Students Take the Lead at Cider Mill to Improve School Climate

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

It’s possible that in the world of elementary schools, there’s a similar adage:  “Tell a child to be happy at school and she’ll be happy for a day; involve her how to be part of making school a happier place and she’ll be happy all year.”

The concept is one administrators at Cider Mill School are hoping will work, through a program they instituted this year called “Helping Hands.” It’s part of a school climate improvement initiative that the Wilton School District has been implementing all year district wide. Directed by renowned education expert Bill Prebble and his Center for School Climate, each Wilton school has created their own way to study the current climate and improve upon it.

The general concept Prebble has encouraged the school to adopt is one that puts a lot of the control in the hands of the students. “It’s giving students the leadership and empowering them to be role models for the other students. When the students are leading, the other students will be more apt to follow,” explains Dawn Randall, a school counselor at Cider Mill who oversees the Helping Hands program, along with Rachel Goulet, a counselor intern, and third grade teacher Tara Lappa.

Launching the Program with Students

There were 15 adults on the faculty side who began the year working on the school climate topic. They started identifying kids who would become those role models and take part in the project alongside the adults to come up with ideas targeting climate improvement. In all, 19 kids were recruited for the student leadership team. Again, following one of Prebble’s core ideas, the school wanted to identify kids from every social group, some who might not be seen as ‘typical’ or ‘the usual’ leaders, in order to get a truly representative group.

“We looked for kids with different abilities academic-wise, socially, they have all different needs–so it’s a very diverse group, in terms of choosing kids who are natural leaders and others who will rise to the occasion, in giving them the confidence to do that. It was looking at our whole student body and figuring out how we get the most diverse group we can to get the most diverse ideas,” Randall explains.

Starting in January, the adult and kid project leaders began meeting. First they analyzed data from a survey about Cider Mill’s climate that had been given to parents, staff and students. It covered the existing school climate, what respondents would like changed and what they like about it.

“The good news is that a lot of the children feel safe and welcomed in the school, and they like the fact that we use a lot of technology in the school. The goals would be that they’d love more PE and recess time, and they would like more technology–some felt like we had a lot but they still wanted more. They would like more movement, breaks and free social time,” Randall explains, adding, “There were also some who would like to feel more included in the school.”

As an educator and counselor, Randall says she views the information–even the data showing that some kids were having trouble feeling comfortable at school–as incredibly helpful and useful.

“I know we can always do better. I did take comfort from a large percentage who feel safe and welcomed here. We found the opportunity to work on relationships between students and teachers, because they sometimes feel they can’t go to a teacher or adult in the building, so that’s a big focus of our projects this year and next year,” she says, adding, “It’s definitely opened up communication in terms of finding out what we need to work on, because our perceptions sometimes are very different than what the children feel.”

Solutions and Ideas

The children who were selected to be on the team were thrilled to take on the responsibility. “They were so excited and they’ve been excited the whole year. I will say some kids were very surprised that they were chosen to be on the team, because they’re not the typical leaders. Very enthusiastic, asking, ‘When’s our next meeting? When’s our next meeting?’” Randall says.

They got right to work coming up with ideas and solutions to implement.

“They have been great! Our big goals are to improve respect between students, and to improve relationships between students and teachers,” Randall says.

One project was to create a teacher appreciation board in a heavily travelled hallway, and on it the group spotlights two teachers a week. “Part was the kids felt they didn’t know the teachers well enough. So the kids came up with interview questions–fun stuff like, What do you love to do when you’re not at school?” Then they put up sticky notes on the boards for students and other teachers to write positive compliments and the teachers will get those. That board will change every two weeks,” Randall says.

The group has also installed a “change box” in the main hallway, where students can leave nots about not just things they’d like to change, but also solutions for improving school climate.

“We’ve been hearing about the food situation in the cafeteria; that’s been big. It’s funny what’s important to them, but they think it’s ‘gross’ food, or they don’t get enough food. I’m sure there’s going to be notes in there about more PE and recess,” Randall adds, with a small chuckle.

The student leaders are also contributing to morning announcements over the school loudspeakers. Each week they choose a positive quote to read to the school, and a goal. “This week is was listen to each other and let others have turn to share ideas,” Randall says.

On other thing the student leaders also will be doing is greeting students and teachers as they come into school in the morning.

“Those are the things we’re trying to do that will lead us into next year,” Randall says.

Is There a Change Already?

There’s definitely already been an impact, according to Randall.

“There definitely an excitement and maybe a feeling the kids have more control and a say in their school. In the first couple days the change box was out in the hallway, there were kids were all over it, writing, writing, writing. I’m really hoping we’ll be able to follow up to show them their ideas matter. That’s been huge.”

One thing she has also noticed is how excited the students get when they see the pictures of the student leaders up on the Helping Hands bulletin board.

“It’s starting small but there’s definitely a more positive feeling around school. We’re empowering the kids to be leaders and to take on more of that in the school. I’m excited, I really am. Our principal is very excited and our adult team is very excited to be working on it,” Randall adds.