As children spend a large chunk of their secondary formative years in schools, their experiences, education, performances and impressions during school life are largely what shape the development of their adult personality. Therefore, it should be the duty of every staff and board member to make sure that their establishment is able to provide students with a healthy, nurturing and educative environment. To that end, the following ideas should be considered with urgency.
Helping Students Fight Poverty: Holiday Nutrition
It largely depends on the area where the school is located, but reports indicate that throughout the United Kingdom, an alarming number (1.8 million) of young students go without breakfast or lunch during the weekends and the holidays, due to the absence of school meals.
Malnutrition in children can be particularly detrimental, as it affects their growth, health and intellect. Identification of the poverty-stricken children who are at high-risk of suffering from malnutrition in the school is the first step. The next step would be to launch weekend and holiday meal programs for them.
Shaving Off Costs: Save Energy Expenses
In order to launch a student-benefit program of any kind, the school needs donations, and it needs to manage expenses better. As energy for schools is one of the major constant costs which the school authorities need to arrange for, even a small discount or decrease in the rate per unit can end up saving a lot of money over time.
Decision makers in the school authority should visit Utility Bidder and compare the cost of energy for schools from various providers in the area. The energy broker helps schools find and negotiate better energy deals all the time. Money saved on account of the new contract terms can then be funnelled back into the student help programs, or any other school improvement projects.
Additionally, there should also be other efforts made towards maximising the school’s energy-efficiency. Proper insulation, prevention of energy waste by staff/students, implementation of energy-efficient appliances and adopting solar energy in gradual steps should all be at least in the planning phase.
Recognising Problems and Taking the Hard Steps
Unfortunately for a lot of good teachers in secondary school, they just end up with a few ill-behaved students who methodically make it impossible for the teacher to be successful in doing what he/she was hired to do.
While significant effort is necessary on the teacher’s part to make headway with difficult students, the governing body needs to draw a line somewhere. If and when that line is crossed, strict disciplinary action needs to be taken if some of the students are showing signs of antisocial behaviour. It is a hard but necessary step to ensure safety of the students themselves, their schoolmates, and the teachers in charge.
Timely action in the form of mandatory therapy and discussion with the parents of the problematic children will let other students in the class gain more from their schooling, and the teachers will remain motivated to help the ones that actually need it. If the milder methods prove to be ineffective, then temporary exclusion or even expulsion needs to be considered in order to keep the school environment healthy for the majority of the students.
Taking these tips on board will ensure that the school is a happy and healthy place.
