What Makes A Good School

I have to be honest and state that I do not believe there is anything such as a bad school. Certainly, there are schools that face a variety of different challenges and problems which may be quite unique in character and perhaps specific to particular characterictics of the community in which they operate, but schools, like children in my view, are all fundamentally good.

There is little doubt in my mind either, that what I am about to suggest here as elementary ingredients of a good school, is open to debate and probably criticism. So be it! At its core, a good school is one that prioritises the development of warm, caring and empathetic relationships within its community, ie. between students, students and staff and staff and parents. A school has to work hard at this. As one parent just recently and no doubt quite accurately suggested to me, that while we would all wish it were so, parents do not necessarily have as their greatest priority the school at which their child attends, or more accurately, its day-to-day operations. In particular this was in reference to ensuring that there is a regular and “received” level of communication.

But, it is the consistent and at times, persistent efforts at ensuring the messages are received that helps make a good school. It is through this that levels of consistency in expectations are developed and agreed. Schools are people places and as a result, demand attention to the establishment and maintenance of strong and supportive relationships in order that reasonable, realistic and importantly, achieveable goals for a child can be cooperatively pursued.

In my opinion, bricks and mortar do not make a good school. There is no doubt they enhance a school but in themselves, they do not make it good. There is no shadow of doubt in my mind that the cornerstone to a good school is very clearly determined by the quality of the staff who work there. The professionals who work with our young people and deliver the curriculum in an engaging and meaningful way are the key. It’s not just about the teaching though. It is about the hours of time these people spend, just being with the children (not just in classrooms), talking to them and listening to their issues, offering a few words of encouragement or advice here and there in an effort to provide support in times which can be very confusing. I have used the word children deliberately – because I think we can sometimes be at risk of forgetting the fact that our students are still children, albiet their experiences are significantly advanced of what ours may have been when we were of a similar age. In this sense, I believe our young people can often be quite a way ahead of themselves and herein often lies the basis for conflict, both at school and at home. This, to some degree is another issue, although schools that are good will always try to work with the parents in providing a consistent and supportive approach.

We should never be apologetic for espousing and demanding standards of acceptable behaviour and conduct in our schools. Hopefully these are consistent with those which are emphasised at home, although sometimes, too often unfortunately, they are not. A good school demands certain standards and these are reinforced throughout by all staff, from Kindergarten to Year 12, without favour and in the interests of developing well rounded, empathetic individuals who have a strong sense of what is right and appropriate. There is something good, as well, in the development of a strong sense of esprit de corps and affinity with a school community in which we all have a part to play and where no one person is more important than another within its fabric. Yes, there should be an acceptance that we may all have differing roles to play, but we are all as important as each other.

Academic achievement may well be the most important ingredient for some in gauging what is a good school. I do not wish to debate that, suffice to say that schools are more than just a TE score or a position on a media driven and promoted league table (quite mischieveously and irresponsibly in my opinion). Ultimately, a child’s capacity to make informed and realisable choices about his or her future pathway at the end of their schooling is determined by results. From my perspective, however, if the school has provided them with many of life’s tools in order to be able to do that, along with a personal sense of achievement, perhaps including an appropriate TE score from which to advance, then it will have gone some distance towards earning the tag of a good school. Along the way, hopefully, these same children will have learned to accept a high level of personal accountability, to the extent where they can acknowledge what they have achieved, along with the individuals who have also played a part throughout the journey. If they are honest, depending on their own levels of effort, I am confident they would recognise the staff with whom they have interacted as being major influences.

There is much to being a good school. Nothing along the way is necessarily easy, nor is it achieved without high levels of sustained effort and work. However, the knowledge that a school provides a secure, safe and supportive environment where each individual is valued as a special part in its tapestry and in so saying, has a dedicated and concerned staff to facilitate, develop and enact its ideals is one large step along the way to ensuring a school such as Fahan is a good one.