Mental Health & Wellbeing
PBIS Jack Store Official Opening
This week we officially open our new PBIS Jack Store. Congratulations to Adam in 7/8 who won the competition to name our new PBIS rewards shop. This is located off the library opposite the staff wellbeing room. Prizes include:
- Icey Poles
- Lego Kits
- Soft Toys
- Balls
- Colouring and Sticker Books
- Games
- And much much more...
Classes have been alllocated a period to take their students to look around the new Jack Store. This is in addition to your normal timetable allocations so staff may choose to timetable your PBIS lesson during this time. They can use the iPad to redeem their Jackpoints into rewards and prizes. Staff must ensure students have also bought them items through the PBIS Rewards App. Click here for a How To View (Tips & Tricks).
Thank you to Sandra, Michelle and the PBIS Team for making our Jack Store a reality. This is best example I have seen in the state!
"No Touch" Policy
We are continuing to aim to reduce the amount of physical contact between students as this lack of personal space can cause altercations and disagreements. A "no touch" policy is difficult to enforce and there are some occasions where physical touch between staff and students may also be appropriate, for example: BSEM positive greetings.
At Jackson we have developed some guidelines to provide clarity on the "keep hands, feet and objects to yourself" expectation.
Students Expectations
Examples of appropriate touch: high 5, shaking hands without a lot of force
Examples of inappropriate touch: hugging , hands/feet and objects to self
There is to be absolutely no physical contact on the oval within games at any times, except with the exception of a strictly controlled game by a staff member or Jarryd? This has been taught within PE lessons, i.e. it could be Touch Football where only light touch is allowed. Tackling is not permitted. This rule correlates with our normal expectation of keeping hands, feet and objects to self.
Staff Guidance
Examples of appropriate touch:
- holding/linking hands for transitions or safety
- Side hugging a distressed student for co-regulation
- tapping of a student with means for communication is ok, but not to be talked about with students
VIT offers the following guidance for teachers:
PRINCIPLE 1.5: Teachers are always in a professional relationship with their learners, whether at the education setting where they teach or not Teachers hold a unique position of influence and trust that should not be violated or compromised. They exercise their responsibilities in ways that recognise there are limits or boundaries to their relationships with learners. Teachers should consider how their decisions and actions may be perceived by others. Teachers should be aware of the specific vulnerabilities of learners when determining appropriate professional boundaries. The following examples outline some of those limits.
A professional relationship will be violated if a teacher (or ESS):
• touches a learner without a valid reason
• has a sexual relationship with a learner
• engages in sexual misconduct which includes behaviour, physical contact, speech or other communication of a sexual nature; inappropriate touching; grooming type behaviour; and voyeurism
• engages in communications with a learner beyond the boundaries of a professional relationship without a valid reason, including via written / electronic / online means (including social media)
• accepts gifts, which could be reasonably perceived as being used to influence them, from learners or their parents / carers / families
• gives gifts to learners or their parents / carers / families that could be reasonably perceived as showing bias or favouritism. A professional relationship may be compromised if a teacher
• socialises with learners (including online and via social media) outside of a professional context
• invites learners back to their home
• has a sexualised relationship with a former learner within two years of the learner completing their senior secondary schooling or equivalent. In all circumstances, the former learner must be at least 18 before a relationship commences.
The Restraint and Seclusion policy outlines the circumstances where physical restraint and seclusion are permitted in Victorian government schools.
Physical restraint and seclusion are only permitted in exceptional circumstances where it is necessary to protect the physical safety of a student or another person.
The policy outlines reporting and notification requirements and the responsibilities of school and corporate staff in relation to incidents of physical restraint and seclusion.
School staff must never use physical restraint and seclusion as behaviour management techniques, for convenience, as retaliation, or to discipline or punish a student.
Physical restraint must never be used where it has the effect of:
- covering a student’s mouth or nose, or in any way interferes with breathing
- taking a student to the ground into the prone or supine position
- putting stress on a student’s joints
- applying pressure to the neck, back, chest or joints
- deliberately applying pain to gain compliance
- intentionally causing a student to fall
- having a person sitting, lying, or kneeling on a student.
The following behaviours are prohibited:
- headlocks, choke holds, basket holds, bear hugs, therapeutic holding or wrestling holds (including full or half nelsons)
- using a hog-tied position
- straddling any part of a student's body
- dragging a student along the ground.
Physical restraint and seclusion must never be included in a student plan including behaviour support and student safety plans. Designated seclusion rooms and areas that are primarily used for the purpose of seclusion are prohibited. Preventing a student from leaving an area normally used by students with a locking mechanism is prohibited.
Doors and door handles installed in such a manner as to prevent a student from leaving the room unassisted are prohibited. Physical restraint is not permitted to be used to vaccinate a student.
The Department has recently updated the Restraint and Seclusion policy to:
- list supervised situations that do not meet the definition of seclusion
- include additional information about new professional development to help school staff learn more about the policy
Please familiarise yourself with the updated policy and your school’s responsibilities.
Behaviour Flow Chart 2024 and EM Codes
Staff should continue to redirect a student, re-teach expectations using the language of the skills on our PBIS posters, and repeat this process three times to reinforce our expected behaviours. In the fourth instance, staff should write a minor incident "office referral" form. These are managed by the teacher in the classroom with the support of your team.
Major behaviours are initially managed within the classroom where possible, but leadership may be required to support the behaviour and de-escalate the situation. It is vitally important that you keep yourself and other students safe at all times. Where required, remove the other students from the zone.
We are attempting to reduce the amount of PA announcements throughout the school day. This is disruptive to classroom learning, neighbours and meeting with families and external visitors. For Behaviour Support, staff should continue to call 301. Following staff feedback, we are now setting up virtual extensions so that this calls leadership mobile phones instead of office phones. Where possible, your sub-schools leading teacher will be the first to respond to ensure consistency aligned with the student's behaviour support plan. Where they are not available or dealing with another behaviour, other members of leadership can also attend to support. Do not intervene physically or verbally if the student is escalated.
For major or critical behaviours, a PA announcement can be made using #40 for "Orange Annoucement to class/location please". Staff may also call an Orange Lockdown during an emergency management situation.
Xuno Incidents, Notes and Referrals
To streamline our processes, we have relocated our confidential, wellbeing and general notes in Xuno, all under Incidents, Notes and Referrals. The historic confirdential, wellbeing and general notes will still be able to be viewed in 2024 and are now named "Confidential Notes Archive", "Wellbeing Notes Archive" and "Notes Archieve".
We have developed an Incidents and Referrals Quick Guide to support staff with this change. It details who has access/visibility of the incident, note or referral. It also has a description of the purpose to avoid any duplications, e.g. between Office Referral Form - Minor and Wellbeing - Concern. It also details the email distribution of who gets which incident/referral. New incidents/referral forms include:
- Confidential - Child Safety Concern
- Confidential - Complaint
- Wellbeing - Concern
- SSG Communication (for all parent/carer communication)
- Active Supervision Tips
For any child safety concerns or disclosures, staff should now record this under "Confidential - Child Safety Concern". Further information on what detail to include is available in the PROTECT Template on the Portal front page.
For all parent/family communication (phone, email, SSG meetings...), with the exception of the upcoming Term 1 SSGs, please use the incident named "SSG Communication". This is to ensure there is a printable chronology of our ongoing contact with families. This does not replace day-to-day communication between teachers and families on SeeSaw.
Additional Cases Notes for (Allied Health, Art Therapy, Mental Health Practitioner, Social Worker, Youth Worker, and Tutoring) are not covered by this guide as they are individual to specific staff.
Over Term 1 we will continue to refine these process and our whole school documentation.
In Term 1 we also added a Classroom Notes incident which is only distrubted to the classroom teachers and education support staff who work with the student. This can be used to support communication across your classroom team where there are more than one teacher and one ESS.