1. Serious emotional or behavioral problems;
2. Family distress e.g. single parent or child abuse;
3. Peer group distress from outside school e.g. triads;
4. Professional needs;
5. Students who actively ask for help

Steps for referral cases:

1. Homeroom teacher understands and handles the case first.
2. Homeroom teacher observes the situation of the client to see if the student’s situation continues to worsen.
3. Homeroom teacher will transfer the case to the Disciple Committee, Guidance Committee, Career Committee or social worker.
4. Lastly, the social worker will refer the case to another professional department if necessary and with the approval of the headmaster.

On-site conversations:

There are about 850 students in the school. After I had contacted students of different forms, I felt that students from different forms had different needs. Firstly, I found that Forms 1 students often stayed in school to have their lunch and they had nearly 45 minutes of free time after lunch. They were very active and talkative to contact us as they were used to having different social work students placed in the school over a continuous period of time. They liked to spend their time in the guidance room (social workers’ room). They said that they needed to join at least one activity in school. But sometimes, they did not like to join the activity after they had tried the first session. It was because they liked to join some other activities that would allow them to have contact with agencies or departments outside of the school. They also felt it was difficult to handle the time and study after school. For example, how they could choose when the two activities they had joined clashed in meeting time?

Secondly, many Form 2 female students mostly had two distresses. Several of them told me that they were worried about their body shape and weight. One student said that she was being teased and isolated by her classmates because of her fat appearance. She said that was why she wanted to talk with the social worker and us during the recess period and after school. From my point of view, she was shy to talk with others and disliked to be made fun of by her classmates. I found that she had a habit of always eating snacks to replace her lunch. I have also found that many students face difficulty on their interaction with the opposite sex. They have asked me about love. They felt embarrassed to share this feeling with the others. For example, they were very sensitive towards communicating with the opposite sex

Thirdly, I had an opportunity to contact some Form 6 students. They said that they did not have pressure on their academic performance for the moment. It was because the school provided a "total person" development. They could join many different subject or interest clubs and activities, such as Student Union, House Committee, Discipline etc. They told me that there was less opportunity to contact or help the lower form students. They also had less chance to be volunteers neither at school nor outside school. It was because there were few programs that provide opportunities to share their experience to the lower forms’ students not even the study experience.

Evaluative feedback:

Apart from the students getting more merits and higher grades in their final report from participating in the other activities, it also acts as a good method to encourage the students to develop other aspects other than their academic work. It increases the value of extra-curricular activities in school. Participation in the activity is one aspect of their school performance.

After I had contacted the students. I felt they desired to talk with us. We could not have individual counseling with all of them. Therefore I hope to increase our contact and interaction through the use of group activities. In addition, I felt pleasure in the initial contact with higher-form students. It was because they had a positive attitude when interacting with us. They also shared their school experience with us and helped us to know more above the school setting. Furthermore, the lower-form students were also active to talk with us, and to share their happy and unhappy experiences with us. Overall, I felt a warm atmosphere in this school setting due to the nice students.

1. Homeroom teachers provide the first line of support to students. How they frame a student’s problem will determine which path to take - guidance or discipline. It implies that they would have good ideas of what guidance work is and how guidance teachers and school social workers help students.
2. What do you think about the caseload? Is it heavy for a school social worker to handle the caseload? Thirty-four is a year-round figure. What is the average caseload at any time during the school year? Talk to the school social worker to find out her caseload and how she manages it.
3. Junior form students are more accessible because they take the initiative to drop in. Indeed, they like to spend their time hanging out in your office. What is good about talking to school social workers to these junior form students?
4. As for senior form students, how can the school social worker have access to them? Please ask the school social worker.
5. Given your impression - that body image and heterosexual relationship are things important in their school life - would you consider doing something about it?
6. I would find it desirable to plan something on volunteering and ‘leadership’ for senior form students.

(3) Observation Study Report

Introduction

In the following, I will discuss about how the teachers and social worker carry out their duties. I will also discuss how the students feel towards the school.

Roles of teacher:

I can see that the teachers have many roles in the school. In this particular school, they have a Year Master Meeting to discuss the students’ behavior. The teachers and the school social worker will come together to discuss the misbehaviours of the students. The teachers have more contact with the students during class. They can also have more background information of the students, such as if their parents were divorce, the student’s emotional state or distress, their poor communication skills, etc. In addition, the school social worker can share the emotional status of the student’s development. After the discussion in the Year Master Meeting, the teachers can voice out the student’s situation and make referral to the school social worker.

Roles of school social worker:

In the school, it is rather common for the students to look up the school social worker. Since the school has regular social work students on placement there, it can provide much times for the students to contact the placement workers. Besides, the school social worker and student social workers need to handle individual counseling cases at school; they also organize different group activities and mass programs for the students. The students can share their needs and difficulties to the workers through these services. The students can also find the workers during their recess, lunch or after school hours.

I find that, the relationship between the school social worker and the students are quite good, especially for the junior form students. It is because the school social worker mostly organizes activities for them. On the other hand, I did not have a lot of opportunities to observe the interaction between the senior form students and the school social worker.

Cooperation with others:

Sometimes, the teachers may get the help of the police if necessary. For example, some students may meet with undesirable peers outside of the school. In the previous discipline meeting, the school invited the police to deal with a case with regards to a student who sold illegal CDs in the school. The vice-principle told me that the triad activities were not serious in the school. Actually, the discipline teacher told me that triad activity hardly happened in this school and if it did, it was only limited to a few students.

The school also has a Parent-Teacher Committee in the school. It provides a channel for the parents to voice out their concerns. It also increases the opportunity for the interaction between parents and teachers. During their regular meetings, the parents can reflect their feelings about the school administration and also their worries. The teacher can also provide the information that the parents are concerned about. For example, the report on the statistics for the results of the public examination

There are some community programs linkages of this school, such as the Community Youth Club, Girl Guides, and Boy Scouts. They will have regular meetings for the students who join these groups. However, these groups do not have as many as members as compared to the other activities. I had asked some students’ feedback on their experiences of joining these groups and they said that sometimes it was boring. For example, they needed to practice their drill twice a week for two hours. They thought that it was too harsh and time consuming for them.

The students had also told me that they liked to join activities that could allow them to engage with organizations or people outside of school. They enjoy to have activities outside the school.

Evaluative feedback:

I can observe that this school provides many preventive and educationally oriented activities for the students. There are different kinds of topics and target groups. This school also focuses on "total person" development for the students especially in the area of moral education. Therefore it provides an LED lesson for students per week. During these lessons, they will provide different programs for students and may also have invited guest speakers to give talks. It can provide more chance for the students to know more about the society. It also helps the students to know that apart from acquiring knowledge from books, they can also learn from others.

In addition, many students do approach the school social worker to talk about their difficulty experienced in interpersonal contacts. Although the worker did conduct many treatment groups for them, there were still many students who seek for help. It seems such difficulties encountered is part of the developmental tasks for the adolescence.

I had asked some residents who live near this school about the image of the students. They told me that they had a better impression of the senior form students rather than the junior form students. It was because they felt the junior form students created disturbance during lunchtime. For example, some residents told me that they saw some junior form students laughing loudly in the restaurant. However I did not see this situation when I went to the restaurant. Therefore, I believed that the misbehaving students were the minority group in junior forms.

(4) Community Study Report

In the following, I will try to discuss the profile of the community that the school is in.

Socio-demographic data:

There are six secondary schools in the X district and the X School is one of the six schools. It has 850 students. They are between 12 to 20 years old. They mostly live in the nearby estates and villages in the X district as such most students have similar financial background and living condition.

Community Environment:

There are nine centers in the vicinity of the school that provide youth services to the school. Several of them are closely linked and will join together to organize the activities for the students. There are also many facilities located there, for example, the X Sport Center and the X Indoor Recreation Center.

Since they are very near to the school, the students can use this facilities quite conveniently. It is good for the students since they can interact with students from different schools. It can extend their interpersonal relationship. It is also an effective way to use the community resources. It is because it can avoid repeating the services in the common target groups.

How the service users assess the service:

The students can know the school services through different ways. For example, they have morning assembly on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday before the classroom teacher begins her lesson. The teacher will promote and introduce the school activities. It also provides a time for the teacher to present the prizes for students who have good performance. It can enhance the student’s positive image and encourage them to take part in activities.

Another method for the students to join the activities is through the teachers’ direct invitation to targeted students. It means that the teacher will invite some students to join the activities when they feel that the students need or will benefit from participating in the activities. However it is not a good method because the students may show negative response during the activity. It may also be difficult to handle the discipline of the students during these sessions. (Comment: The placement student can be clearer in her point by discussing why she thinks the students who join an activity through this channel may react negatively or be ill-disciplined during the activity. What are her assumptions of these students? The referral method has been in use in social work practice, particularly when the social worker wants to target at a specific individual, family, group or community. Is it necessary to assume that referred clients will naturally be resistant? Is there a difference between referred and involuntary clients? Even if the social worker encounters some form of resistance, does it necessarily make it `not a good method’ for recruitment?)

The last method is by posting posters on the notice boards. The students can get the information and know the contents of different activities from these posters. They can then apply to join these activities.

Evaluative feedback:

Since this school cooperates with several nearby centers, the school can effectively use the resources. It also encourages a mutual help method for the students to face difficulties. It is a commonly used skill in social work. In addition, it provides an opportunity for the students from different schools to interact with each other. It can develop their interpersonal skill, which is useful for their future.

According to the Report on The Review of School Social Work Service, the objective of school social work service is to identify and help students whose academic, social and emotional development is at risk. It seeks to assist them to solve their personal problems and to make maximum use of their educational opportunities and prepare them for adulthood. Besides, the organization of groups, the school social worker also needs to do counseling for the needed students. The school social worker can use the time more effectively, due to the cooperation with several social service centers. They can jointly provide some programs and activities for the students during the holiday, so that it can avoid the time clash with the school activities. For example, some mass program and visit can be organized on weekends.

Written and revised by: 70144153(student)

Instructor: W M Kwong

Copy Edited by: Phyllis Chee

Commented by: W M Kwong & Phyllis Chee

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