The social, emotional and physical wellbeing of our students is pivotal to their success at school, and into their future lives. Students who are happy, healthy and resilient are better able to deal positively with life’s challenges and are well placed to develop into well-balanced and successful young adults. Supporting students by providing every opportunity to build and enhance their social, emotional and physical wellbeing is an essential part of school life.
The following programs and strategies are incorporated into our curriculum to teach social skills, develop resilience.
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At Aspendale Primary school we focus on IB PYP attitudes of appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect, tolerance, and passion. These encompass our school values and lead to the development of positive attitudes towards people, towards the environment, towards learning. They are woven into our daily school life and support the wellbeing of the individual and the group.
This is a structured group where students and the group facilitator sit together in a circle. Group meetings are held regularly. They create a safe, risk-taking, trusting, non- blaming environment to speak, listen, share thoughts, explore ideas and interact. Circle time is a way of supporting students, raising their confidence and building their self-esteem. Restorative Practices Refers to the way in which students are asked to think about and take responsibility for their behaviour and its effects on others. This approach endeavours to build a caring community around students whilst not accepting harmful behaviour. When conflicts occur, the restorative approach involves all those affected to find the way forward.
Enrichment clubs are offered to students during lunchtimes. Students are surveyed to find out what clubs they would like to see on offer and teachers run these for half of lunchtime. There are multiple clubs on offer each week with a wide range of activities including gardening, debating, meditation, drawing, choir, Beyblades, board games and construction.
Our Year Six Peer Mediators reinforce school rules and provide assistance and strategies for sorting low level problems within the school yard.
Respectful Relationships is about embedding a culture of respect and equality across our entire community, from our classrooms to staff rooms, sporting fields, fetes and social events. This approach leads to positive impacts on student’s academic outcomes, their mental health, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students. Respectful Relationships supports schools and early childhood settings to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. It teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.
What is PBL
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is a school wide behaviour initiative that has been implemented by the staff and students at Aspendale Primary School. This framework provides a research based approach to promoting positive behaviour at our school. PBL provides a consistent approach and common language to engage, guide and support students to be the best they can be. An important component of PBL is the understanding that appropriate behaviour and social competence is a skill that requires direct teaching to students, just like literacy and numeracy.
At Aspendale Primary School:
These school wide expectations stem from our school values and are the basis for our Expected Behaviours Student Matrix. PBL aims to ensure that all students and staff share the same language when discussing behaviour, and the Matrix expectations are used to explicitly teach positive behaviours across all year levels. The Matrix is displayed in all classrooms and specific expectations are also displayed in relevant areas of the school (see attached PDF).
Positive Acknowledgement System
Positive acknowledgement is a major component of the PBL program. Students who are demonstrating school values and expectations may receive a PRICE token in recognition of their behaviour. These tokens offer tangible signs of progress and success, provide positive feedback and help reinforce positive behaviours and expectations. Once students have accrued enough tokens they are able to redeem them for a variety of activities.
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