Change key to positive school days experience

THE beginning of a child’s education journey is a special occasion for the students, family and friends. Social media is flooded every January with cute photos of little ones with their bags heading off to their first day at school with 12 years of adventure ahead. The Bulletin today celebrates that joy with the launch of its annual My First Year feature. The 32-page liftout covers classes from 31 participating schools across the city and captures hundreds of prep students in that most precious of moments, with big smiles and joy on their faces. It’s these photos which prove to be lifelong keepsakes which make appearances at end-of-school celebrations more than a decade later and 21st birthday parties. Memories fade but you cannot go past seeing those images in future years and remembering what it was like during those first days in school and the friends you made along the way. In saying that, it is also important to make sure the memories for students in later years remain positive ones. There are growing calls for the state government to give school principals the power to automatically suspend students who assault teachers or deal drugs. It is surprising to find that these are not automatic causes for removal from class, even temporarily. But the Department of Education says it deals with matters on a case-by-case basis. Suspensions, principals are told, should only be used as a matter of last resort. Given the number of incidents which have occurred in recent years, it is clear a harder line must be taken. Teachers and other students deserve to be happy and safe in their classrooms, not just in their first year but always.