Swooping Season

Currently where I live it is swooping season.

Many of you would know what swooping season is but for those of you who don’t, it’s the time where birds swoop down and try to attack you. It can be frightening when you go on your morning walk and feel a bash to the head as a blur of feathers, beak and claws tries to remove the top layers of your cranium. The thing with the birds at this time of year is that they are relentless and they have a memory. There are signs around the parks warning people that there are swooping birds, often in our case, magpies, who are ready and willing to attack. Why? Because all there are doing is protecting their babies in the nearby nests. The birds aren’t being horrible, they are being parents and they are doing everything they can to ensure their children are safe and protected.

Sounds like certain times during the school year hey?

I am reminded of swooping season the moment our school starts planning class placements for the following year. The first signal of swooping season happens the week after I post the teacher placements for the upcoming school year. I try to do this around World Teachers Day which is at the end of October. Within hours of posting the list in the newsletter, I receive an email or two from parents saying who their children are friends with and what teacher they respond well to. I am all good with this as it means people have read the newsletter!

Swooping season intensifies in the weeks that follow with emails, meetings and class teacher check-ins. People share their thinking and who their child (or in the case of teachers, which students) work well together and ones that don’t. This occurs throughout the day and you never really know when it’s going to strike. I do notice, as do teachers, that swooping is strong outside the classrooms in the mornings. Some swoop more than others and some don’t swoop at all.

The finale of the swooping season takes place in and around the time class lists come out. There will be people not happy about the placement of their child and there will be people making meetings, sending emails and threatening to leave the school all because their child was not with a specific teacher, student or both.

The thing with swooping season at school, same as in nature, parents are trying to protect their babies. Parent birds don’t know the intent of the innocent person walking by and therefore go into attack mode. Same as school, parents don’t always know the ins and outs of a class placement and will feel upset and threatened. Teachers who have put weeks of work into the class lists will feel attacked and defensive as their intention was the best for all students. I sometimes feel that I should go to school each day during this time with a bike helmet with spikes on it to brave the playground in the mornings. Then after a few weeks, swooping season settles down and life goes back to normal.

In the lead up to swooping season at school there are a few things I do to support our staff, parents and most importantly, students.

·       Give a window of one month for parents to write written requests regarding their child’s class placement. The requests must be educationally backed and emailed to the class teacher with me cc’d in. I make this announcement in the newsletter and give an end date to the requests. I also let our parents know that whilst we do our meet to meet the educational needs of everyone, guarantees cannot be made.

·       I make it very clear to parents that requests for specific teachers will not be considered. The teachers work collaboratively and there are times where across a year levels students will have the opportunity to work with teachers from different classes. I state to parents that our teachers are all excellent and therefore any ‘teacher shopping’ will not be entertained. I do take into consideration conflict of interest with teachers such as if a teacher is a relative, however, just like with students, this is not guaranteed. I remember my mum being my Year 2 teacher for half a year. It was weird but I survived.

·       I make it clear to teachers that there will not be any ‘student shopping’. Yes, that can happen! I have to say, at my current school, the teachers are so incredibly respectful I haven’t had this situation, however, I have seen it in other schools. Just like with parents, I do take any conflict of interests into account. There are teachers at the school whose nieces, nephews, neighbours, close friends’ children and even their own offspring are students in the community. This happens and that is part of life. Where we try to reduce the conflict, we can’t always so we complete a version of a risk assessment to identify potential conflicts and how to address them. This is usually in the form of meetings, assessments and ensuring things are fair. Again, I am so fortunate where I work because our staff take this seriously and are so respectful when approaching any potential conflicts.

·       All requests must be in writing and via email. I love receipts and emails are timestamped. It’s too easy for a letter to be backdated, handed into the office and then complaints come in. Yes, I have seen this happen. All emails must be emailed to the class teacher and have me cc’d in to reduce the risk of ‘I sent the teacher an email and they never responded’ or ‘I never saw that email’. I respond to all emails thanking parents for the email and reminding them that we cannot guarantee but will do our best in all considerations. What helps is that 90% of the time, what a parent is requesting, we have already seen it and had the same thought. Since all requests need to be educationally backed, just being friends with someone is not a strong enough reason to request a specific student.

·       Students have a say and this is in writing too. Even from our youngest students, allowing student voice and capturing this in writing (or circling people in a class photo) is very effective. We have had parents during swooping season stating that their child had no one they wanted in their new class. Being able to bring out their child’s request list and showing that they have someone (and often more than one) person from their list is a powerful tool. Our staff do the most incredible job of ensuring every child has one person from their list in their new class. I am always in awe of how they manage this and see the hours and hours of work that goes into the creation of the new class list.

·       Meeting with parents prior to class lists going out. If there are any potential concerns regarding swooping season, I encourage staff to meet with parents prior to the class lists going out. This way if the situation is terrible, we still have time to revise and see what we can do. This is where having the student requests is very important as it’s a piece of evidence that can be used to guide the conversation.

·       Host a ‘Moving Up Afternoon’ with students before parents receive their child’s class list. By having a whole school opportunity for students to meet their new class, go to their new classroom and meet their new teacher, students start feeling connected, confident and optimistic about the follow year. This is always a lovely time to invite in the new teachers to the school to meet their class and play some games and invite students who will be new to the school to join in for some fun. Things can look different on paper and by having time to meet with their new class, connect, build relationships and have fun, students come away with a sense of optimism and excitement about the year ahead.

I don’t think you can ever completely alleviate the swooping season, however, you can mitigate risks and create some boundaries, rules and expectations.

At the end of the day, everyone is just trying to do what is right for their babies.