1. Behaviour Management at ENPS
Self-discipline is an important part of a child’s learning at school.
Children need to learn appropriate boundaries.
Assertive Discipline model – teachers have the right to teach without interruption to student learning.
Graded consequences – increasing at each stage.
The aim is to assist students to take responsibility for their behaviour.

2. In the Playground
Sometimes issues occur at recesses and/or lunchtimes.
At times, all children will make poor choices.
Sometimes, their behaviour may result in another child being hurt.
Many children will accept responsibility for their behaviour and the consequence that is imposed.

3. Accepting Responsibility
Some children have difficulty accepting responsibility for their choices. They may:
Try to justify their actions,
Try to downplay their involvement, or
Exaggerate their own injuries if they were also hurt.

4. Avoiding responsibility
Why?
Because accepting responsibility can be difficult!
Maybe they don’t want to get into trouble!
Maybe they’re still really angry with the other person!
Sometimes parents can become quite upset themselves about what has happened.

5. Investigating incidents
Be aware that you will have heard one side of the story.
We talk to each child involved, including witnesses, before deciding on a course of action.
For serious incidents, the parents of the children involved are informed.
For privacy reasons, we are not able to give details of consequences that are imposed on other children.

6. Repeat Offenders
If a child continues to engage in unacceptable behaviour in the playground, we communicate with the child’s parents to understand:
the child’s circumstances and reasons for their behaviour.
Repeat offenders may experience:
removal from or restricted access to the yard,
additional supervision in the playground,
loss of privileges
suspension.

7. A recommended problem-solving strategy
The following strategy helps develop resilience, empathy and problem-solving skills.
Acknowledge your child’s feelings / distress.
Attempt to see the situation from the other child’s perspective to understand why they may have responded as they did.
Problem-solve together - what could you do next time?
If it’s serious, notify the classroom teacher and allow them to follow up.

8. Escalating an Issue Concerns should be directed (in order) to:
Classroom teacher
Class Teacher and Unit Leader
Assistant Principal or Principal
Department of Education