Factors Of An Effective Primary School: A Case Study

Factors that makes any primary school effective

To what extent would you qualify your (primary) school as being an “effective school?

The main aims plus values of the school was seen to emphasize on strong partnership amid parents and pupils, staff as well as local community. Such aims were embedded within all ways in which school works as well as is promoted in the daily life. Such aims plus values are actually the ethos of the school which affects the role as well as responsibilities of all the staffs and even parents in several ways. I tried to communicate with every stakeholder effectively, and tried to be very tolerant as well as patient while dealing with troubled parents plus children and also was approachable, kind, understanding plus caring (Eisemon, Hallett and Maundu, 1986). I also took some interest in the children’s welfare through listening to all of their needs plus observing all the children when they were seen sad. This school has very large populace of some 1200 pupils. This is a proper five stream school which is even considered as extra high performing. The children here arrive from several dissimilar economic backgrounds. Parents are also well involved within education of the children still some demerits and gaps occur in the working of the school and these needs to be filled as soon as possible.

1. Excellent organizational knowledge and skill – teachers of primary school must ensure that every child understands learning objectives as well as gets properly associated concepts plus carries properly organized resources in addition to very smooth classroom schedule.

2. Optimistic classroom climate – All the teachers and children within the class must like plus respect each other (Eslea and Smith, 1998).

3. Personalized teaching – All the educators must be very sensitive towards individual requirements of children as well as provide resources that would match all those needs.

4. Dialogic teaching as well as learning – such element harnesses power of the talk towards extending and stimulating thinking of the student to proceed their learning as well as understanding.

Analyzing the school:

Learning any second language actually is an adaptation skill which establishes to be very essential when varied cultures come at one place.  For instance, children belonging to diverse economic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds were seen in this school and they were taught English as a common language which helped them to bridge towards each other. The motivation for planning intended for children to learn English like an extra language also advocates that within planning for these children who learn English as extra language (HoÅŸgšrŸr, 2012).

• While entering this school, a very large map attempts to welcomes people along with a sign which reads: “Welcome to our school.  We come from all over the world and we speak 27 languages”. 
• For every language, it also was connected to nation of the origin as it was indicated in map.  This sign also gives a humid welcome to people who visit school.
• An IT room also is available for all students to utilize whenever someone needs to use a computer intended for spelling otherwise grammar and/or anything which pertains to English language (Jing, 2012). 
• A trained English teacher also is employed by school to support and facilitate cognitive, language as well as literacy growth and development of any foreign children.  Even adults play vital role in development of language within the children, as they require someone who also uses simple language within proper form and also is flexible sufficiently to regulate his language for making a fit with the child’s. 
• The school also acknowledges and respects children’s dissimilar cultures and economic conditions. As an instance, the school has held a proper Polish mass which was celebrated by the Polish priest on every Tuesday. Here children are also empowered when their cultural grounds are celebrated. 
• It was also observed that some teachers do not gravely consider the foreign students and also do not accept their native attitude, language and culture, such children feel literally unaccepted as well as unworthy to fit in their classes, thus display some inappropriate behavior and carry outs.  They also become lost within terms of the academic achievement as well as develop insecurities regarding their skin, race, ethnicity and color and some time even about language accents.  Alike embarrassment also develops stress otherwise anxiety in the class. These students’ relatives and family might also seem withdrawn otherwise non-participative within schooling of their children and feel same intellect of not getting fit into novel culture that they presently joined (Teddlie and Liu, 2008). 

• It was observed that children in this school were never allowed to talk in their personal native language in classroom but these students were set free to talk it outside along with their friends.  This was said as a part of learning English language within classroom. This might also be recognized by school like an effective path to immerse children within English language (Johnson and Holdaway, 1990).
• There were many foreign students who were enrolled within the school.  I tried to approach few and then asked them few questions related to the learning of additional language.  Two Portuguese students were seen to be peer-teaching.  Sole was already confident in English language whilst the other still was seen struggling so more practiced one helped him to translate few words.
• It was also seen that few teachers in the school did emphasize a lot on local children and tried to ignore foreign students. This laid bad impression on the parent’s of the children who were ignored by them. Though school treated all the students equally yet it was biasness practiced by some individual staffs which was ruining the situation and practice of the school on overall basis.
• Two children who spoke Spanish were interviewed and asked whether they spoke to each other in their mother tongue or not, they said they merely speak their native language at home when they are with their relatives and family.  They did never speak it within school premises and also said that they were extra happy speaking in a common language as English because majority of time that they spent in the school and along with friends required them to English as a common language for communication (Kurumei, n.d.). 

Teachers in this school were found to be excellent when it was about giving homework to student. Being an effective school, teachers here tried to set homework which was meaningful as well as more clearly attached to what children learned in the classroom sessions. They carried extra flexible loom towards setting the homework, and this was put to extend as well as deepen children’s knowledge and understanding. Though very few but some teachers were found to set the homework merely because it was mandatory to allot homework to students as per the curriculum of the school. There works did not seem to be specifically linked to things children learned in the class.

The dissimilarities amid the students due to varied culture, economic backgrounds and also dissimilar attitudes, every student is different from the other. The school was observed to deal with this fact very appropriately (Picaroni, 2004). Though it was seen that school did not allow use of native language which by some researchers is said to be negative element yet it is even true that use of a common language makes every student feel similar and alike and feeling of disparity vanishes.

Analyzing the school

Teachers in this excellent plus good school were extra probable to personalize all of their children’s learning experiences. These teachers did this through being very sensitive to individual requirements of children within their classes as well as through providing the learning materials which were very rich plus extra varied. They even were rated extra low in the teacher detachment such as isolating themselves from the students by standing near their own desks and not giving any feedback and not noticing the requirements of students. These teachers were seen high when it was about supplying social support to the pupil learning, chiefly within the literacy. Teachers here were exceptionally sensitive towards needs of children as well as provided very outstanding materials for learning specifically selected and modified for the children.

The approach of teachers in the school was very optimistic and they were seen handling students leniently. Though such behavior and approach of educators sometimes pushed them into difficult situations where students went out of control and crossed the line of discipline, but this loom helped teachers to maintain a two way communication in the class (Rhodes and Brundrett, 2008).

• Culturally-oriented teaching can be attained by the teachers in this school. This might help them to make foreign students feel more comfortable and relaxed.
• Teachers might take into consideration all the cultural and economic background of students every time.  They must consider all the cultural aspects within every communication with the pupils upon personal as well as educational levels.
• Pupils’ cultures, languages as well as experiences must to properly acknowledged, valued as well as used like an important resource of the education as they even deserve best that the community can supply them. 
• The teacher’s must try to know details about each students’ background as well as personal experiences and they must try to use these tools and mechanisms to make proper connections with the students. 
• Some plans and tactics that teachers in this school can employ can be inclusion of various contributions, perspectives and histories, as well as some concerns pertinent to diverse environment of the pupils.
• Incorporating proper attitude and understanding will help the teachers to make the process of learning extra easy as well as meaningful.  Also trying to indulge multicultural education and use of the literature from several cultures would also help them to children in the task of reading as well as writing plus would also make them very eager towards learning of the social otherwise cultural offerings made by several sets of people.
• Rationale for the planning intended for children to learn English as their additional language also suggests that children could have been provided free admittance to their main language for fully understanding their second otherwise additional language and thus classroom teacher has to be more merciful in permitting children to exercise their primary language within classroom as a mechanism towards learning their second language.
• The physical layout and infrastructure of the school has been seen perfect and simply no change is required within the same.
• At times teachers need to be somewhat strict with the students as extra leniency with pupils makes them feel free and sometimes this pushes them to path of indiscipline and tends to inculcate feeling of wrong behavior into their minds.
• Personalizing the teaching makes the task time taking, instead of personalizing teachers and lay emphasis upon some weak students and makes a set of bold and contended pupils for whom a common agenda could be set.

Conclusion:

Amongst all the things any schools could give to students for helping them to attain proper career and good success, efficient and proper teachers are best bet. In all the education process, having overall teaching and ambience consistently develops a need for extra care and concern and also make the schools extra attentive towards supplying proper education. Being a primary school this institute is almost perfect for any pupil. No such major gaps and demerits were observed and it was seen that overall all the elements of school was good and effective for any child to study in it.

All the primary schools need to be extra efficient and careful in all aspects as they teach students in that state of mind when these students tend to grab each and everything easily and any negative step or element can leave them with everlasting negative impact. In a nutshell here are all the details of the school and its level to which it qualifies and attains a degree for becoming an effective primary school with all the positive elements needed for any student to be admitted into a primary institute

References

Eisemon, T., Hallett, M. and Maundu, J. (1986). Primary School Literature and Folktales in Kenya: What Makes a Children’s Story African?. COMP EDUC REV, 30(2), p.232.

Eslea, M. and Smith, P. (1998). The longâ€Ã‚Âterm effectiveness of antiâ€Ã‚Âbullying work in primary schools. Educational Research, 40(2), pp.203-218.

HoÅŸgÅ¡rŸr, T. (2012). A Discussion of What Makes a Good Teacher: Opinions of Pre-Service Primary School Teachers. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 55, pp.451-460.

Jing, J. (2012). Teaching English Reading through MI Theory in Primary Schools. English Language Teaching, 6(1).

Johnson, N. and Holdaway, E. (1990). Effectiveness of Primary Schools. International Journal of Educational Management, 4(3).

Kurumei, W. (n.d.). Effectiveness of Inclusive Education in Public Primary Schools in Keiyo District Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. SSRN Journal.

Picaroni, B. (2004). When teaching makes a difference: a case study on language teaching in the final primary year. Improving Schools, 7(3), pp.255-266.

Rhodes, C. and Brundrett, M. (2008). What makes my school a good training ground for leadership development?: classroom teachers from 70 contextually different primary and secondary schools in England. Management in Education, 22(1), pp.18-23.

Teddlie, C. and Liu, S. (2008). Examining teacher effectiveness within differentially effective primary schools in the People’s Republic of China. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 19(4), pp.387-407.