School Wide Positive Behaviour
SWPBS @ GSSC
Educator Pam Leo once said ‘You can’t teach children to behave better by making them feel worse. When children feel better, they behave better’. This quote perfectly sums up the power of positive reinforcement has on young minds to allow them to reflect on and improve their behaviour. Improved behaviour and engagement will lead to greater educational outcomes later in life.
SWPBS is nothing new to our students at GSSC, as all of the four merging secondary schools had their own form of a positive behaviour support. 2020 now marks the beginning of a new framework that focuses on specific expected behaviours that are consistent with the four college values of Aspiration, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility.
In order to start the school year, planning and consultation was completed during semester 2 2019, to encapsulate what staff deemed to be expected behaviour that they would like all students to exhibit on a consistent basis, some of which included – arriving to class prepared & ready to learn, moving through the school in an orderly manner, working to the best of their ability and using technology for its intended use.
Each of the three campuses have a SWPBS Campus Leader and a team of staff members all of which contribute to the planning & implementation of SWPBS milestones and analyse student data regarding attendance, wellbeing and engagement. SWPBS is not a ‘wait to fail’ model whereby intervention occurs when a student has misbehaved or not demonstrated an expected behaviour. The focus is on prevention by educating and modelling positive behaviours to students.
The prevention based approach is organised into a tiered framework, with three tiers in total, primary, secondary & tertiary, this approach ensures that all students receive the correct reinforcement and resources to ensure that they can consistently demonstrate expected behaviours.
So what does SWPBS mean for my student?
Families can monitor their student’s progress by referring to Compass, this is where you can see the ‘positive acknowledgements’ provided by staff for demonstrating expected behaviours. During remote learning, families would have started to receive a SMS for when their student has not presented to an online class.
Nicholas Bamford
Director
Wellbeing & Inclusion
Now a word from our SWPBS Campus Leaders:
Ian Goldrick
McGuire Campus
All of us want the reinforcement of knowing we are doing the right thing and the knowledge that others know it. We need to acknowledge those who show the expected behaviours. If we don’t people are not sure if they are doing the right thing. I like the acknowledgements given as part of SWPBS. They give attention to those students, who make up the vast majority of our students, who are doing the right thing, or are trying to do the right thing. The explicit nature of the expectations makes it easier to redirect the behaviour of those struggling to meet expectations.
Xavier Tanner
Wanganui Campus
To receive a positive acknowledgement for doing what is expected of you, for some, seems superfluous. But for many of our students positive acknowledgements are rare. To this end it is vitally important that we tell our students as often as possible that they are doing what is asked and expected of them – which they are doing the right thing and are doing well. After all, don’t we all love a kind word or a positive appraisal of our work, even if it is what is expected of us.
Teachers are committed to acknowledging students in many different ways. That may be for simply turning up to class on time. During remote learning, students can receive a positive acknowledgement for attending their online class. They can also be acknowledged for completing and uploading required work and for using correct protocols when participating in their online class.
There are many other ways available for teachers to recognise good behaviour during this isolation period on Compass. Presently each campus is giving out well over 1000 acknowledgements every week and we hope to build on this.
Ben Murphy
Mooroopna Campus
SWPBS is not only relevant to the education sector but it revolves around life outside of school and how we choose to live our lives, beyond completing secondary school. As a new father, I am learning a set of new skills of how to look after and care for a young child. I am consistently looking for that positive acknowledgement from my wife, GP, family etc. that what I am doing is supportive, helpful and catering towards my son’s needs.
Similarly, in the workforce we might put in a huge amount of effort to construct a house, serve a meal, support a client or provide outstanding customer service – we thrive when we receive praise anywhere from a simple ‘thank you!’ to ‘because of your efforts, you will receive a bonus!’