What does School Wide – Positive Behaviour Support look like at Croydon SDS?
At Croydon we are creating success through application of School Wide Positive Behaviour Support and upholding our school values of Care, Share, Do Your Best and Be Safe. Our approach includes explicit teaching and authentic learning opportunities around school-wide expectations that is delivered at an age and developmentally appropriate level. By teaching pro-social skills we are supporting our students to be happy and productive members of their school and wider communities.
Through the use of multi-tiered systems, explicit teaching, as well as developmentally and age appropriate instruction we are able to provide whole school, targeted and highly individualised wellbeing and behavioural support to all of our students.
We understand that behaviour is communication, and believe that prevention, teaching and reinforcing expected behaviours is integral in helping our students meet school and community expectations.
Prevent:
We understand our students. We work to their strengths and foster an educational environment that harnesses these strengths. We provide a structured learning environment which meet the learning needs of our students.
Teach:
If we are not explicit about what we want the behaviour to look like, our students won’t know what it looks like. Each week we have a focus on one of our Super Skills. These Super Skills are taken from our School Wide Expected Behaviour Matrix. Students are directly taught how they can display this behaviour both in school and their wider community.
Reinforce:
Reinforcing the positive choices our students make about how they behave and communicate is an integral part of supporting them to life-long learning. We are explicit in labelling the choices our students make so they can continue to make the same, positive choices. These positive behaviours are often linked to an extrinsic, secondary stimulus. It could be a high five, elbow bump or in some cases a highly desirable activity or consumable. Our reinforcement is explicit, timely and meets the communication needs of our students.
Responding to behaviour:
At Croydon SDS, we understand that, along the way, our students may display behaviours that are undesirable. Often these behaviours are linked to accessing or avoiding tangible items, situations or sensory experiences.
When responding to undesirable behaviour, our aim is to have the student reengaged in learning as quickly as possible and behaving in a socially appropriate manner.
What is School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support?
School-wide positive behaviour support (SW-PBS) is a framework that brings together school communities to develop positive, safe, supportive learning cultures.
SW-PBS assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people.
When SW-PBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction. Students and staff benefit from:
- increased respectful and positive behaviour
- increased time focused on instruction
- improved social-emotional wellbeing
- positive and respectful relationships among students and staff
- increased adoption of evidence-based instructional practices
- a predictable learning environment with improved perceptions of safety and increased attendance.
SW – PBS can be implemented in any school setting to support students from Foundation through to Year 12. The framework supports schools to identify and successfully implement evidence-based whole-school practices to enhance learning outcomes for children and young people.