Paul Sjogren - Embedding Round Square - Secondary

How do we ensure character education becomes more than a lesson and instead becomes something students experience, practise and carry with them beyond the school gates?

In this episode of Talking Heads, Principal Paul Sjogren speaks with Head of Secondary Jen Fukushima and Round Square Coordinator Kerry Moyer about how Trinity Anglican School has embedded the Round Square IDEALS into the broader culture of secondary education.

The conversation explores everything from Round Square Heroes of Discovery and RS Discovery framework to service initiatives, student leadership, conferences and international experiences. Rather than treating Round Square as a standalone programme, TAS uses it as a lens through which students can explore compassion, curiosity, integrity and perseverance in their own way.

Transcript

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Welcome back. I'm here with our head of secondary, Miss Jen Fukushima. Good afternoon, Jen.

Jen Fukushima

Good afternoon, Paul.

Paul Sjorgen

I wanted to chat to you about Round Square in secondary and what's the key of embedding Round Square into the culture of secondary.

Jen Fukushima

Okay, well I guess the really good thing is that majority of our students when they come into Year 7, they've already been at primary school with us and so they have some idea of of definitely of what Round Square is and then our goal is sort of like to help those who don't know what Round Square is learn a little bit about it but instead of Round Square being just a standalone club it's more of embedding I guess embedding the ideas of Round Square in lots of different things that we do in the secondary school rather than it just existing as a standalone club so that's probably the biggest thing that we do?

Paul Sjorgen

What are the key areas that incoming Year 7s to Trinity African School explore?

Jen Fukushima

So when they come to us in Year 7, we spend time doing our Cosmos lessons looking at the Discovery Heroes. So the students learn each of the Discovery Heroes and I guess what they represent. And through this, they're also introduced to the round square ideals. And then sort of begin exploring leadership and resilience and service and citizenship. And it's what does it take, for example, to be responsible Rummy? You know, what is self-aware Simba? Who is self-aware Simba? And what can you do to sort of like model yourself on the same kind of character traits as they have?

Paul Sjorgen

So I'm really excited with the framework you're building in the years eight to 10 that you're looking to introduce shortly based on these foundations. Can you talk a little bit about that please?

Jen Fukushima

Yeah, so basically what we did for the character badge framework is we used the four core school values, so compassion, curiosity, integrity and perseverance, and we've made a badge for each of those. So students will, in years eight to 10, will earn I guess a tick inside one of those badges on their way to earning the full badge. If we look at something like compassion, so for example a student might take part in our Brand Square Eat Up program. They might volunteer some time to help our school chaplain do something for some local groups. They might also do something outside school. So we have students that do surf lifesaving, they might volunteer their time there. So those sort of like those three things would sort of add together to build up towards the character badge for compassion.

Paul Sjorgen

I think one of the strengths of your vision for Rand Square is recognising the individual pathways of each student. Can you explain a bit more about that?

Jen Fukushima

Yeah, so I think that I guess leadership and service look different for everyone. There are students that are fantastic in the sport field and they might be, for example, coaching younger students. We've got students that who are, when it comes to curiosity, amazing academics and they're constantly seeking new knowledge. So they're sort of like a way through the character badge framework for each student's strengths to sort of like shine and for them to work towards the school value that sort of best fits them.

Paul Sjorgen

Excellent. So Round Square certainly complements our wellbeing and pastoral framework, but it also ties in with one of your passions, which is building character and our students becoming engaged and valuable members of the community. Can you talk a bit to that, please?

Jen Fukushima

So I think as adults, we always talk about, you know, be a good person and students have both heard that a lot, but what does it actually mean to be a good person? And I'm hoping that through their journey from Seven all the way through, they're looking at these, they're looking at the round square ideals, they're looking at the discovery heroes, they're constantly seeing and hearing character traits that we think, what we know are valuable beyond school. So I'm guessing, I'm hoping that these will provide opportunities for the students to kind of like put character into action rather than it being a lesson. It's more about understanding what it actually means to show compassion or to show perseverance.

Paul Sjorgen

And what is your long-term vision for student graduates from a school like Trinity Anglican School that has embraced Grand Square?

Jen Fukushima

I think it's really important that we set our students up for outside the school gates. So from my perspective, it's that every student that graduates has had an experience at some sort of leadership, some sort of service, adventure, global citizenship in meaningful ways. So they've actually lived or experienced firsthand those different areas and then hopefully that will prepare them to sort of make a positive contribution beyond school.

Paul Sjorgen

Thanks Jen.

Jen Fukushima

Thank you.

Paul Sjorgen

Welcome back everyone. I'm here with Miss Kerry Moyer who's been running the Round Square program at Trinity Anglican School in our secondary space for a number of years. Good afternoon Kerry.

Jen Fukushima

Hello Paul.

Paul Sjorgen

Tell me a little bit about Round Square Big Picture.

Kerry Moyer

Round Square Big Picture here in the secondary school involves a whole range of different activities that encompass or have the ideals beautifully embedded. In terms of our activities, we are involved in conferences. We do international conference every year and look to, whenever possible, participate in conferences with our younger students as well. We have a big focus on environment and service activities. And fundraising is always something that our students like to get involved in. They love a bake sale. They love any opportunity to raise some money. And it excites them to think that they might be making a difference. Excellent.

Paul Sjorgen

How long have you been involved in Rand Square, Kerry?

Kerry Moyer

I was first involved in a conference in 2016, and at that point it was as a teacher accompanying a group to the conference, and I've been around square coordinator since 2017.

Paul Sjorgen

Where was that conference?

Kerry Moyer

Conference was at Scotch College in Perth.

Paul Sjorgen

Excellent. How old were the kids?

Kerry Moyer

Year 8 and 9, so they were probably 13, 14.

Paul Sjorgen

And what excited you most about what they got out of that conference?

Kerry Moyer

They were so excited at the prospect of meeting people, students from other schools. It was quite an international conference in the sense that there were schools from vastly different countries in our region that attended. So the students not only got to meet Australian students from other states, they really did have an international flavour They had enormous opportunities to be involved in a wide range of activities with many other students. The service activities were very, very well organised. There were a lot of on-campus activities. The students just loved it.

Paul Sjorgen

Excellent. One of the things I love about the Round Square program here at TAS is the work you've done developing a service mentality. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Where did that start?

Kerry Moyer

When I first took on the role, there were a couple of service projects that the school had been involved in. We're still involved with Rosie's Friends on the Street, and that's a monthly outreach that our Year 11 and 12 students attend. Small groups there though, because only four students can attend at a time. So I've looked at a range of different avenues, activities to get other students involved. And one that I was very excited to start involved, EATUP. And that came about as a result of being present at a conference in Melbourne several years ago when EATUP was sort of first becoming established. And through the Round Square Network I was asked would we like to be involved in starting something up in Far North Queensland. And since then we do eat up three times a term. We make somewhere in the vicinity of 1500 sandwiches in an hour and a half each time. And it's an activity that particularly AY7 and 8 students absolutely love getting involved in. We have usually a group of about 30 that will make sandwiches instead of doing their normal Wednesday afternoon activities, and they really enjoy it.

Paul Sjorgen

It's amazing, isn't it, that if you give young people the opportunity to engage in service like you have through Round Square, how much they embrace it?

Kerry Moyer

Absolutely, it's heartwarming.

Paul Sjorgen

It is, and you also do a Christmas drive that I think's been--.

Kerry Moyer

Christmas drives have been really, really successful actually, the last two years. We've done Christmas drives in conjunction. It's basically been organised through our chaplain. It was her that started the most recent initiatives or suggested we might be involved. We had a very successful homewares drive two years ago whereby people brought in new and used homewares and that was taken up north up to the Cape. to communities up there. And then last year we did a stationary drive. And again, it was run through the homerooms and that was a very successful service initiative.

Paul Sjorgen

Last question. Favourite venue for an international conference?

Kerry Moyer

Oh, that's difficult. They're all so different. I loved Oxford Uni. That was great fun. And of course, that was just after COVID. The African conferences were amazing. Cape Town was phenomenal. That was my first. international conference.

Paul Sjorgen

I guess we can wrap it up by saying there aren't any that aren't terrific.

Kerry Moyer

No, they're all absolutely wonderful. They're all different. They have their own identities and you experience something different in each of those opportunities.

Paul Sjorgen

Thank you very much for your time, Kerry.

Kerry Moyer

Thank you, Paul.