Marlborough Boys College is located in a rural region with is surrounded by farmlands and vineyards. The local businesses cater to this community, which comprises of minimum commercial outlets in the center of the city. As per the school statistics, the community is made up of diverse cultural groups with approximately around 30% being non-pakeha. This percentage is shared by Maori, Pasifika, Asian and other European cultures with Maori being the highest. The socio-economic status of the whanau is at its extreme with high-income group one hand and the low on the other. The disparity between the income groups is wide and the aspirations and expectations reflect the student’s choices and interest in a subject. This is evident in the pathways the student chooses. However, it is interesting to note that majority of the students from a low-income group are either from a Maori community or are immigrants from Pacific islands. My analysis of parent’s interest’s levels and students aspirations comes from parent-teacher interviews. It reveals how the students are influenced by their environment at home. Most students in the low-income group cannot afford to send their children for higher studies due to financial constraints.
The video by the Academy for SELinSchools (2015, Apr 28), was good to understand and locate a culture in my school. Our school strives to nurture young men to stand up to be Marlborough Man in every possible way. The expectations to cultivate these young men is built on four pillars. RESPECT, INVOLVED, PRIDE and RESPONSIBILITY are the four characteristics to shape a Marlborough man. Every student is measured and evaluated through these values that make up to the culture of the school. Both the academic and the extra-curricular activities have expectations to meet the standards that would allow them to the best as they can be. Every student is also expected to follow these in and around a classroom and attempt to meet those standards. Our school operates on Positive Behavior for learning (PB4L) strategies to encourage and support them to reach their goal. Ara Tika system to reward them and TuaKana Kiena is another pastoral care program that runs for the juniors to engage them in learning life skills. Peer support is part of this program, which comprised of a senior perfect group of students also is in place to support the junior students and also those who need it in the school. The perfect leaders are also trained to be young leaders. Pacifika and Maori homework clubs are open to help the students in their academic pursuit.
Just like any other system or organizations, our school also has its own challenges. The relationships with the school between the students are mostly friendly and they enjoy being at school. According to the kamar entries and statistics, an around 10 % students fall what we call as a sub-culture. These students challenge our system regularly and are disengaged from learning. An inclusion center is in place to manage and support these students with the school curriculum. More often than not, these students have an undergone through an alternative education program that was helpful for them to fit into another assessing process that is suitable for them. However, I see a risk of standards being compromised in this process. There are times when the teachers are treated unfairly and respect falls short in a student to teacher relationship. This kind of behavior could be an implication of the socio-cultural scenario. Within the classrooms, students are finding it hard to follow the expected values (RIPR). Not sure if this is an age factor or an accumulation of reactions of teenagers in a collective space of the school.
Restorative practices are followed in all situations of teaching and learning. But for this to be successful, the curriculum and pedagogy need to be aligned to suit an individual student’s need within a class. Apart from this, the support system in administering this should be strong and in our school case it still needs to apply and be consistent in its resolving issues around the school. At this stage, the school is struggling to manage the sub-culture as its non-compliance attitude is hindering with the progress our school intends to do.
The professional environment in the school is improving with more teachers opting to research and apply their findings to teaching. The practical exploration of pedagogies and their relevance is tested from time to time. This is shared in TOHA meeting every week. Professional learning groups and reading groups meet regularly to reflect and learn from existing strategies. Individually, teachers are interested to further their learning. However, some teachers with a different mindset are still resisting the new and innovative pedagogies and hence the change is slow. Digital and collaborative practices are considered to be advanced for the student community. This could be seen as a feature of a multi-cultural society in Marlborough.
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