Flakey in the Snow

Snow in the holidays is one thing. Snow in school time is another. Last year schools around the country ground to a halt because of snow. At the Academy snow brought an unexpected challenge. The strength of our school culture is based on routine, ritual and rules. One of our strongest routines so far is lining up in the playground after break and lunch.

The impact of everyone doing what everyone else is doing is incredible. The routine has several steps. At lunch time, when skipping ropes and balls are available for children to play with, these are collected 5 minutes early. This has the effect of calming down excited children. If you've never seen Year 7 play King Ball - I'd recommend it. Next, a member of senior staff blows a whistle. I have discovered if you don't have a 'thunderer' whistle you might as well be whistling to yourself. Lines start to form. For the first few weeks teachers held up signs at the front of their lines. Now these are not needed. There is then a count down from 4. They are reminded that if they talk they will have detention and then a second whistle is blown. Eagle-eyed teachers look for any student talking. Any one caught is sent to the front. They will serve a 20 minute detention at the end of the day. Lines are then dismissed class by class.

Line up has many benefits. It means all students are on time to lessons. All lessons have an orderly start. It provides an opportunity to reinforce uniform rules and pick up children if they have, say, missed their late detention. It also ensures teachers are on time to lessons as any lateness is very exposed and therefore easy to challenge. There are of course draw backs. It can be a pain for teachers to come down to collect children when they want to have a break and get their room ready for the next class. It also doesn't work well in severe blizzard conditions.

Obviously if it had been snowing during lunch then we would not have tried to get students lining up. However it was like a biblical event. The whistle went then the blizzard began. Children joined their lines though did not go quiet in driving hail. Instead they put their blazers over their heads and made loud screaming sounds and although some were quickly dismissed into the canteen some made a run for it. Staff insider the building looked on from the second floor with some hilarity at the ridiculous scene below.

Within 5 minutes however students were all sat down quietly in the dinner hall and were lined up inside. Though there had been a moment when they made the rules.

On reflection I considered whether this brief rebellion was something to worry about. Of course I want students to line up and follow the rules. I want them to do this because I believe good order is vital in order for them to have freedom when they are older. However I also want them to make choices so that when following the rules is not the right thing they don't. History fortunately has many examples of people who have stood up for what they believe in the face of authority. From Gandhi leading the first pass burning protest to Pastor Niemoller who was arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp in 1937 for speaking out against Hitler.

Now obviously our school regime is not that harsh. Our routines are essential and have already proved successful in creating a culture and climate in which learning thrives. However when our students momentarily refused to follow the rules in the face of being told to follow a ridiculous instruction - to line up in a blizzard - I was even more proud. Though I wouldn't tell them of course.