“Can’t” and “won’t” are words school principal Mark Brown doesn’t use. He believes in “you can” and “you will”. However, he also believes that sometimes support is required to get his pupils and their families to think this way. The key to this support is engaging and including families and communities to become part of the solution. 

Dr Rory Truell, Executive Director for the Social Services Industry Training Organisation (ITO), says this philosophy fits in very well with the ITO’s. “We have a responsibility to include families and communities in problem solving. This is part of our core values of kotahitanga (connecting people), manaakitanga (honouring others and ourselves) and kaitiakitanga (upholding our responsibilities). Mark Brown sets an example for us in the ways he has led his school into incorporating these values into action,” he says. 

Mark Brown is principal of Victory Primary School in Nelson. He has been in the news recently for setting an example of how a low decile school with 70 percent non-European children can successfully address issues of low achievement, truancy, bullying and exclusions. Victory Primary School, like many low decile schools, had a history of all these things. In fact, transient families were such an issue for the school that nearly 60 percent of children wouldn’t return to school for a second year. 

That’s a far cry from where the school is today. How did Mark achieve this turn around? Two words best describe his actions - inclusiveness and cooperation. “We were continuing to do things the way we have always done things, which was just looking at our patch as what was included inside the school fence. But this approach was producing the same results. We had to change our actions and our attitudes if we were going to make a difference,” says Mark.

The attitudinal shift came with a simple philosophy that the school didn’t just enrol a child, they enrolled an entire family. The school’s patch became much broader than the boundary fence. This idea then became embedded in the school purpose of “Victory Primary School is here to help families and communities to educate young children” and the school motto of “Everyone matters at Victory”. Mark Brown felt so strongly about this approach that these principles were written into the school charter.

For the school to take a community approach to education, it had to be able to implement a proactive and preventative model rather than a “fix it” model to schooling. Mark admits this was a very tall order. “I knew we could do it, but we couldn’t do it without help. We were only experts in education. We needed experts in all kinds of other things, and our community had all of that expertise. We had a community that was opportunity rich. We just had to tap into that,” he says.

Community spirit and inclusiveness are ideals many organisations aspire to. However, the actions required to achieve this often seem very arcane and complicated. Not so, says Mark. “Once we got the attitude right we started looking for opportunities, and they were out there. We were thinking ‘we can’, not ‘we can’t’”.

For example, Mark noticed many refugee mothers were very isolated. They were dropping their kids off at the school gates then returning home for the rest of the day to an empty house. The refugee children also seemed very isolated from their peers and had difficulty adjusting. The solution was to convert an old tennis pavilion into an adult refugee learning centre and a day care centre to support the mothers with younger children. The result is a happier, more engaged refugee community where the parents and children learn together and support each other.

Another example is the new gym. The school had been planning on building a new gym but, with a little more thought and a little more fundraising, a community and health centre was built that incorporated the gym. Victory Community Health Centre houses organisations like Plunket, WINZ, Pregnancy Support, Independent Midwives, La Leche League, budget advice, asthma nurse, arthritis educator, community law, counselling services, housing services, elderly services for fitness, health and social activities, youth services, family activities, cultural activities, community sports activities and Kōhanga Reo. 

“We built the facilities then invited the community to move in. They have really taken it on board, and it is now entirely self managing. It really benefits our kids as well. We are now able to identify and address problems early - this is the key. We have all the referral services and support services right here on campus that address the problems for the entire family. Bad behaviour in children is most often the result of deeper family issues. Once we start addressing these, the children behave better and can start concentrating on learning. We have that support right here. We are not only open 8.30am to 3pm; we are open 7am to 10pm with the support for our community,” says Mark.

The school has also set up many educational and social support programmes for the children. A relationship with a local iwi means the school can offer specialist Māori homework help in after school care. This supplements the school’s six bilingual classes with 112 children taking part (one third of the roll). An equivalent programme is run for refugee children and other special needs groups. Also, partnerships with community organisations like Big Brothers Big Sisters allow the school to run those programmes during or after school. Social skills are further developed with friendship clubs, anger management programmes, art therapy and many national programmes.

Parents were also actively involved. Wine and cheese evenings and coffee afternoons are run regularly. “These give the parents a chance to connect with me and the teachers. It helps build the relationship and gives parents a chance to be heard,”  says Mark.  

The school also involves the parents in their children’s education and social well-being. “We have an active philosophy of helping parents do their job. For example, we don’t offer a breakfast in schools programme. We monitor if children are coming to school without breakfast. If they are, we talk to the parents to find out why. Then we help them through their issues with providing breakfast. It is a parent’s responsibility to do that, and if they can’t we help them. This is dealing with the core issues and is more sustainable in the future,” says Mark. 

How does he know he has succeeded? “School is now a fun and supportive place to be. Children want to be here and their families want to be here too. The whole atmosphere has changed,”  says Mark. 

Statistics also show success. Victory Primary School now has an above national average academic achievement rate. There have been no stand downs in nine years ,and there is a higher than average national attendance rate and a lower than average transience rate. Bullying behaviours are managed from the first instance so second instances are very rare. Referrals for problem behaviour are almost nonexistent. And, most intriguingly, several families from the surrounding decile eight schools have enrolled their children in Victory School. “I may have to look at zoning,” says Mark. “We have a very full roll and I am getting more and more enquiries.”

There have been positive spinoffs for the surrounding community as well. Vandalism is rare. The area has a high percentage of houses with insulation. The rates of respiratory illnesses are lower than average. There is a higher percentage of people involved in physical activities. And there are higher than national rates of refugee adult literacy. 

Surely this success had a very high cost attached to it? Mark says the school didn’t have to provide any extra money out of their operations grant. “We did do a bit of fundraising, but mostly the money came from readily available pools of money from the Ministry of Education, District Health Boards and other government departments,” he says. “Finding the money was not the hardest task.”

He also adds that the transformation was not an overnight success. “We have a 10 year plan. We started in 2000 and have worked really hard to build on our successes year by year. But our strength has come from having a strong vision and including the parents and the community in supporting that vision. It takes time but it is important.” 

Rory Truell agrees. “It is important to have a vision and to be working toward that vision everyday. It is wonderful to hear success stories like Victory Primary School. They have worked hard towards their vision for many years and are seeing the success. The ITO is working hard toward a highly qualified workforce that provides the best possible social services for our communities. We can learn from Victory’s example.”