred year old Fifie boat 'The Swan', a former fishing boat now run by a Trust.