Back to basics

["Ivan Webb" <Ivan.Webb@bigpond.com>]

Just an anecdote that you may appreciate.

Earlier this year a Tasmanian primary (elementary) school acquired a
database that enabled it to gather data about incidents occurring in the
school. Every school has incidents.

Each week they review (study) the previous week's data and identify their
'frequent flyers' (students involved in a number of incidents). Senior staff
then meet with these students individually with the database open in front
of them. They then discuss the data and plan for the coming week.

The discussion is along the lines of:

What do you think happened in this incident (study)?
What made it hard for you to manage it well?
What else might have been possible (possible plan for the future)?
What similar situations did you handle well and what was the difference
(more study)?
Who tried to help? Who made the situation more difficult?
What can we learn from that?
How might you prevent similar situations occurring this week (plan)?
What will you do in similar situations (more planning)?
What else have you got planned that will help you have a great week this
week?
When will we catch up to check on progress?
....

Of course this is just PDSA in action.

Does it work with young children?  Certainly. At the start of the project
one particular boy was involved in 10 to 15 incidents per week. Eight weeks
later he had not been involved in an incident in the previous fortnight!!

Where do the staff find the time to do this kind of thing? From what they
save on rework!! Continually dealing with the same students involved in the
same kinds of incidents is rework.

And just think about the possible implications for the boy, his teachers and
his family over the next seventy or so years. Not guaranteed I know - but
here is hope. More hope.

Kind regards,

Ivan Webb