What Happened When This Principal Prioritised School-Parent Communication, with Blair Dravitski
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What is the significance of school-parent communication?
Hi, and welcome to School Shorts with me, Melissa Chan-Green, journalist and mum of two with a passion for education. In this episode, we are talking about the relationship between school and teachers and home, and in particular, the experience of one principal, Blair Drevitsky, to create what he calls a culture of communication. It has been an important lesson, an important part of Blair's leadership as the leader of Lemonwood Grove School for the past six years, because this is in a suburb of Christchurch that has dealt not only with the Christchurch earthquakes, but they were the closest school to Linwood Mosque in the wake of the mosque attacks in New Zealand, which killed 51 people. So his leadership there has delivered some sensitive and significant lessons around communication.
Blair, thank you so much for your time. I know it is especially precious at the moment, so I really appreciate you being here.
Thanks for the invitation.
How has trauma influenced communication strategies in schools?
As I said in the introduction, you have led schools through some pretty traumatic experiences and some really significant experiences, not only for New Zealand, but actually with a global lens. People have been looking at Christchurch. So as a school leader, how do you manage that? How did you manage that?
Yeah, I've always been a firm believer that skills are hubs in communities.
What strategies does Blair Dravitski use to foster communication?
My strategic plans always focused around three stakeholders, key stakeholders, which are the students, the staff and the community. It was strengthened during those times of trauma because the parents in particular look to skills for support and for help. So navigating that is navigating the need and the priority at the time. For me in particular, our parents in that situation in Christchurch with my On the back of the earthquakes and then the mosque attack, it was all about making sure that they had their kids safe. They wanted to make sure they were safe. Often they weren't 100% sure about the situation. And so being at the front gate, being torn through car windows to make sure that they were reassured that kids coming to school was a safe place to be.
How does transparency reduce anxiety in school communities?
And that was challenging. I mean, after the mosque attack, we had armed guards for three weeks. So separating those out with my staff and my school leaders was huge. And yeah, it was an interesting time, but a hugely valuable time to ensure that our communities were the first in priority in our schooling.
We so often talk about with educators that the importance of a student feeling safe at school, that that's kind of the basis by which they can then learn. And that's just really a sense of regulation about what's happening around them. But I mean, these are really extreme circumstances. And you're not only dealing with students who might be feeling unsafe and anxious, but Parents, as you say, so they're potentially getting those kinds of anxieties at home. Was there any lesson that you took from that into, okay, how do you keep kids safe?
What challenges arise from rapid school growth?
Because this is a very extreme example of it. How did you learn how to react to that?
Yeah, I find that uncertainty creates anxiety. So being really transparent with our communication to parents, to the staff, to the students. For myself, during any of these situations, your own school context is hugely important. Although we're not a huge country, there's lots of different schools with lots of different contexts. And so when you're applying, I guess, these lessons or what we've learned over the years, it's important to look internally first. So what's important to you? How do you reassure the parents? How do you reassure the kids?
How does diversity impact school communication?
How do you make sure the staff are on board? No matter how big or small the school is, having staff, collective buy-in, building relational trust is so important to ensure that when these things do happen, which we hope never do, that you've got the building blocks in place and that trust built up over time to make sure that actually they do turn to schools because we are a hub and we are a place that can provide some of those pastoral needs that although we're not necessarily expected to or maybe not in the job description, it's something that through a vocation of teaching is something that I think all educators are well aware of in regards to that part of the job.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the significance of school-parent communication?
0:02–1:07
2
How has trauma influenced communication strategies in schools?
1:07–1:40
3
What strategies does Blair Dravitski use to foster communication?
1:40–2:27
4
How does transparency reduce anxiety in school communities?
2:27–3:29
5
What challenges arise from rapid school growth?
3:29–4:05
6
How does diversity impact school communication?
4:05–5:40
7
What role do parents play in supporting educational changes?
5:40–6:53
8
How can parents effectively communicate with teachers and school leaders?
6:53–39:13
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from School Shorts
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