2009 Re-establishing the processes

It is the beginning of a new year and significant change at Holy Family. There have been many staff changes which will impact on where we are at in regards to PBS. We have also collected and analysed the data from Parent Surveys administered in Term 4 2007 and have found that there are areas in regards to PBS that parents are still unsure about. This will be a year for review and consolidation and further work in regards to communicating to all stakeholders in regards to PBS, building on the great work that has gone on before.

The first PBS meeting for 2009 was this week, Week 7. Topics on the agenda were where we were up to, data collection & analysis and who should be recorded in data gathering practices. (There had been discussion late last year that the data could allow identification of students who might be being bullied or have difficulties on the playground- not necessarily behavioural).

Discussion evolved around the effectiveness of the hands up signal and bell responses. We recognised that the students probably need a practice & clear reminder of what should happen at each bell. Additionally, the information about these routines would be discussed at the briefing with staff. Another topic brought up was a review of the token system & recording. This topic will be discussed at the next meeting in Week 10.

With communication a focus this year, the minutes of the meeting & this blog will be accessed from the Staff Briefing wiki & information from the meeting will be distributed at a Parent Forum meeting on Friday this week & through the school newsletter.

Playground Expectations

This week we had a whole school practice of the playground expectations before school. The students were quite responsive and it will be interesting to monitor their behaviour in the morning period over the next couple of weeks. It is becoming apparent that the Infants grades need a whole group lesson about the play periods of recess and lunch. Kindergarten are not as yet familiar with the expectations and are still very much in a pre-school mentality that play time means I can do anything I like!