PS 85 The Great Expectations School, NYC

Whilst I was getting my head into what my thesis was going to be about, I came across an organisation called Turnaround for Children. After teaching children who had experienced so much trauma, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know about strategies that schools can implement that can not only assist traumatised children, but all children. Turnaround for Children is an organisation, created in NYC, after 9/11. Dr Pamela Cantor was asked to study the affects of 9/11 on children around NYC and found that it wasn't just 9/11 that affected these children. It was the continued trauma and adversity that these children saw on a daily basis that was affecting their ability to learn.

Turnaround for Children is an organisation that specialises in turning around underperforming schools around. I was privileged enough to visit 3 sites which Turnaround had worked with. Two schools in the Bronx and one in Newark, New Jersey. The three schools were all very different. PS85 The Great Expectation School was one that stood out to me. The classrooms weren't fancy, the buildings were old.... but the collaborative team of workers in the school was evident. The teacher planning room was filled with wins and exciting plans and the corridors were filled with positive feedback for the students.

John Hattie is so passionate about giving feedback and that a culture of feedback is to important for organisations (not just schools) to thrive;

"The aim is to get the students actively involved in seeking this evidence: their role is not simply to do tasks as decided by teachers, but to actively manage and understand their learning gains. This includes evaluating their own progress, being more responsible for their learning, and being involved with peers in learning together about gains in learning. If students are to become active evaluators of their own progress, teachers must provide the students with appropriate feedback so that they can engage in this task. Van den Bergh, Ros, and Beijaard (2010: 3) describe the task thus: Fostering active learning seems a very challenging and demanding task for teachers, requiring knowledge of students’ learning processes, skills in providing guidance and feedback and classroom management". (Hattie, 2012)

Students attending these schools in NYC faced so much adversity. The day I arrived the night before a fire had ripped through the neighbourhood and children were privvy to the drama. But what I loved was that this was like home for these children. Breakfast was given so that they could help concentrate. The Principal would give tap dancing lessons for those wanting to participate one night per week and there were yoga classes timetabled in the week so that all students could learn how to regulate their emotions.

So when I arrived back home, one thing that I realised that we needed to do better as a school, was to do team better, to meet regularly to discuss the pastoral care needs of students and to refer onto outside agencies if required. To give feedback more often and to continue to feed our little ones who come everyday without food (its amazing what the difference is to a child's brain when they have empty tummies). Almost 4 years later and we have a Junior School that is thriving, both socio-emotionally and academically. But its not just down to one person, its a whole team. Selflessly working together to benefit the growth of each child.

(Hattie, J. 2012. Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on Learning. Routledge)