High Expectations at Hackham East Primary School

‘High Expectations,’ is a phrase that we use frequently at Hackham East Primary School. It is more than a phrase though, it is a foundational expectation that is embedded in many ways across our school.

High Expectations in Play

At our school students are encouraged to build cubbies, are allowed to ride their scooters and bikes and certain trees are designated to be safe for tree climbing. All of these activities encourage creativity, problem solving, challenging their physical capabilities and also collaboration. 

In these activities students are expected to display high expectations in how they are safe towards others and themselves, and to make strong choices that show their thinking is in control and they are being considerate of others in their play. An example of this is students learning to negotiate and collaborate with the sticks used for cubby building. Students learn how to do this in appropriate ways and that it is not OK to go and take sticks from a cubby that another group have spent a lot of time building.

High Expectations in Learning 

We talk to our students about having a ‘Growth Mindset’ and strategies they can use when they are in the ‘Learning Pit.’  If students talk about learning being too hard we remind them of our high expectations and that if learning is always easy you are not learning and our job is to have high expectations to help with learning and to then scaffold with strategies to support them to get there.

Staff plan with high expectations in mind. Different groups of students may be working on different learning tasks at any one time with the goal being to extend and challenge all of our learners from where they are with their learning development. Teachers will often provide an extension or as we sometimes call it ‘a spicy challenge’ for children to attempt to challenge themselves with high expectations for learning.

High Expectations in Behaviour 

Our School Values are well known to all of our students. Along with these we frequently talk about ‘high expectations’ for behaviours to ensure students understand what these are.

An example of this is within our value of Friendliness. We have high expectations about how students show Friendliness eg. Sharing materials, asking others to play, helping someone when they are hurt etc.

Along with our ‘high expectations’ of behaviour we have ongoing conversations with students and classes about what are our zero tolerance behaviours. These include acts of violence towards others and targeted bullying of others. These are followed up immediately by teachers and parents/carers are contacted to discuss. This helps all of us to have the same high expectations for what is acceptable in our school behaviour code and for consistency in follow up.

We also encourage high expectations through personal responsibility and self-management. Simple things like students carrying their bag and being responsible for getting their diary signed are examples of this in action to build these habits.

Here are some things our staff and students have to say about our ‘High Expectations at HEPS'

“High expectations means that if you do something wrong you need to own it and accept the consequences for your actions.”

‘It means being sensible and listening to the adults so we can learn more and the teachers can help us to be a better person.”

“If you have a relief teacher you would treat them the exact same way as your normal teacher and treat people the way you want to be treated.”

“High expectations to me is about letting the adults help you and then they can help you to be the best you can be and do at school and in life.”

Wishing all of our families a happy, safe and fun holiday break. We look forward to seeing you all again for a busy Term 3

Ms Sally, Principal