Developmental Management Improving Behaviour Coolaroo South Primary School Jan Ferguson 2009

Coolaroo South Primary School  Families come from diverse backgrounds and experiences  Refugees  Some Preps come to school without little or no English, not literate in home language and some that don’t speak at all  High SFO.79

Our journey … … … … Ramon Lewis visited CSPS in April.  Observed behaviours in classrooms  Spoke to teachers, students, office staff, parents, school councillors  Met with the leadership team From this day spent with us he made some recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS Increase the emphasis on the idea that the need to protect student and teacher rights (to learning, and emotional and physical safety) is why students should behave appropriately. This may assist in encouraging students to transfer their appropriate behaviour to situations where their classroom teacher is not present (CRT’s or Specialists). Classroom teachers can explain their interest in how their class behaves when they are not present as an assessment of how responsible rather than, obedient, the children are.

RECOMMENDATIONS In general there is a need to provide more visual references to rights, responsibilities, hints etc, in classrooms, corridors and the yard to assist the memory of the more challenging (visual) students. There is the possibility of using more visual and non-verbal hints like bells, claps, whistle, signs, etc.

RECOMMENDATIONS Avoid use of the word ‘rules’. Teachers’ language needs to be more appropriate. They should separate their disapproval of behaviour that fails to respect rights, from the student exhibiting that behaviour (e.g. Ahmed, I like you, but when you push people they could get hurt. If you do it again I will need to send you to ‘time-out’).

RECOMMENDATIONS Some teachers may like to consider using exiting as a form of “time-out, whereby the student is asked to return “when he or she is prepared to act in a responsible/fair/reasonable manner, but not before”. Time out may be followed up with detention exiting (til the end of a given period of time).

RECOMMENDATIONS Provide some recognition to the student who has misbehaved before exiting them from the class. Dependency on rewards should be minimised and should focus on rewarding student effort for personal and communal behavior. One way to do this could be students recognizing other students when they are acting responsible.

RECOMMENDATIONS Try to modify the curriculum offered to challenging students to focus on their interests and competencies, and thereby provide more opportunity for success. It will need to be more relevant, and more visual and/or kinaesthetic.

Rights for students and teachers at Coolaroo South PS Everyone has the right to feel safe. Everyone has the right to feel good about themselves. Everyone has the right to learn.

In our playground Everyone has the right to feel safe. Everyone has the right to feel good about themselves.

...Feel safe...Feel good about themselves... Learn If you don’t feel good about yourself, you won’t be able to do most of the things that you would want to, and things that you would normally do. So just let go and have some fun! Not getting teased or spreading around rumours about your classmates or your friends. Having the right to learn means, everybody is contributing to group work, and letting everybody concentrate by helping them or being quiet.

Curriculum Day Whole staff including ESOs and kindergarten staff participated in half curriculum day in June.  Rated student behaviour  What specific behaviours do we see around the school?  Shared our unpacking of the rights  Looked at readings from Ramon’s book Built guiding principles for a statement about Behaviour management  Developed a draft of a process for managing misbehaviours to trial.

Step 1 – Language of the rights Non verbal hinting. Verbal hinting. … then, if necessary Remind child about the rights. Identify behaviour and impact. eg. “David, when you walk around the room and interrupt Nathan you are distracting him from his learning. Please sit down. Student behaves appropriately. Step 3 - Exits Internal exit - direct child to designated spot. If student refuses to move: eg. “I don’t intend to force you, but if you don’t move then we will need to talk about it at recess/lunchtime.” If student refuses to move and misbehaviour continues, you need to call for back up. … then, if necessary External exit - to another class or admin area, if behaviour continues after student has returned to the group. Student returns and apologises. This should be for a given time, or in some cases when the student has decided they are ready. Step 2 – Reminders and choices Restate and provide warning. eg. “I reminded you about that behaviour. You are affecting others’ right to learn. This is a warning. If you wish to discuss it, we can do so at recess/lunchtime. Please return to your seat.” … then, if necessary Make a choice. eg. “David you have a choice. Either you stop interrupting us and get on with your work, or, you cannot stay with the group. You will need to work over here.” Student re assesses their behaviour and returns to more acceptable behaviour. NB: Record all exits and follow up with student privately. The Process of Managing Behaviour

Visual clues and hints promoting positive behaviour have popped up around the school throughout the year.

Staff discussion What do we do to encourage positive student behaviour?  Points systems, rewards and privileges  Responsibilities, monitors, free time, choice  Praise  Team work  Discussion at the beginning and end of day  Building self image  Showing an interest in their lives, … …  Engaging curriculum

Follow up session about the “process” Much discussion, lots of “feeling” about how well others were managing or not managing the agreed process. All the positives and concerns were recorded. Many of the concerns were timing issues. From these concerns we wrote a “Guidelines” document to assist teachers.

This list of concerns gives us the items for further discussion at staff meetings – one at a time, short and direct. Keeps any ‘personal’ feelings at bay.

This week’s session Unpacked “what to say and do” when sending or receiving a student (exit). Discussed: What are we recording? Who are we exiting? What about in specialist classes? Behaviour process for the yard.

Where to now? Lots of clarifying still to come:  Readings – how to follow up with exited students… what to say  Records of exits  Communal right protection  Engaging curriculum  Developing relationships

 Long journey, small steps  Often gets worse before it gets better  Between classroom differences  New staff in 2010 – inductions, processes to start from day one – consistency

Everyone on board to improve the school culture.  Way we all talk about and to our kids in our school, promote the adult-to-adult talk with them, care for them unconditionally, have faith in them,  Curriculum we provide for our students  Partnerships we encourage with their families