Tim Page, at Riverton Primary School, received the 2015 Southland Primary Principals’ Association Study Award to find out what could be done to help the hundreds of children who were affected by their parents shifting farms mid-year.
“Because schools teach different subjects at different times of the year some children have large gaps in their knowledge because they have changed schools,” he said.
He has found, after talking to other schools in Southland, the problem at primary school level was worst in maths.
Although literacy (reading and writing) and numeracy (adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying) were mostly taught throughout the year, geometry, measurement and statistics were blocked courses and different schools taught them at different times.
“A child may learn geometry at the start of the year at one school, then move and learn it again at another but by doing that they will have missed out on another strand such as measurement,” he said.
He had hoped to find some way for all Southland schools to teach maths in the same order throughout the year but soon found schools were unwilling to change.
“Schools all do things in their own way to suit their school and their community and there is no direction from the Education Department about the order that subjects are taught.
“It does happen in other countries like the UK but that is starting to change because they’re beginning to realise it’s not working.”
Instead he wants to develop a programme to find out the gaps in children’s knowledge when they arrive at a new school and then fill them.
“If we could give the child a pack that they could take home with them and practice with their parents that would help.
“It would include games, cards and dice to help them learn in their own time and then they bring it back when they’re done so we can give it to another child.
“I want the packs to be fun and interesting so children want to do them and then when they bring them back we will test them again to make sure they’ve now caught up with the rest of the class.”
His aim this year was to find funding for the idea.
“I want to put something together and test it on the children at Riverton Primary School to see if it works.”
Although his focus was on Gypsy Day children, the programme could be used to help any child who shifted primary schools mid-year.
Riverton Primary School, which has a roll of about 180 pupils, had seven children arrive last year whose parents work on dairy farms and Page thought two left because of parents shifting farms.
At Lochiel School, near Winton, where he was principal for six-and-a-half years before moving to Riverton Primary School in Term Two last year, 17 of the roll of 68 left last Gypsy Day with four children arriving.
“It means possible changes to staffing levels and puts a lot of stress on teachers and on school boards.
“We would love to be able to say to employers on dairy farms that if a family with two school-aged children are leaving please replace them with a family with two-school aged kids but of course we can’t.
“But you can see what happens when we lose a large family from a farm and they’re replaced with a single person.”
He said sometimes schools only knew when a child was shifting when they didn’t come to school one day, or when new families turned up out of the blue.
“With new children we do our best to contact their old school and have their records sent to us but it doesn’t always happen quickly.”
He said parents could make it easier for their children by requesting records to be transferred and by contacting the new school before the shift.
“We’ve had kids arrive and they have left all their stationery and their books behind at their old school. They have to start all over again.”
He said cultural differences were also making it harder with many migrant families working on dairy farms not understanding the New Zealand education system.
“They want to be in NZ because they know we have good schools for their children but they are often too shy to ask for help. And they think they will disappoint the school by leaving so they leave without saying anything and this has a major effect on the children and their social relationships.”
He said although most children moved on Gypsy Day at the start of June, schools were also seeing dairy farming children move in August.
“I suppose jobs don’t turn out the way people expected so they move again.”
The double shift was making it even harder for children.
“When a child comes to a new school it usually takes about six months for them to fit in, to become part of the social environment and to begin learning again.
“That means if they shift every year they are only getting a quality education for half the time they are at school.
“And with a lot of these pupils, because they are shifting so often they don’t easily make new friends. They don’t want to make friends because they know they will have to leave again and leave those friends behind.”
The Southland Primary Principals’ Association Study Award is sponsored by Konica and is awarded annually. The recipient receives four weeks paid study leave and $5000 to cover expenses.
