From Murray’s Bay, on Auckland’s North Shore, what do you see? Rangitoto! The cone shaped island stretches to 260 meters at its highest peak and lounges majestically off shore, quietly dominating the sprawling Hauraki Gulf. It dwarfs the little boats and yachts that bob about in the Gulf ’s waters and nurtures the largest pōhutukawa forest in the world. Rangitoto also has over 200 species of other trees and flowers and was declared officially pest free by the Department of Conservation in 2011, clearing the way for it to become a bird sanctuary in the future. The tranquillity and beauty of its present disposition belies its ancient history of violent and repeated eruptions and geologists do not rule out the possibility of future eruptions at least within its volcanic field because at its very core it is, after all, a volcano and can’t ever be anything else. Murray’s Bay’s primary school also commands a very important position in the affluent Rangitoto dominated neighbourhood. The school has many beautiful features and boasts expansive
park like grounds, some of which it shares with the neighbouring intermediate school, but like Rangitoto, it has a past that was also dominated by violent acts . . . of vandalism. Unlike Rangitoto, that can’t change its volcanic nature, Murray’s Bay School, with a growing roll of over 600 children, could change its fortunes, if only it knew how. For some years the Board and staff searched for a solution to eradicate the vandalism that was defacing the school on a regular basis. Inspired by the challenge, senior staff member Fleur Knight started researching. Her instincts told her that much of the school’s intentional damage was possibly executed by former students who were bored and seeking thrills. They were also taking advantage of the sheltered position of the school to perform their vandalistic deeds without fear of being seen. ‘The swimming pool was a prime target,’ she said, ‘I couldn’t count how many times the pool cover was slashed or stolen and they would throw paint into the water and splash it all over the walls’, said Fleur.
Principal Katherine Pascoe and senior teacher Fleur Knight show off the very delicate mosaic bees and butterflies that adorn one of the school’s flower gardens
The Wassily Kandinsky inspired concentric circles embellish the tree silhouette painting on the back boundary fence
It wasn’t only the swimming pool that copped the vandals’ attention. ‘We would find smashed windows, broken toilet cisterns and they also tried to light fires,’ she said. Fleur believed that if only those former students had felt a bit more connected to the school and had a stronger sense of ownership for it, this would not be happening. She located studies that supported her beliefs and demonstrated that where a person feels a sense of ownership over something they are much more likely to take responsibility for it, respect and look after it. That said she was still missing that critical link of cause and effect. Further research led her to a model of crime prevention developed by American criminologist C. Ray Jeffery called ‘Crime Prevention through Environmental Design’ (CPTED). It is based on several principles as follows. 1. Natural surveillance, referring to people being present who can see what is going on. 2. Managed access, knowing where you can and can’t be through signage and taking security measures including invisibly marking assets and publicising that you have done so. 3. Territorial reinforcement, referring to well defined boundaries, naming buildings, providing a site map and having clear signage for directions to different areas. 4. Quality environments, where grounds and buildings are well maintained and look attractive. 5. Cohesion, meaning participation and responsibility are encouraged. 6. Connectivity implying strong community bonds.
7. Culture or shared sense of place and history. 8. Capacity so that any growth progresses in a balanced way. The Australian Police had applied these principles of crime prevention for some 40 years. They developed CPTED as a proactive, collaborative approach to modify the physical and social environment with a view to reducing crime and the fear of crime. Through using these principles across many settings over many years, they established that there is indeed a causal link between applying CPTED principles and reducing vandalism. Fleur Knight knew that somewhere amidst those principles there was a solution to the persistent vandalism occurring at Murray’s Bay School. The first step was to connect the CPTED principles to the school environment, the students and the school curriculum. ‘I could see that an adaptation of CPTED could fit into the social sciences strand of our curriculum,’ said Fleur, ‘because social sciences cover place, the environment, belonging, change and continuity,’ she said. ‘What needed to change was the way young people think, feel and act in our school grounds. Somehow I needed to take the Police programme and the New Zealand Curriculum and marry them up,’ she said. ‘Through the social sciences curriculum, we involved our senior children in discussions about the first four principles of CPTED in a language that they could understand whilst not dumbing down the ideas,’ said Fleur. They talked about territorial enforcement or making clear delineations between the public and private spaces. They
The CPTED principles recommend that all schools display a site map in a prominent place
discussed how natural surveillance – people both inside the school and outside of it seeing what is going on in the grounds – makes everyone feel safer. They also talked about how making the surroundings more attractive makes children and staff feel proud of their school and if they feel proud then they would want other people to feel proud too. The next step was to do a full assessment (audit) of the swimming pool area, the most targeted area of the school. This activity involved the years five and six children so that the solution would also incorporate the children’s ideas. Together Fleur and the year five children agreed that painting the outside wall of the pool area (which backs on to the car park) in a single block of white would provide a divide between the private space of the pool and the public space of the car park. It would also provide the perfect background ‘to hang’ brightly coloured pictures. ‘The children had this idea of turning the wall into an ‘art exhibition’ area,’ said Fleur. ‘They even wanted wooden frames around the pictures so that they looked like paintings hanging in an art gallery!’ she said. Using the ‘appreciation of natural environment’ component of the curriculum, and through observation of their immediate surrounds, they chose native birds, trees and flowers to be the subjects of their art work. As the children had requested the art works were framed and accordingly hung to beautify the full length of the wall. Secondly, they felt that the walls inside the pool gate should also be worked on. This time it was the turn of the year two children to have their say. The younger children created ‘port
hole’ shaped paintings depicting sea creatures. The results were transformational. On driving into the school car park, the eye is automatically drawn to the outer swimming pool wall and its outstandingly colourful display of art works. The scene creates a very warm welcome to any school visitor. It creates the feeling of walking into a lounge room, rather than a car park. This phase of the project set the scene for future development and it wasn’t long before the rest of the school was involved. As more classes became involved it created a sense of coherence with the children working together as a community. Involving children of all year levels is like future-proofing the project. ‘We will have our year two children for another four years,’ says Fleur, ‘and they in turn will influence the new children coming in.’ There is no better way to brighten and beautify a school than through carefully designed art work created by the children. Comprehensive audits were undertaken by the children in different areas of the school and the answer to many of the issues raised was to create more colour and art works. Before long there were planter boxes adorned with native birds, mosaic butterflies and bees, created by the juniors and strategically placed about the smaller school gardens. Murals were created for the outside of buildings such as ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ mural which adorns the outer entrance wall of the school library. The school’s back entrance was not forgotten either, nor the back boundary fence. In fact it has turned out to be one of the most interesting corners of the school, from the kaleidoscope of painted birds adorning the back gate to the Wassily Kandinsky inspired concentric circles embellishing another painting on
The children were inspired by the local native flora and birdlife for beautifying the school’s boundary fence
Year two children created the ‘port hole’ painting concept to beautify the inside area of the school swimming pool
the back fence. In deference to the growing Asian population of the school a Fen Shui garden is now planned for this corner, centred on an aging oak tree. This too is being designed by the children who have been researching what plants will grow best in our environment. ‘In this way our children are also bringing the Science curriculum into play,’ says Fleur. The rate of vandalism at Murray’s Bay School began to reduce quite quickly as the CPTED principles were applied, and in turn this meant a new focus for the school caretaker. ‘Our school caretaker used to spend most of his time cleaning up tagging and other acts of vandalism,’ said Fleur, ‘but now his work is completely different and involves working with the children on projects,’ she said. The latest project for the caretaker is creating a Taniwha for the playground. ‘The children did the research and decided that a Taniwha would be a really good addition because it would protect the school,’ said Fleur. ‘They chose a location which is very central so that the Taniwha has full view of the playground and all the buildings,’ she said. Word about the children’s work soon got out into the community and first to respond was a student attending art
school. ‘This student offered to share his artistic talents and knowledge with the children and has been instrumental in the development of some of our art works, especially the three dimensional works,’ said Fleur. Further expansion opportunities arose when the children were invited by the local Council to audit Constellation and Sunnynook busway stations. ‘The children conducted the audits and presented a report with recommendations to the Council,’ said Fleur proudly. ‘One of their observations was the seven cm. gap under the doors, allowing fireworks or lit cigarettes or some other form of fire bomb to be thrown under the door,’ she said, ‘so they recommended that different doors be installed.’ The bus stations were also areas that suffered frequent tagging. ‘One thing taggers tend not to do is to tag other peoples’ artwork,’ says Fleur. ‘After completing their audit the children decided that the bus stations needed art work that related to the community so that the people would feel connection to them,’ she said. The next step was to advertise for professional artists to create works for the bus stations. ‘The children wrote advertisements which they put up in the local supermarkets and soon had responses,’ said Fleur. ‘More than that the business community got wind of the children’s intentions and came in behind them providing free paint and materials and we had an ‘art in the carpark’ day at the school, for local artists to create their art works for the bus stations,’ she said. The bus stations are not the only authentic project the children have worked on. ‘The Starship Hospital also approached us to see what the children could do about their heart treatment room,’ said Fleur. Children in the heart treatment room have usually gone through or are about to go through intense trauma. ‘What they needed was distraction,’ said Fleur. Again the children visited and conducted an audit. They interacted with the children in the heart treatment room and carefully observed, trying to deduce what would be the best solution to help the children feel calmer and safer. ‘They came up with a ‘distraction mural’ and 3D hanging fish,’ said Fleur, ‘because they recognised that some of the children had to lie flat staring at the ceiling and they had nothing to look at,’ she said. This was a new challenge for the children who had to design the 3D fish so that they were light enough to hang from the ceiling and could be wiped down easily. ‘Very quickly the children learned that they have to be
The back entrance is not forgotten
The Taniwha begins to take shape
Driving into the school car park is a bit like driving into an art gallery
adaptable with their art and what suits one situation may not suit another,’ said Fleur. More projects are piling up and the children relish these opportunities to apply their new skills to serve their communities. ‘Next in line is an audit of a retirement village,’ says Fleur, ‘to help the elderly residents to feel safer, better connected with each other and enjoying a higher quality of life.’ It’s a tall order, but so skilled are these children now in conducting their audits to identify the underlying problems, I doubt this assignment will daunt them for long. Acting principal, Katherine Pascoe is full of praise for the work Fleur is leading not just within the school but out in the
community as well. ‘What we are achieving here is not just protection for our own school,’ she said. ‘We are also growing and developing excellent young citizens to lead the next generation. These children are growing up with a strong sense of community and caring about others. That’s what makes me so proud of this work,’ she said. As I get up to leave, Katherine says, ‘Oh by the way, incidences of vandalism at our school for 2015 are zero.’ Unlike the scientists’ uncertainty about the future volcanic behaviour of Rangitoto Island, Murray’s Bay School can now confidently predict they have worked out how to quell the eruptions of vandalism at their school.
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