Prize for playground plan

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
23 November 2003

Sydney welcomes its newest cardinal

Not to be missed

Help for Jenny, Luke

Take heart from teenagers

Caritas stays put

Irishtown revisited

The company they keep

Pregnant pause: Making room for the little person

Editorial: Young hopefuls

Letters: Quiet revolutionary

Conversation: Fr Michael Anghel, parish priest and grandfather of three - Priest made rite choice

Chance or Hand of God?

Presto, adagio, it’s art Caravaggio

The last retreat

Virtual boost to learning

‘Big kids’ meet ‘littlies’

Teacher, student in De La Salle double history win

Prize for playground plan

Gospel values alive in L’Arche

Prize for playground plan

David Kersivien and his wife Cath after receiving his $12,000 award

The assistant principal at Our Lady of the Rosary primary school at St Marys, David Kersivien, has been honoured with a National Award for Quality Schooling in the Individual Teacher category.

David was integral in developing a school-based program for behaviour management, which was a key area identified for improvement in the school’s review process.

Through a consultative process, he and the other school staff outlined a philosophical basis for improving behaviour management practice - recognising the need to teach social skills and school expectations explicitly to both students and parents.

A mentoring program was subsequently developed for the school playground, and proved highly successful.

The program, the Peer Mentor Initiative - Building Positive Student Networks in the Primary School, trained Year 6 students to model effective and responsible behaviour to selected students who needed guidance in the playground.

A range of activities, including play and simple problem-solving, was employed to imbue junior students with values and skills that helped them better interact in the playground.

Senior students involved in the program developed leadership skills, responsibility, honesty and empathy for others; teachers regained valuable time previously spent in resolving playground disputes.

The principal of Our Lady of the Rosary, Mark Geerligs, says he is proud of the school staff’s contribution and dedication to the “wonderful” mentoring initiative.

The National Awards for Quality Schooling is a Federal Government initiative to recognise and reward schools, teachers and school leaders, (in both government and non-government sectors) for their commitment to school improvement through projects which demonstrate signif-icant and sustainable improvement to learning outcomes for students.

This year almost $1 million in prize money was shared by 84 individual and group winners across Australia.