A Fly on the Wall

Have you heard that expression ‘a fly on the wall’?

A fly on the wall is an unnoticed observer. For example, once when my children were young I was driving a carload of kids to the movies. In the back seat was my younger daughter and two of her schoolfriends and during the car-ride they totally forgot that I was even there. Oblivious to me, they started talking about their teachers from school… it was very, very, very interesting. I stayed quiet. I was like a fly on the wall: a silent, listening, unnoticed observer.

Once again, I was a fly on the wall a couple of weeks ago.

It happened in a staff workroom at school. There was a secondary leaders’ meeting going on. It was fascinating. The staff-leaders themselves were so engrossed in their discussion that they were unaware of me sitting silently in the room. I stayed quiet. I lay low.

Mr Bendall was chairing the meeting, but he didn’t have to do much. The team members were tactically planning their response to a number of challenges that some of our secondary students were facing. This discussion involved thinking through implications of how much they would, should, could intervene, as opposed to how much they should let things just ride-out and natural justice prevail. At the centre of their discussion was the balance of wellbeing for all students, with the importance of nurture of a small number of individuals.

I silently watched the leadership team at work.

For many minutes they grappled with each option. The factors were multiple and complex because they involved real people and real situations. As you can imagine, every now and then some of our secondary students make choices that … hmm well, that they would have been better not to have made. It is all part of growing up. And our secondary leadership team are the ones who help our students untangle themselves from their own mesh of imprudence.

So here they were, strategically working out the best ways to turn each student’s bad choice into a learning opportunity. They were looking for ways to protect each student’s dignity, protect each family’s privacy, protect the wider student cohort, and protect the future so that learning can continue to be our main focus as a school. That is after all what we are on about here- learning. We are a school that pride ourselves that our focus is learning, and not behaviour management. Not all schools can say that, so we say it with appropriate pride.

Of course, it is impossible, but I almost wish you parents could have seen this team at work; scrutinising their own suggestions, appraising every answer, critically considering their ideas through the lens of what is best for the students; individually and collectively.

These leading-teachers know that no single factor can become the only priority. For the sake of the students, the factors must be balanced, no matter how hard that is. All those factors must be woven into the complexity that becomes a Christ-centred learning community.

david gleeson, principal