Ghosts

I am going to return to an old and favourite topic because, ever optimistic, I want finally to persuade some ghosts to be laid to rest.
The first ghost is that many things at ICS get damaged by students who show no respect for others’ possessions. Airers of this ghost are making dramatic (and serious) accusations against children attending this school with little evidence to go on.

Certainly, some damage is done but it is nearly always accidental and of no great financial significance. Certainly, teenagers could be more careful. But puberty’s hormone cocktail just makes this a very unrealistic focus of a school wide drive. In fact, a lot of kids, and especially boys, already feel very self conscious about their increased clumsiness let alone all the visible body changes they have to undergo alone.

Occasionally there is wilful damage. For example, a wall is given an addition of a football supporters’ emblem. So is a desk. A toilet is filled with toilet paper. But the broad view reduces the height of these incidents when placed against the usual school landscape. Tellingly, very rarely is a student’s work on display defaced and this must be noted. And no, we do not tolerate even these damages and yes, we follow them up and question people in or near the scene, investing a lot of time and effort in these enquiries. And yes, the Administration makes it very clear there are consequences ready for any vandalistic act. It is just that we very rarely have to enact these consequences.

Ghost 2: 'There is a good deal of theft from students and, indeed, it is getting beyond control.' The problem with this particular ghost means that this regular theft is committed, presumably, by your children; that the upbringing you give them is ineffective; that the social education we give them is insufficient. A sub ghost, a ghostlet if you will, is that ‘Yes, but my child was lead on by those other children who really are…’ But the same arguments can be raised about parental standards of upbringing and school standards of personal development if a child cannot say, 'No!' or an adult still not sought out or some other wise solution still neither known nor attempted.

Yes, indeed, bunches of objects go missing as I have written in a previous Blog series http://nickydarlington.blogspot.com/ Keys and ipods and iphones (and normal phones and rings and earrings and wallets and watches and bracelets and necklaces and precious keepsakes and huge gangsta blouson puffjackets, and trainers and track suits and shirts and sweaters and normal jackets; these are a selection of the items reported to Sandra Downie or Mr Hall or me as having been stolen.
Slightly smaller bunches of these items lie for weeks In Lost Property and in Sandra’s ‘LostBox’ in her office. Many are located in or on or behind the lockers (we are going to move these to more frequented areas of the school). Many are found in the rooms in which the owners last had a class and turned in to the cleaners. Several are found on and under the lunch tables at 1.45. Some have been loaned out and not returned or forgotten about or loaned on to a friend of the first loanee.

Yes, and some clearly have been stolen but this is a very small percentage and one that is not higher than other, similar international schools. And that is neither defensive nor complacent, merely context creating. Solutions are clear and present, well known and much repeated to our constituents, namely you and them. Here are the Golden Rules of Property Retention that are seldom followed

Do not bring expensive and/or designer artefacts to school. They are neither wanted nor needed. This is just common sense and a question of what is appropriate.
Lock valuables away in lockers.
Buy large, solid, recommended padlocks.
Never leave something tempting in you jacket or bag and then leave these lying around.
Place valuables in the Tresor at the foot of the stairs in the Academy opposite the boys changing rooms.
Hand them in to Sandra for safekeeping.
Remember to collect these valuable items afterwards.
Go check in Lost Property.
Go check in the LostBox.
Label your clothes.
Be able to identify your phone, calculator, wallet or watch because your own clear but special sign is on it.
Report it missing (not stolen) as soon as relevant steps are taken.
If it is likely there is in the community a child tempted to steal then we must try not to put temptation its way.

New Year’s resolution? For the sake of your children’s reputations and our school’s honour, let’s give this a try.