Hi Friend,
How are you doing? Are you, like me, on the countdown to the holidays? I’ve got one week until school’s out – whoohoo! I am so ready for the break and so are the children. Getting Little Dude out of bed in the mornings has got increasingly harder each day this week. He wraps himself in the duvet and shakes his head at me, leaving me to literally drag the covers off him. The funny thing is, come Monday 22nd December, Little Dude will have no reason to get up early and yet, somehow, he’ll be up at the crack of dawn. Go figure.
Anyhoo.
A school is an interesting place to work in. All of the adults are supposed to be working together for the overall wellbeing of the students, right? But what if those adults have differing views of what is in the child’s best interest?
It’s that whole view that’s very popular now of ‘speaking my truth’. But how can that be accurate? Because each person’s ‘truth’ can’t be the reality. Everyone can have a personal view but that doesn’t make it true. At some point in the story, if two separate accounts don’t match up, someone is right and someone is wrong.
The Attendance Officer at work has a tough job. She has to get the overall attendance figures up for the school, but she can’t do that if teachers are continually sending children home.
I told you about the children’s ailments in my last post. A lot of them will go to their Head of Year and know how to put on the waterworks and play up their pain levels. But sometimes, you can take one look at them and know they’re definitely unwell.
The Attendance Officer assumes everyone is lying. The moment someone comes to the office saying they’re unwell, she says: “You’re a regular here, aren’t you?”
It’s become a bit of a running joke because we do have the regulars, of course – those who are constantly having period pains all through the month… Those who only seem to hurt themselves and need a ‘magic’ ice pack just as the bell goes to signal the end of lunch… Those who perennially don’t want to be in their lessons and would rather sit in medical doing nothing (as opposed to doing nothing in their classroom)…
However, that doesn’t make her statement true.
There are equal amounts of children that have not come to the office before at all to say they’re sick and she will still say they’re a regular…
It’s these children whom the Head of Year will bring to the office and will speak on their behalf. Unfortunately, it usually ends up in an argument, which is neither helpful nor professional. And definitely not something that should be happening in front of the child.
But back to truth.
The Head of year will walk away from the office saying how rude the AO is.
The AO will go back to her desk saying the Head of Year is so rude.
What’s true here?
The AO tends to approach these issues defensively, possibly due to the pressure she’s under to achieve targets. Often her tone is sharp, her words coming out in a bark. And of course, if a person feels attacked, they’re going to bark back.
I like the AO a lot. She’s kind, funny and if it’s just the two of us in the office, she will always step in to help if she sees it’s getting busy.
This is true.
But this isn’t the side a lot of people see and it’s a real shame.
What’s also true is that the Head of Year’s are trying to shirk responsibility to avoid an argument and to remain ‘Good Cop’ in the children’s eyes. But they could weed out the fakers and relieve the AO of some pressure.
Take the student a Head of Year brought to the office today with a ‘bad ankle’. So bad he had to limp towards the office. Yet the Head of Year turned away to have a conversation and when they turned back, that same boy was kicking a football…
There is no your truth or my truth.
It’s either true or it’s not. And if everyone worked together to see it, I’m sure there’d be a lot less ‘sick’ children in the medical area at school.
I’d love to know what you think, dear reader! And a thank you to all those following. I appreciate you ❤
Speak soon x
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