Providing a supportive school environment to learn through:
Cooperation
Contributing to a positive school tone/image.
Understanding that with rights come responsibilities.
Accepting consequences when the Code is broken.
Care
Consideration
Showing respect.
Tolerating others.
Common sense
Basic notions of effective management
At Chatswood Hills State School there is a responsible behaviour plan. The behaviour management policy is founded on four basic notions for effective student behaviour management. They are:
Students learn best in learning environments that are success oriented (belonging and relevance).
Students undergo an "apprenticeship in democracy" while at school. (rights and responsibilities).
Managing students is most effective when done in partnership with parents and with all school adults. (partnership).
Managing students' irresponsible behaviour must include planned disciplinary actions that increase every student's opportunity to succeed and maintain a safe, orderly learning environment. (planned discipline).
In order to provide an educational environment where teachers, students and parents can work and interact in a secure, supportive and cooperative environment, certain rights and responsibilities need to be put in place. Rights can only be enjoyed when in partnership with responsibilities.
Children have the right to learn.
Teachers have the right to teach.
Parents have the right to participate in our school.
Self management is about enabling students to change inappropriate behaviours by themselves, or establishing new skills in their repertoire. Students learn that there won't always be someone around to give feedback and/or reinforcement for appropriate behaviours, so they must do this for themselves. This involves students taking responsibility for themselves and learning self management skills. Self discipline is actively promoted school wide.
Through combining positive feedback for appropriate behaviour and negative consequences for inappropriate behaviour, teachers can clearly establish the parameters of the behaviour they expect. The more teachers utilise praise and support to influence behaviour, the better children will feel about themselves. In order for teachers' positive responses to be meaningful, they need to be:
responses teachers are comfortable with
something the child wants and enjoys
provided as soon as possible after appropriate behaviour
provided as often as possible
planned in advance.
The school acknowledges that sometimes, planned management is required to protect the rights of students to learn and teachers to teach. To protect these rights, specific classroom, playground and beyond classroom management strategies are at times necessary. The school's phases of behaviour are determined by teachers at phases one and two, and by either the principal or deputy principal at the higher phases. Consequences at the higher phases are determined by school administration.
At Chatswood Hills State School we are opposed to the notion of labelling a child on the basis of an arbitrary definition of behaviour. For this reason, the school does not ascribe behaviour levels or ratings to students. The system used by the school is descriptive of the number of people involved in the management of each student. For example: a child who manages his/her own behaviour without needing to be redirected by another, is said to be operating at phase one. That is, they are self managing. This progresses to phase five.
The Chatswood Hills Student Code of Conduct.pdf is the document used to support behaviour.