Assistant Principals' Report

Hello and welcome to our newsletter item for this week.

Over the past two years our staff have completed Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) professional learning. The Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR is the foundational practice of showing warmth, acceptance, and care to a student independently of their current behaviour, compliance, or mood. Originally adapted from Carl Rogers' humanist psychology, UPR in BSEM acts as a non-negotiable starting point for healing, trust, and learning rather than a reward earned through good behaviour. UPR is explicitly categorized as the anchoring philosophy of Domain 2: Relationship, rather than just a standalone "strategy"

Some of the considerations for our staff are as follows:

• Connection before correction: Students must feel safe, valued, and believed in before they can engage in academic learning or self-reflection. 
• Separating the child from the behaviour: A student's difficult or disruptive actions are viewed as stress reactions, emotional dysregulation, or unmet needs—never as a fixed label of who they are ("naughty" or "difficult"). 
• Fresh slates: Educators consciously approach each day and each interaction with the belief that students return with a clean slate. 

Here is some information taken from the BSEM Alumni Hub which all staff have access to. 

BSEM is a proactive approach to empowering students to meet their needs for belonging, relational connection, and safety for learning. However, we know that escalated and unhelpful behaviours can still occur, and educators must be equipped with tools and strategies to proactively manage these speed bumps. At BSEM, we always consider moments of escalated behaviour with empathy and unconditional positive regard. We do not consider a child or young person is intentionally acting in dysregulated ways. Instead, we see students as having stress reactions or escalations that require consistent and compassionate co-regulatory support. At BSEM we want every student and adult within a school to feel safe, secure and valued. We want the student who arrives at school and enacts the most complex behaviour in the classroom to leave at the end of the day knowing they are valued and cared about. We also want that student to know we have a plan in place to support them towards positive change, and for them to see that plan as an expression of our care.

We know that when attuned educators are able to catch the micro-moment they can adapt their responses to best meet the needs of every student and ensure a safe and secure environment for all. As this poster shows, all strategies across the BSEM domains are useful for addressing the cycle of adverse behaviour. Co-regulation, for example, is used at all stages: it helps prevent escalations, supports students in moments of heightened emotions and behaviours, and nurtures relational repair once the moment has passed. Brain Breaks and Positive Primers meet students’ needs in proactive ways so that escalated feelings and behaviours are minimised. Rupture and repair strategies are applied after any incidences of adverse behaviour to help heal any relational disconnection and support students to once again be Ready to Learn.

In a few weeks’ time the BSEM team will return to HPS and facilitate a session with all staff with a focus on restorative conversations. More information to be shared through Capers over the next few weeks.

Warm Regards,

Helen Thomas & Monique Rankin

Assistant Principals

Heidelberg Primary School