CAIS in Point

If there is a truism in the enrolment management axiom applied in most of our schools, it is: “If the school is full of mission appropriate students, then that is the result of offering outstanding programmes and services. Conversely, if the school is empty or is struggling to attract the right students, then that is the fault of the admissions department.” This is the time of year when many schools traditionally feel an enrolment crunch as they try to project staffing needs and timetable constructs for the following September. The early admissions and re-enrolment processes are over and now Heads and their leadership teams are struggling to identify and secure that last 10 – 15% of their student body that will have such an impact on both the character of their classes and the bottom line on their balance sheets. Last week I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Halifax, meeting with admissions directors across the country at their bi-annual national conference. Chris Strickey from King’s-Edgehill School masterminded the event which was an excellent combination of speakers, workshops and networking. We spent a considerable amount of time talking about the changing face of enrolments in our schools and the challenges inherent in continuing to fill our buildings with “mission appropriate” students. The admissions dilemma is an obvious one these days. As a result of a demographic decline of over 16% nationally, many schools are dealing with a combination of over-capacity and the need to accept students with learning challenges and needs that they would not have faced a decade ago. The result has been a rapid growth in learning resource supports, additional ESL/ESD programmes, and counseling services. While all of these initiatives are positive enhancements to our schools and their services, such additions cost money. Over the past ten years, as enrolments in CAIS schools have increased by 30%, staffing has increased by 50%. Fee increases are running more than three and a half times the rate of inflation, and the ratio of applicants to available spaces continues to shrink. Perhaps the most disturbing trend in all of this is the decline in the student retention rates in our schools. Over the past five years the median has dropped from 95% to 88%. That seven percent drop means that admissions directors across the country need to find almost 3000 new enrollees a year, just to fill the spaces of the students who leave our schools without graduating. The problem is, if we are filling those spaces with the “wrong” students, then our ability to serve and retain them will continue to fall short. In addition, although it seems counterintuitive, a full school is not necessarily a sign that your enrolments are healthy! For some schools, keeping numbers up has meant sacrificing quality, and some of our most successful and sustainable schools have chosen to strategically shrink their populations rather than artificially maintain them. Schools that are experiencing sustainability issues in their admissions, and who respond by casting too wide an admissions net just to keep full, often see warning signs such as: a decline in their application / acceptance / enrolment ratios; a growth of soft services; increasing behaviour and retention challenges; a growing academic performance gap in their classes; more aggressive parents; and increased teacher and administrator stress and burnout. So, is this all doom and gloom? It doesn’t have to be! Schools that have tackled this challenge head-on have identified a number of key strategies to make it work. They have: - developed an enrolment management plan (admissions, retention, removal) to monitor the trends and ensure that they are making decisions that are proactive instead of knee-jerk responses to unexpected drops in numbers; - identified the attributes of a “mission appropriate” student, and try to only accept students who will benefit their existing programmes and services; - focused on accurately tracking their inquiry/ application/offer/acceptance ratios in order to make certain that stable numbers are not masking a potential decline in quality; and, - spent considerable time and effort to try to determine their optimal school size. They have learned that bigger is not necessarily better! The admissions departments (or individuals) in our schools are primarily responsible for finding 100% of our clients, and generating about 90% of our hard revenue. All too often, the more successful they are, the less notice they receive. The challenge for all of us is to put away the old axiom that I started this column with, and to ensure that we support and maintain a systematic and professional approach to keeping the right “bums” in the right seats!  Jim Dr. James Christopher Executive Director, CAIS

CAIS Website Updates

Several CAIS schools have asked us to spread the word about summer programs being run at their school this year. To see what's happening this summer please visit: http://www.cais.ca/summer_programs

If you woud like to post your school's summer program simply e-mail support@cais.ca with the pertinent information.

Another informative page that has been added to our website is a section to list non-CAIS conferences. When we receive notification of conferences that may be of interest to some of our faculty we now post the details at: http://www.cais.ca/non-cais_conferences

Children’s Mental Health

May 6-12, 2007 was Children’s Mental Health week in Ontario. It was a week to help raise the volume on whispered family secrets. A nationwide study showed that approximately 38% of adults would be embarrassed to admit that their child suffers from mental difficulties including depression, or anxiety. This statistic remains consistent across all socioeconomic levels. Education and money do not eradicate the perceived social stigma attached to mental health problems. The unfortunate result of this is that it is impossible to find professional assistance without admitting to a problem.

Maybe it would be easier to “confess” to the child’s situation if it was widely known that 20% of children, and youth under 19 years old in Ontario suffer from mental health issues. As noted recently in the Toronto Star special Children’s Mental Health section http://www.kidsmentalhealth.ca/documents/CMHW-TorontoStar.pdf the top seven mental health problems seen in children are: anxiety disorder, depression, conduct disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), eating disorders, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. This list doesn’t include a wide variety of less frequently diagnosed problems.

Maybe it would be easier to find help for children with mental health difficulties if people understood that an untreated case of depression can lead to irreparable damage. Suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst today’s youth, with accidents being the number one cause.  It’s important to take note of children’s behavior if things seem out of the ordinary.  Don’t turn a blind eye. Sometimes children are often reluctant to talk about their feelings, but many times, when asked they will provide information that can lead to successful and timely treatment.

Maybe it would be easier to treat mental health if we regarded its significance as a “health” concern. As a society we treat our young people’s coughs, colds, sprained limbs, and other bodily ailments with a trip to the doctor, but not when our child seems disinterested in school, unusually angry or withdrawn. Unfortunately the problems being ignored can lead to poor performance at school and social isolation. These can lead to more intense depression or anxiety.  It becomes a destructive cycle. It’s dangerous to assume that kids are resilient and “these things will pass”. For some they will. Many others need direction and support from the people they trust to protect, guide and nurture them.

It’s time to open up; it’s time to realize that mental health problems are not shameful. In fact, according to the statistics, in a class of 30 children, it is quite likely there are 6 kids who require assistance on some level. You and your child are not alone.

e-Cheats

Cheating; it’s always been a problem. People used to write crib notes on their hand, on a ruler, or tuck them into their calculator. We’ve seen movies about people stealing exams and sharing the answers with their friends, for a price. Recycling essays, having someone else write your exam, the methods go on and on. That was then. Now we have all of that and an abundance of technology aiding the deceitful mind of a cheater.

Cell phones, IPODs, laptops and various other personal electronic devices can store data in a discrete way that is hard to detect without the necessary passwords or knowledge of the apparatus. Many cell phones have access to the internet, the mother load of all information. Also on the internet is easy access to well written essays on every topic imaginable and at every level. You can simply select and buy your essays! If funds are lacking as well as ethics, cutting and pasting written material from the internet is another popular method for composing an essay and claiming it as your own.

It’s difficult for teaching professionals to keep up. Some schools have banned electronic devices from the classroom during any test situation, or to eliminate daily distractions, they are banned everyday. Other institutes ensure no student receives the same exam by randomly positioning questions on each test. This minimizes the possibility of students sending electronic multiple choice answers with ease. Faculty meetings may prove useful for brainstorming, sharing information and technology updates.

In Cheating 101 for Private Schools Robert Kennedy writes http://privateschool.about.com/cs/forteachers/a/cheating.htm   that teachers have a responsibility to ensure lesson plans and assignments have meaning for their students. He believes an engaged student is less likely to cheat because they are enjoying the learning process and understand the bigger picture of the knowledge they are integrating into their life. Parents too, he writes, must lead by example, and also take an interest in what their child is learning. 

Parents have the weighty responsibility of instilling self-esteem and morality in their children. A strong sense of self helps weaken the destructive allure of peer pressure tactics.  Kids are scared of being caught, and don’t want to be caught alone, so as cheaters try and enlist others, temptation is everywhere. When people are caught cheating the repercussions should be enough to dissuade others from trying to “get away with it”. As people approach university entrance, they have a lot to lose and the stakes become considerably higher.

Schools are in a difficult situation. They have to combat cheating, but they also want to produce students with impressive scores, high rates of university acceptance, and ultimately post secondary success. Each establishment of education has to devise plans that best suit their student body and staff capabilities. We need our youth to recognize that they don’t want to cheat themselves out of their own education. Literally.

To the Ends of the Earth, Sedbergh School Welcomes Two Extreme Visitors

Sedbergh students welcomed pilots who literally travelled around the world to meet them. Helicopter pilots Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill, have successfully set a new world record; circumnavigation of the world, with a twist. Jennifer and Colin decided to make their challenge extreme by transiting pole to pole and a piece of Sedbergh (the school’s flag) was with them at the top and bottom of the earth. Their first attempt at this record in 2003, was not successful, both almost lost their lives when they crashed in Antarctica.

In partnership with the Royal Geographical Society, IBG and the Polar First helicopter team (www.polarfirst.com), the Polar First Project and its associated educational programme Passport to the Poles (www.passporttothepoles.org) was designed with students in mind. Classrooms around the world have been following the progress of the pilots, shared information with one another, uploaded information to the interactive web-site and learned about their changing world. Passport to the Poles provided Sedbergh’s grade 7, 8 and 9 students, with the opportunity to continue learning how they are connected to the rest of the world and the impact their lifestyle has on the environment.

On Thursday, May 10, Jennifer and Colin left Bell Trextron heliport (Mirabel, Quebec) at 10:03 a.m. Sedbergh students were in the Valley at 10:20 a.m. listening for the distinctive sound of pulsating rotors.  Six minutes later we could just hear the approaching helicopter.  What proved surprising to most students, there was not an immediate landing; all helicopter pilots are required to fly around non-standard landing sites to ensure it is safe. Right on schedule, the helicopter landed at 10.30 a.m.

Once landed, and introductions made, students swarmed the record breaking vehicle, inside and out. On close inspection, all the way to the tail fin, students were able to read the names of all schools participating in this unique programme. Curiosity and questions took some time to wane before Jennifer and Colin walked up from the Valley into our Great Hall for their PowerPoint presentation.

Magnificent photographs of the Earth’s polar caps and regions in between, were awe-inspiring. Students learned penguins are very curious, outgoing animals, walking right up to the helicopter, and arctic hares are 60 cm nose to tip and almost a metre tall when standing on their hind-legs! Sadly, Jennifer and Colin were also able to see the effects of global warming, it was very present with reduced ice-flows and snow-free polar regions.

With a student population that has girls and boys from 14 different countries, Sedbergh’s school community is truly global. Not only did Sedbergh students learn the importance of perseverance, they were reminded why thinking globally is a rewarding and necessary aspect of their education.  Jennifer and Colin will end their trip at the Bell headquarters in Texas on May 23, 2007.

Joanna A.A. Hoad
Assistant Headmaster, Enrolment Advancement