A large proportion of children’s charities work in schools. They provide important services from counselling, mentoring, and reading support, to outward-bound courses and anti-bullying programmes. To be effective the school must ensure the charity is well-integrated and that children participating in programmes are willing and engaged.
NPC is in the process of developing a tool for charities to measure well-being, based around a questionnaire which has been tested on a number of charities working in schools. What I found interesting from the analysis of the pilots was that it was the school, not the charity, that was the deciding factor in whether a positive impact on well-being was achieved.
Beatbullying is a leading UK charity that works to prevent bullying. Children being trained as online anti-bullying mentors (‘Cybermentors’) in four schools completed the NPC well-being questionnaire. The results showed that Cybermentors had a large effect (0.7< ) on children’s self-esteem, enjoyment of school and overall well-being in two schools. In the other two schools no improvements were seen.
I wondered what the reasons for this could be? Schools have a vital role to play in paving the way for a charity intervention. They need to promote the charities’ service, recruit willing participants, provide adequate facilities and time slots. If this doesn’t happen, for whatever reason, charities may struggle to be effective.
I would be very interested to hear from charities willing to share their experiences: just how big do you think is the school effect?
Since I don’t work for a charity looking at schools, I can’t give their perspective on the school’s effect but I can draw on my experience at schools to make some (I hope) useful comments.
My view is that the school effect is massive. But for me, the focus is more on the schools and the challenges they face. Different schools have to deal with differing levels of bullying, truancy or drugs-related problems, and these vary within the school (in different year groups) just as much as they vary between schools.
As such, the responsiveness of those responsible for pupils’ welfare is key. This could be the year heads or the school counsellor, but no matter who notices the problems, the important thing is that the school takes a proactive attitude to responding to these problems – be it through in-house anti-bullying projects or outsourced anti-bullying sessions with charities.
The ineffectiveness comes when schools view charities as simply providers of an (often free) service, or when charities do not cater for the particular needs of the school. This is why charities and schools must cooperate and coordinate their efforts to tackle particular issues rather than simply giving a perfunctory nod to their respective responsibilities.
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