At Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School
We are RESPECTFUL
We are RESILIENT
We are RESPONSIBLE
At OLSH, we have a consistent whole school approach to behaviour support, individualised to align with our Catholic Identity and our school values of respect, resilience and responsibility. Our behaviour support process is based on Restorative Practices, which proactively build healthy relationships between all members of our school community and create a safe, nurturing and supportive culture. The purpose of our practices is to foster social and emotional well-being for all and to create a culture of positive behaviour.
Implementing restorative practice with a whole school approach promotes a culture in our school community where:
- Staff model the school values in their teaching practice and in the way that they interact with all students.
- Restorative conversations are used by all staff to guide student’s attitudes, beliefs and interpersonal and social/emotional skills
- Support is provided to students to develop and demonstrate expected behaviours and is tailored to meet their individual needs.
- Students understand that all actions have natural consequences, are responsible for their actions and have a role in restoring relationships.
- The school recognises the importance of partnering with families to support students with their behaviour.
Restorative conversations are based on the following format, however it is important that the conversation is natural and the conversation is tailored to guide and support those involved.
What happened?
Go back to the beginning and tell me what happened?
What were you thinking?
What did you want to happen? What was going on for you?
Who has been affected?
What do you think it’s been like for …. Who else might have been affected?
What did you think when it happened?
Negotiating a solution
Where to from here?
Test for acceptability
Would that work? Do you want me to check in with you?
Values & Expectations
DIGNITY - LOVE - FREEDOM - FORGIVENESS - TRUST
Respectful
Self
- We use positive self talk and a growth mindset
- We are self reflective
- We represent the school with pride
Others
- We respect other students’ right to learn and the teacher’s right to teach
- We value differences and respect others cultures and beliefs, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- We actively listen and follow instructions
- We allow others their personal space
- We are honest and respectful
Environment
- We take care of our school and equipment
- We are mindful of how our actions impact the environment
SELF DISCIPLINE - SELF AWARENESS - TRUST
Resilient
- We ask for help when we need it
- We are truthful even when it is difficult
- We persevere, even when tasks are challenging
- We learn from our mistakes
SELF DISCIPLINE - SELF AWARENESS - FORGIVENESS
Responsible
- We participate with positivity
- We follow the school rules
- We strive to be our best
- We wear our school uniform with pride
- We are organised and ready for learning
Responding to Behaviours
At OLSH, we provide supportive strategies, routines, and environments to maximise each student’s potential for success.
- Offer a verbal reminder about the expected behaviour.
- Position yourself within proximity of the student and the behaviour – making sure the student knows you see the behaviour.
- Identify what’s driving the behaviour, re-teach the expected behaviour and remind students of their strategies they can use.
- Attend to the unmet need and praise attempts at self regulation.
- Discreetly explain to the student the behaviour and the impact. Check if the student understands and seek acknowledgment of the behaviour.
- Offer the student a chance to use a strategy to get back on track.
- If behaviour continues, the student spends time in a quiet space with another person (if applicable) to reflect and regulate.
- The teacher supports the student to re-engage with the lesson/activity.
- Engage with Restorative Practice strategies to repair the relationship if necessary in a timely manner.
- Incident note to be documented detailing time out of the classroom.
- If all above steps are followed, call for leadership support.
- Leadership intervenes to support students to regulate and/or modify behaviours.
- If a student is unable to regulate, parent support is sought by leadership.
- Once the child has returned to the classroom, a discussion about expected behaviours is held, and a decision is made on which type of restorative meeting will be used to restore the relationship:
- Leadership replaces teacher for student and teacher to have a restorative conversation OR
- Leadership conducts restorative conversation with other impacted students OR
- Leadership conducts restorative conversation between teacher and student OR
- Leadership determines the immediate course of action and applies appropriate outcomes related to the behaviour.
- Outcome is determined through a restorative practice model and communicated with all parties.
- Student re-engages and is welcomed back into the classroom by their teacher and leadership member.
- Student has fresh start on re-entry.
- Physical aggression e.g. pushing and hitting others
- Continuous aggressive actions towards staff or peers e.g. verbal abuse (swearing or threatening) or intimidating
- Bringing inappropriate/ dangerous items to school
- Stealing
- Offensive and insulting language towards race, religion, gender, disability, or sexual orientation, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Repeated bullying towards a peer or staff member
- Throwing an object with intent to cause damage (person or property)
- Vandalism of property (school and of others)
- Meeting with student and parents (could include Principal, classroom teacher, Learning Support Officer, Learning Diversity Leader)
- Development and implementation of a Behaviour Support Plan (including the option of in-school or external suspension)
- Review of Behaviour Support Plan after 3 weeks - if the plan is going well, continue to monitor reinforced expected behaviours
- If the plan is not successful, move to the steps outlined in the ‘ DOBCEL Student Suspension and Negotiated Transfer and Expulsion Procedures’ policy