Hong Kong parent appalled by bad behaviour at son’s school
Schools vary in their approach and response to instilling discipline, and parents are advised to visit to get a sense of how the students interact and behave before choosing a school for their children
A Hong Kong parent writes: I rarely go in to my son’s primary school but I took a day off work recently to help on a school trip and was appalled by the general behaviour. I was shocked to find children pushing each other on the stairs, running along the corridors screaming and shouting. One child almost knocked me over without even an apology. My son’s teacher seemed to be able to control the children in the classroom during the briefing but I was not at all impressed with the school as a whole.
Styles of disciplining students have changed since some of us were at school. However, even with the use of modern, more liberal methods, this is not an excuse for the unacceptable behaviour you have just described.
Standards of discipline and the expectation of, and insistence upon, good manners are certainly not just down to individual teachers within their own classrooms. It is a matter for the whole school and its leadership team to set and constantly reinforce high expectations and monitor them continuously in whatever context teachers and students find themselves in.
Children learn best in a secure and safe environment. This gives them the best chance to reach their full potential. Effective discipline and an ethos of mutual respect between all adults and pupils is key to a calm, happy and successful school.
This also includes the way that pupils interact with the school caretaker, office staff members or educational assistants who supervise playground duty, not just the teaching staff.
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Even in a good school, it’s amazing how quickly school corridors can turn into a frenzy of running, pushing and shouting if important rules are not reinforced in assemblies and classrooms. Children are children, and they benefit from numerous reminders and positive reinforcement.