Behaviour Management Policy
Sacred Heart School, Beagle Bay

Working together to become a Christ centred community

Discipline from the Latin word ‘discere’, meaning to learn.
Discipline is essentially a positive concept. School rules are
guidelines to promote the good order of the community.

Vision Statement

Sacred Heart School is a Catholic faith community which recognizes the importance of respect for God, self, others and all aspects of the environment. The school community acknowledges that the students are the future of Beagle Bay and nurtures their growth through two-way learning .

Sacred Heart School in line with the mandate set out by the Catholic Education Commission is a place where young people are encouraged to contribute to the development of the kind of world envisaged by Christ.

To live a Gospel vision of themselves in daily life the students need to learn what is involved in committing themselves to serve God by serving others and making their world a better place for all. This includes learning how to live as responsible citizens in their school and wider society, and to make responsible decisions. They need to learn that their behaviour impacts either positively or negatively on others. Students need to learn to behave in ways that teach others that God loves them, and to discover God’s will in all that is good in the events, work and human relationships of daily life.

At Sacred Heart School, all discipline should be congruent with a basic value of respect for the dignity of the student.

The staff at Sacred Heart School are committed to providing the students in their care with a safe learning environment and a curriculum which promotes moral values, responsibility, leadership and harmonious behaviour.

Sacred Heart School ’s discipline policy has been developed by the whole staff. The focus is on positive reinforcement of good behaviours.

As far as is possible with inappropriate behaviours, the law of natural consequences apply. All discipline is intended to teach the student something. The aim at Sacred Heart School is to have the students manage their own behaviour.

Teachers will discuss all incidents with the student concerned and follow up on any appropriate action. Provision will be sought for giving the student pastoral care, counseling or strategies for anger management if deemed necessary.

Where more than one student is involved in an incident, teachers will focus on the individual’s involvement. They will actively discourage the ‘it is everyone else’s fault’ and encourage the individuals to be specific about what they did and to take responsibility for their actions.

Individual classes will develop their own system of appropriate classroom behaviours. This will include clear consequences for students who choose inappropriate ones. This will be based on guidelines set out in the STOP THINK DO Behaviour Management Program which will be taught in all classes across the school.

The onus is on the class teacher AT ALL TIMES to follow up on
behaviour management issues with the Principal

STOP THINK DO

This K-10 Behaviour Management Program will be taught formally for one lesson a week in each class within the school to promote appropriate and consistent behaviours. The strategies it promotes will underpin all interactions with all children in classrooms and in the playground. (Refer to STOP THINK DO Policy) This program is based on all attempts by class teachers to develop meaningful relationships with their students which will then positively influence their behaviour. This will take time, patience, fairness and consistency.

Misbehaving Children in Class

After all appropriate negotiations fail, teachers are to send children misbehaving in class to the opposite end of the school before sending the child to the Principal. Eg. Grade 1 to Year 9/10 or Year 7 to K/P.

Follow these three steps:

• Enforce classroom rules and consequences (in line with Stop Think Do)
• Ensure strategies are in place
• Send students to another class advising the teacher of specified time frame and with work to do. The teacher in the classroom does not interact with the student ie. discuss why the student has been sent
• Inform the Principal.
• Follow up from the class teacher is performed when the student returns from the class.
• This process can be repeated with longer timeframes of class exclusion if necessary
• If a student continues to misbehave, parents will be asked to attend an interview with the aim of remedying the problem behaviour. The Principal and class teacher will arrange this meeting time.

• If misbehaviour continues, the parents will be consulted about a referral to school psychologist Cate Engelbrecht. Cate will work with the student, parents and class teacher.
• A continued refusal to abide by the rules or a serious breach of our code of behaviour could be assessed as serious enough for a student to be suspended from school. (in school / out of school suspension dependent on the situation)

Please note: All contact with parents is to be done in consultation with the Principal.

Inappropriate Behaviours and Consequences

It is expected that teachers discuss any misdemeanor with a student in a calm non-threatening manner.

The handling of all indiscretions presupposes that the teacher will use their professional judgment to provide a meaningful consequence that is fair, just and appropriate to the needs of the student. This will be in line with specific skills and strategies taught in the Stop Think Do Program.

The following are examples of expected strategies a teacher will
implement to aid classroom behaviour management:

• Praise
• Focus on positive incentives / rewards – class raffles / tick systems / cooperative group points systems / stickers / visible checklists for uniforms / attendance etc / class awards - certificates
• Individual behaviour contracts (clearly stating targeted behaviours and consequences of non conformance)
• Stringent follow up – eg. if said that they will stay in at lunch time or after school, the teacher enforces staying in at lunchtime or after school (this may require the teacher giving up some of their time)
• Time out
• Parent meetings

Following below are suggested consequences for designated offences that have been decided upon by the Sacred Heart School Staff. The safety of all students and the dignity of the student are the main priorities. However, teachers are the adult professionals, so they are responsible for finding creative, educative ways of helping students to manage their own behaviour in different situations.

Detention can be used as a consequence, but as stated later in this policy, only as a last resort.

Student Managed Behaviour

Ways of behaving for a safe and happy school

Classrooms

Students are only allowed in classrooms under teacher supervision.

Classrooms are locked when vacant.

Leaving School Grounds

Students are not permitted to leave the school grounds.

If students leave the school grounds without consent, they must return with an adult and see the Principal before recommencing. The teacher needs to notify the Principal if a child has left the grounds without permission. After the child has returned with a parent and seen the Principal, they will be given a Permission to Return to Class form, signed by the Principal. No teacher is to accept the student back into their class if they do not present this signed form.

Play Areas

Senior students (Year4-10) play behind Year 9/10 Classroom area.

Senior students (4-12) play football on the oval.

Junior students (K-3) play in the area behind the staffroom.

K/P/1 students play on the equipment closest to the staffroom.

2/3 students play on the equipment closest to the fence.

Students don’t play on the verandahs along the front of the school.

Students can play in the undercover area, but are not to play ball games eg. Cricket, basketball, helicopter skipping or other potentially dangerous games.

Toilets

Students don’t play in or around toilets. If children play in toilets, they can be given rubbish pickup duty. The teacher giving this punishment needs to follow it up.

K/P/1 toilets are for those students only.

Hats

No hats are to be worn inside.

No hat = No play and no class sport. Children play in the undercover area. Children do not share hats between classes for sport.

At play times, those children on the verandahs because they have no hat, do not play ball games or skipping rope games. They may play in the Undercover area. Junior children can have chalk to play on the concrete on the verandahs, but not in the Undercover area. Senior students have no equipment as they should be responsible enough to bring a hat.

If children do have a hat, they are not to be on the verandahs playing.

Eating Recess/Lunch

Students are to sit down to eat their recess and lunch 15 minutes prior to play times ie. 9.45am and 12.15 pm. (All staff are on duty) Students must finish their lunch before they play.

When the bell rings at 10.15am and 12.50pm the students have 5 minutes to get a drink and go to the toilet.

All students line up to go into classrooms.

Students knock before entering another classroom.

Duty Book

All teachers must take the duty books out (senior and junior) when on duty. Names for positive and negative behaviours are recorded and any follow up necessary carried out. Stickers for positive behaviours are to be kept in the plastic pockets. If a child is put on detention for a misdemeanor happening at play times, the teacher must fill in the detention slip and give it to the teacher on detention duty.

Detention

Detention is to be used as a last resort or as consequences stated earlier of certain misdemeanors. It will lose its effectiveness if it is given as a punishment too freely. All teachers will be rostered on one week a term for detention duty. This is half an hour after school in the photocopy room. During this time, students will complete a review of their bevahiour (proforma), write apologies if deemed appropriate and reflect on the correct behaviours and strategies should the situation arise again. Their names are recorded in the Detention Book and a note is sent home to the parents alerting them to their child’s detention. This note needs to be signed by the parent/guardian and returned to school the following day. The onus is on the teacher on detention duty to follow this up.

If a teacher is putting a child on detention, they need to fill in the Detention Notification Slip and send it to the teacher on detention duty before 2.00pm. The class teacher also needs to be notified (if the incident occurred at recess or lunch) and the class teacher or ATA needs to walk the student over to the Photocopy Room to ensure he/she gets there. Our discipline is a whole school approach and needs the cooperation and consistent follow through of everybody.

Late Arrival at School

All students are actively encouraged to be on time for school.

If a student in Years 5-10 is late their name and the amount of time they have missed must be recorded by the class teacher or ATA. The student needs to explain the reason for being late. If the reason is not legitimate the teacher needs to allocate time where this will be made up. It may be at recess, lunch, after school or in preferred option time. Each staff meeting, teachers are to give a list of names to the Principal of those children who require follow up with parents for absenteeism, lateness or uniforms.

Attendance

Year 5-10 students must have 80% whole school year attendance to participate in all school excursions. Students in Years P-4 need to have an 80% attendance for the 10 week period prior to an excursion. Students will be excluded from interschool sports if they do not have 80% class attendance. Awards will be give to students who have a 100% class attendance record at the final assembly at the end of each term. This 100% allows for special leave and sick days where notes are provided.

Names of students who have been absent for 3 weeks without a note need to be given to Administration for follow up.

Uniform

Students are expected to wear the complete school uniform.

If a child comes to school without a uniform shirt on, he/she will be given an old blue school shirt to wear. At staff meetings, teachers are to present the Principal with the names of students continually not wearing their uniform, in order to follow up with their parents.

Apart from bush or fishing trips, students wear school uniform on excursions.

Uniform charts indicating the number of times the correct uniform is worn each week is displayed in each class. The student who wears his/her uniform most consistently, will receive an award at the final assembly at the end of each term.

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