Policies and Procedures

Classroom Behaviour Management Procedures

Setting Up a Positive Classroom Environment is at the heart of any good behaviour management system

Building Positive Relationships

The first part of this is about building relationships, especially with new students, getting to know what makes them tick, what motivates them and also what pushes their buttons so you can be proactive when supporting them. The time at the start of the day is where you gauge the moods of children or check in on those who may have had a rough start to the day. This is why we have the expectation about teachers being in their classroom at 8:30 so that they can set up children for the day.

What about the late comers - this can be frustrating - however they may not be late by any reason they can control - welcome them in and take some time to connect with them during your next transition.

Developing Your Class Expectations and Treaty

The best systems are owned by the people within them - this is true of the classroom so develop expectations with the students is important - this can lead them to the expectations the teacher wants to focus on through your conversations but also letting the students know that you value their ideas.

Questions a teacher might want to ask to develop shared expectations

What do you need to do if you want to be respected?

You could also talk with about how it feels when people are not respected

What do we need to do to be actively involved in class?

What do we need to do to show excellence in class?

What do we need to do to show nurture in class?

The ideas discussed are then used to develop or refine the class treaty.

T Charts are good to use to develop what these look like and sound like and then be displayed in the classroom.

Once the class treaty is set please create a display, look at them regularly with your students so they become embedded and have it visible in your classroom, share it with your parents.

In some classes the teacher may choose to use incentives such as sticker charts etc - to reinforce the positive behaviours you want to see in the children.

If teachers are dealing with challenging behaviours the class treaty can also be a good place to start

Using proximal praise for the children displaying the desired behaviours can often turn a behaviour around.

If this doesn’t then class teachers will develop procedures to support their learners - a good system that we recommend is outlined below - but any system needs to be adapted to the teacher and students so may look different in different classes?

If the behaviour still persists or the behaviour is serious then the senior leadership team will support we also bring in the support of agencies such as RTLB (Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour, Ministry of Education Learning Support, CDC (Child Development Centre) or ICAMHS (Infant Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. We can also support parents to access counselling services through either Overdale Community Centre in Putaruru or Starfish in Matamata.

This system should be displayed in the classroom when needed but in a way that ensures that the mana and privacy of students is maintained, so that it is clear for the learners and it needs to be administered consistently. Below is an example of how this might be displayed in classes.

Supporting Playground Behaviour

We aim to use restorative practices when dealing with playground incidents

In the first instance we are trying to empower our students to be proactive to deal with behaviours they encounter by communicating “Please stop it I don’t like it” this will often see an end to minor situations but if they need support they will seek the help of the duty teacher, who may support them to communicate their feelings to the other student. If it is deemed to be more serious or if the duty feels a restorative conversation is necessary then the process below is followed.

Minor incidents are dealt with by the duty teacher at the time using restorative conversations with the student and victim

• Supporting children in the playground: Here are the questions to use in the playground to help when dealing with issues.

ö What was happening?

ö What were you thinking about at the time?

ö Who was affected by what was happening?

ö What do you need to do to make things right?

ö What needs to happen to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?

ö What can I do to help?

• You don’t need to ask all of them - the three important ones are in bold and should be asked of all children involved.

• The duty teacher will either record the incident on the appropriate form for adding to edge or let the classroom teacher know for recording in notes - this is dependent on the behaviour and how the situation is resolved. We have introduced playground notebooks to track behaviours.

• We discuss behaviour incidents at every staff meeting so that we can identify patterns, make sure all staff are aware and discuss strategies to support the child.

• If a child is being monitored, the classroom teacher and Deputy Principal are informed of incidents so that appropriate data is kept and steps are put in place.

• If needed, SLT are brought in to support if needed.

• In cases of major playground incidents - SLT will investigate by talking to all parties involved and appropriate actions will be taken. These may include:

  • Time out of the playground

  • Walking with the duty teacher

  • Restorative Conference

  • Contacting Parents