Listen and share to build happy schools

In the context of students being under a lot of pressure in studying like today, building a happy school is necessary so that not only teachers but also students feel that "every day at school is truly a happy day"...

Teachers should be friends with students.

For 12 years, the children have been in high school, but the parents of class 12D1 - Dien Chau 3 High School never thought that one day they would be able to wear ao dai, a suit, and a tie to school with their children to attend the opening ceremony.

The echoes have passed for nearly half a year, but now when thinking back, many parents, students, homeroom teachers and many other teachers in the school still remember that emotional image.

It was a special experience for many parents who are “muddy-handed”, busy all year round with making a living, worrying about food and money. Accompanying their children in the last opening ceremony of their school years, parents also witnessed their children’s maturity, saw their children’s activities at school, in class and listened to the school’s and homeroom teachers’ orientations about their children’s future.

Opening ceremony of students of Dien Chau 3 High School. Photo: NTCC

The opening ceremony is the idea and passion of teacher Chu Thi Binh - homeroom teacher of class 12D1. In addition to this activity, in the 3 years she has been the homeroom teacher of the class, she has organized many activities to connect parents, students, teachers and the school, through parent meetings in class, at school or sometimes briefly via Zoom if there are urgent problems.

This school year, for the first time, the parents of the class had an unforgettable parent-teacher meeting when they first read the letters, in which the homeroom teacher encouraged students to write “what I want to say” to send to their parents. Or with the “what I want to say” mailbox, students in her class will have the opportunity to tell the teacher about their thoughts, feelings, as well as difficulties and obstacles in the learning process.

Parents of class 12D1 attended the opening ceremony and parent meeting at the beginning of the new school year. Photo: NTCC

To create confidence for students, she also changed the way the class is organized when all the class programs, students are able to build ideas, directly organize and propose wishes and desires so that students can develop their strengths. As a homeroom teacher, instead of just asking, setting rules and regulations for students, she learned how to listen, share and accompany students in all activities.

In the past, there was always a distance between teachers and students. But now, when I was assigned to be a homeroom teacher, I chose to be friends with my students, ready to listen and understand. Our joy is to see students progress day by day, they are active, bold, know how to set goals and know how to make efforts to complete them. Our class, from a class with a fairly normal starting point, but now class 12D1 is one of the best performing classes in the school with many students achieving provincial excellent students, 30% of the students in the class have IELTS certificates from 6.0 or higher.

In addition to the main goal of passing the university entrance exam, some students who choose other career paths also feel comfortable because they receive support from their parents and have a clear direction for themselves.

Teacher Chu Thi Binh - homeroom teacher of class 12D1, Dien Chau 3 High School

Dien Chau 3 High School is the first school in the province to pilot the construction ofhappy school. To build in depth, the school has built a mission, goals and put forward many core values ​​such as respect, responsibility, honesty, cooperation, creativity, solidarity, and humanity, but the most obvious change is the behavior in daily life to create a friendly educational environment.

"Instead of just imposing, the school's Board of Directors has listened more to teachers, students, and parents to share, understand, and encourage teachers and students to perform well in their teaching and learning tasks. In addition, the school also organizes many experiential activities for students to form and develop their abilities, creating joy and more excitement in each class hour. What we are happy about is that after more than 2 years of persistent implementation, the phenomena of ethical violations and violations of regulations on uncivilized behavior have tended to decrease significantly, creating a healthy ethical education environment in the school" - said teacher Phan Trong Dong - Principal of Dien Chau 3 High School.

Friendly classrooms will bring joy to teachers and students, creating motivation for them to try together. Photo: NTCC

Dien Thap Secondary School (Dien Chau) has also started to build a happy school with practical actions. Here, every Monday, the “what I want to say” mailbox is personally opened by the school principal and the teacher in charge of the Youth Union to read, receive and listen to the students’ sharing. Although the stories students send to the school are sometimes quite simple, revolving around adolescence and concerns at school such as “I hope teachers do not put too much emphasis on writing in the class notebook for unreasonable reasons”, “I hope teachers will understand us better”... but this is really a useful channel for teachers to listen to students.

I believe that if students are happy, teachers will be happy. By listening to students, principals and teachers will adjust themselves to build a friendly educational environment that meets their thoughts and wishes. We also try to listen to parents to find a common voice and join hands to build and support the school. The most obvious thing is that in recent parent meetings, parents have fully participated. Instead of making excuses about working far away and asking someone to attend meetings like before, many parents want to participate in the experience with their children and the school.

Teacher Le Xuan Loi - Principal of Dien Thap Secondary School (Dien Chau)

Passion and responsibility

Happy School is a school model implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training since 2019 and inspired by UNESCO's "Happy School" model. Currently, depending on the conditions, each locality has different criteria, but a happy school has 3 important, core criteria: Love, safety and respect. In the current context, building a happy school is extremely necessary, helping to relieve the pressure of studying and creating a healthy, friendly educational environment for students.

The mailbox instead of words at Dien Thap Secondary School, Dien Chau. Photo: My Ha

As the Principal of Dang Chanh Ky Secondary School (Nam Dan), a school considered a specialized school in Nam Dan district, teacher Nguyen Vuong Linh - Principal of the school believes that: Happy school should be considered a criterion for schools to aim for, although, to reach the final goal requires a long process.

For example, at our school, when I first started my new job, I was quite worried because the students here study too much, the pressure of achievement and the pressure of grades always weigh heavily on both teachers and students. To change this perspective, I had to do it step by step, starting with the teachers to change their thinking. After that, our school organized many extracurricular activities, established Music, English, Art, and Sports clubs to create many playgrounds and entertainment for the students.

Studying is still maintained but not too stressful. The school regularly has a policy of encouraging teachers and students when they have good results, high awards and rewarding students who have made a lot of progress.

Friendly classrooms at Dien Thap Secondary School (Dien Chau). Photo: My Ha

Building happy schools is currently being implemented step by step by many schools across the province, using many different methods. However, to implement effectively and practically, first of all, it is necessary to have the dedication and responsibility of the leaders, of the teachers, to avoid formalism and cliches.

Reality has also shown that after more than 3 years of efforts to build this model, there has been a strong change in the thinking of the staff, teachers, and workers about happy schools, happy students, happy teachers, positive changes in the quality of education, and a reduction in the rate of students dropping out of school. Many units have used this as a criterion for self-assessment of the school. In particular, after the course "Principal - the one who sows the seeds of happiness", management staff are more aware of the value and importance of building the "Happy School" model in the unit.

Experiential playgrounds will create excitement for students. Photo: My Ha

Although it has only been piloted, the “Happy School” model has brought many positive results. In the coming time, based on the criteria of UNESCO and the Vietnam Education Trade Union, the provincial Education and Training sector will develop a specific set of criteria, suitable to the practical situation, to replicate this model to educational institutions throughout the province./.

Mr. Dang Van Hai - ChairmanEducation Industry Union