Behaviour Response Pathway

At BNWPS we understand the level of trust that is required when parents and carers hand over their children at the beginning of each day. We understand that this trust is built and maintained through our philosophy of education, our history and reputation, our actions and communication.  Sometimes due to privacy laws, we come to situations where we need to ask families to trust our decisions, without being able to give much more detail. We know this can be challenging information for families who are trying to advocate for their child to hear. In an effort to remove any feelings of ‘secret squirrel business’, in this article we will share with you our Behaviour Response Pathway and some examples of fictional students and fictional incidents to demonstrate what would typically occur in these situations. 

There are two documents below. One is a more detailed version of our Behaviour Response Pathway, which outlines expected pathways and responses to behaviours that might happen within the school. The second document is what we use with our F-2 students (and sometimes beyond) as a clear visual reminder of the steps involved. 

The students and incidents in this article are made up by us - any similarity to real students or incidents is unintentional.

Abraham is a student in grade 4 who loves playing soccer at lunch time, but sometimes feels like things are getting a bit rough and tough. Abraham knows he should tell the yard duty teacher when this happens, but he doesn’t want to stop playing the game and also doesn’t want his friends to call him a dobber, so instead he swears at the other players whenever they are getting too rough. Yard duty teachers have overheard Abraham swearing more than once.

Abraham’s behaviours fall between the Low Level Behaviours (yellow) and the Medium Behaviours (orange) because the behaviour is repeated. Although other students are doing things that upset Abraham, we know that swearing at others doesn’t help calm a situation and is not a helpful strategy. Abraham would have had reminders from yard duty teachers overhearing the swearing at other times, so the pathway continues to discussing other ways to find a solution with Abraham. Can he learn and implement a new strategy when the other players are getting too rough? Does he need some space from the game for a little while? Does the soccer field need a ref to watch over the players?

Nic is a student in grade 3 with diagnosed disabilities including autism and anxiety. Nic is generally very happy at school; they love reading and colouring and playing role play games about turtles. Nic has a small group of friends who have known each other a long time. Nic already has a behaviour support plan in place. This plan summarises important information about Nic including their diagnoses, the things that might trigger them to become dysregulated, proactive strategies to keep Nic calm and engaged and the strategies that best support them to de-escalate.

Nic got very upset last week; they knocked items off their desk, slapped a classmate on the thigh (leaving a red mark) and then left the classroom. Nic’s behaviours are Medium (orange) behaviours, moving towards Severe (red). As Nic already has a Behaviour Support Plan, this plan must be followed. The plan states that if Nic gets to this stage, they need to spend time away from the class with a teacher or an aide to de-escalate. If Nic is able to return to feeling calm within 20 minutes of becoming upset, they will remain at school but their parents will still be notified of what has happened. If Nic hurts someone, they are generally very sorry for this, but the plan tells us that a Restorative conversation won’t work until tomorrow when they have processed everything that happened.

Helen is a student in grade 6. During an outdoor maths lesson, Helen got into a disagreement with her learning partner that ended up with Helen and her partner pushing each other. When the teacher came to intervene between the two students, Helen hit the teacher with a stick before running down to the woodlands to hide in a cubby.

Helen’s behaviour is Severe (red). In this case, the teacher called the office to ask for support. The teacher took their class back into the classroom and the office called Helen’s parents while Hannah and Keir went to see Helen. Through gentle conversation, Hannah and Keir were able to calm Helen down and have her join them in the office where they waited for Helen’s mum to collect her from school. They unpacked what happened, why it went the way it did and what could have been done to end up in a different situation where people are not hurt or upset. Even though Helen is now calm, she still needs to go home as a consequence of her behaviour - this is a great time for Helen and her parents to talk about what has happened.