Teacher Feedback from the staff meeting 1st July 2000 - Points For discussion

1. Discipline can be further enforced by public caning. I think the school uses the soft approach (counseling, reminding, warning) too often, (for late-coming, rudeness, sloppiness) repeated offences.

2. I think SEM is unpopular because :

a) the timing of when it was introduced - teachers were very, very busy

b) a lot of data collection search for data can be quite cumbersome especially when they are busy.

- Introduced just after teachers have done WITs (we involved a lot of data collection also)

3. When teachers do not stay back late and take home work. they are referred to as people who are not prepared to sacrifice their time for the school. Those who stay back late are applauded for their time. Yet we are promoting the balance of work & home. Those who balance, or choose to go back at a certain time are referred to negatively. There is a discrepancy here! At the same time, admin told the teachers not to stay back so late but workload demands the latter.

Solution : Look into how workload can be reduced (e.g. admin work, number of subjects being taught).

4. There are many cases of clashes of activities/CCAs/Committees creating confusion amongst teachers & pupils alike. Some activities require urgency but there seem to be no replacement for the other clash of activity.

5. Status of Student Leaders is low. They are treated more like servants/slaves rather than student leaders to lead the school. Instead, offenders can be punished by cleaning the school, pick up litter, clean dirty walls instead of SLs.

6. Teacher need to feel 'heard' and understood. It is not helpful if members of the school management are defensive about suggestions or comments made by staff.

Eg : There had been occasions when P or VP immediately knock down a suggestion with a counter argument at staff meetings. Perhaps more time be given to hear views from a few other teachers.

7. Have 2 ECA days or enrichment day

- One for uniform group (Saturday)

- One for all others

- One for enrichment/rehearsals etc

- One for remedial/after care to avoid clashes.