Prizes for kids beating the school bell
A Melbourne primary school grappling with late arrivals has come up with a new initiative that sees students awarded a prize for arriving on time. But is it actually fixing student’s poor punctuality?
Education
Don't miss out on the headlines from Education . Followed categories will be added to My News.
An inner Melbourne school with kids straggling through the school gates late each morning is offering prizes to encourage punctuality.
St Kilda Park Primary cautioned families that students who were half an hour late each day missed the equivalent of 16.6 days per year. That was on top of any days absent for illness or holidays.
The school introduced Beat the Bell, challenging each class to get to school before the bell rings each morning at 9am.
Beat the Bell helped change habits last year with massive improvements over a number of weeks when data for terms 1 and 2 were compared year on year between 2017 and 2018.
It was brought back this term in the hope of ringing in change.
In a message to families, assistant principal Michelle Bove said she would collect all the late arrival data at the end of each week and report it at Monday assembly.
“This year there is an even bigger incentive for the grade that has the least amount of explained and unexplained late arrivals with the prize including a small gift for each student in the grade and a fun afternoon of activities at the end of term,” she said.
“In addition, one lucky student from the winning grade will be chosen to ring the hand held original school bell at the conclusion of Monday assembly.”
The school said attendance patterns were established early and children missing days in kinder and early years of schooling would continue to miss classes in later years and may receive lower scores than their peers with better attendances.
Data comparing term 2 in 2017 with that of 2018 showed the Beat the Bell changed habits.
In week 2 of term 2 in 2017 there were 28 unexplained lates but this dropped by 64 per cent to 10 the following year over the same time.
In week 6 the unexplained lates in 2017 were 34 but the following year they dropped by 82 per cent to 6.
Ms Bove told the Herald Sun the “strategic approach to improving student attendance has been popular with the students as the winning class is announced each week at assembly and a certificate is awarded”.
She said the winning grade for each term is also awarded with a special celebration.
“This year I have chosen a student from the winning grade to ring the original hand held school bell at the conclusion of the Monday morning assembly,” she said.
She said the new school motto was ‘Learning starts at 9’.
Last year, the school said one child who was regularly late had made changes to improve his punctuality.
These included getting a sibling to wake him up if he slept through his alarm, and making sure he left home between 8.20am and 8.30am so he had enough time to ride his scooter to school.
On its website the school explains that it has an enrolment of around 370.
“We have a Student Family Index of 0.1924 which is way below state Medium of 0.5140,” it states.
Relationships Australia Victoria general manager of clinical services Anastasia Panayiotidis said changing habits took a few weeks and sometimes a shorter window was more effective than running a program over a much longer period of time.
MORE: BUSY PARENTS URGED TO DITCH THE CAR
SCHOOLS GET STRICT ON TEENY SKIRTS
FORTNITE TURNING KIDS INTO ‘CLASSROOM GHOSTS’
She said schools needed to be conscious that often it was not the child’s fault that they were late and it was more an issue for the family.
She cautioned that schools had to be careful not to shame children when they may be facing family disruption.
“The children are on the adult’s watch,” she said.
“Children do not like running late. It puts them out of synch for the day.”
Ms Panayiotidis said families could work on ways to better organise themselves and manage their time.
She said sometimes families, as the busy week progressed, fell out of routine and got later as the school week continued.
Which unis give you best odds of finding a job?
Nine out of 10 graduates from Victorian universities are working full-time three years after finishing their studies. See which are the top-ranked institutions for higher education in Victoria.
Your guide to schools around Dandenong
As more people move to Dandenong and Endeavour Hills, the need for secondary schools in the area grows. Here’s a comprehensive guide of each school you can send your child to, including the VCE scores, subjects and public transport options.