Heard on the Hill Term 1, Week 8

Learning Environment

Moving towards a Positive Behaviour Support model

During 2020, the staff at BSHS developed a matrix of the positive behaviours we wanted to see across all school contexts.  This Positive Behaviour Matrix was aligned to our school values of Learning, Collaboration, Courage, Diversity and Wellbeing. (see attached)

A Good Standing Policy was also developed by the whole staff, to complement the PBM and enable both recognition for students with excellent behaviour and achievement, as well as provide a mechanism to remove good standing for those who were not demonstrating the expected behaviours.

The Student Services team will use good standing data to identify which students should receive tangible rewards.  Some of this data will be based on the PBM and how well students are demonstrating these behaviours in all school contexts.  Systems to collect this data are currently being explored, as there are some limitations with the use of Academy for this.

CLASSROOM POSTERS

The initial focus for our positive behaviour support model, is on classroom behaviour and our first step is to provide a visual reminder of expected behaviours in each classroom.  These posters have been designed with the BSHS classrooms in mind – long and skinny – to fit between windows or above whiteboards. The content for these posters comes straight from the classroom section of our PBM. Thank you to Ellie Mackay for her work in designing these posters.  Ellie is also currently working on a similar poster to reinforce positive behaviours in our cafeteria (a school context not mentioned as yet in our PBM, as it didn’t exist back then!).

POSITIVE LANGUAGE WHEN ADDRESSING MISBEHAVIOUR

These behaviours should be referenced in conversations with students, especially in recognition of those who are demonstrating these positive behaviours on a regular basis.  By highlighting the positives, we can hopefully prevent misbehaviour.

When misbehaviour does occur, try to frame your response with a reminder of the positive behaviour expected.  For example, if a student calls out and you don’t want them to, you can remind them that “We put our hand up before speaking”.  If you use this instead of the usual “Don’t call out!” it actually communicates the behaviour you do want to see.  Then when they do the expected behaviour, make sure to positively reinforce that – a simple verbal “Thanks for putting your hand up, what would you like to say?”  This approach helps set a more positive tone in your classroom.

This is the start of our school’s move towards a positive behaviour support model.  If you would like someone to come and observe your lessons and give you some more tips on how to be more positive in your interactions, please don’t hesitate to ask your experienced colleagues, curriculum leaders, members of the Coffee Club, and Tina and I.

Excursions

Staff can download a C2G app on their phone to help manage their excursions. The app will show contact and medical details of the students attending an excursion. Attendance can also be done through the app instead of contacting Ann each time, particularly if out or normal school hours.

When managing an excursion it is good practice to push out to all staff a list of potential students attending the excursion. This should be done at least the week before the date of an excursion to minimise the interruption to other classes.

Knowledge of best practice -Instructional Tactics

Think-pair-share

The most classic of instructional tactics to use in a classroom – it’s the first strategy explained to anyone new in the game as it very flexible to use. It is an instructional technique where the teacher stops lecturing and asks their students a question (think), turn to a partner (pair), and discuss their thoughts (share). The positive, other than this being a very simple technique, is:

• It breaks content into bite size bits
• Students are active participants; rather than ‘absorbing’ it makes them verbalise their thoughts and helps process the material covered
• Allows for informal assessment; listening to students talking allows teachers to gauge how well the class as a whole may understand a concept

The think-pair-share can be formalised by providing a template to make students write their responses; improve literacy. The share may also be expanded to share the final response of the pair to the rest of the class. You can vary this strategy in response to the students, the content being covered or as a personal goal for a peer to observe your lesson.

Peer Observations

Over the last two years we have had a number of teachers participate in the Coffee Club. The Coffee Club, brilliantly led by enthusiastic staff, helped lay a foundation for teachers to participate in peer observation. Peer observation helps strengthen teaching as you are in control of what you wish your peer to observe, what type of feedback you want and all done in a safe manner.

Finance Committee

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Something interesting happening in or around your classroom? Having an incursion or excursion this term? Please let me know!

We love to share updates from the school with our community and would like representation from each area of our wonderful school; no matter how big or small.

Please submit stories for our Facebook page via the wufoo link below and include as much information as you can, plus a few images to accompany the article. If you are having trouble with the wufoo form, you can email the information to me directly.(ellie.mackay@education.wa.edu.au)

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