Have Times Really Changed in Classrooms?

I have watched parts of this video a couple of times now and, even though I'm not sure if it is as old as it looks, it certainly puts forward a significant message about behaviour management - or mismanagement - that has occurred in schools in the past.

Development of Action Plan - Part 2

We are now in a position where we are ready to develop our second action plan for PBS/Pastoral Care within the school. We know that there are two areas which need to take priority in 2008:

1. Bullying: education of community
   
2. Values Education: Federal Government Initiative

Both of these will be most easily and efficiently be addressed through the PBS team the pastoral care policy. Both these areas complement the PDHPE syllabus and this is agreed as being the best starting point of implementation. On investigation of the Australian values I think we will find that our school rules sit very nicely with Values Education.

To enable us to develop the next part of our action plan we will need staff to complete the same survey that was completed at the very beginning of our journey with Positive Behaviour Support. This will be necessary for two reasons:

1. To monitor growth and change in original data collected; and
2. To develop the next action plan which will take us through the next 18 months - 2 years.
   

PBS Meeting 26.09.07 - Wrap up ...

This morning at our PBS meeting we discussed the data and looked at possible reasons for the decrease in inappropriate behaviour on the playground. The following was noted:

• The children are more engaged, particularly in the primary years, through classroom and structured playground activities i.e handball competition.
• The children are more responsible in accepting their behaviour and are aware when mistakes are made.
• Teachers are consistent with the warning, pre first bell, and children know that play is coming to an end. They, therefore, move to their lines easily and quickly having had the time to complete their games.
• The acknowledgement and understanding of school expectations through the rules and the expectations matrix have helped to develop consistency of expectation.

Some issues that needed to be addressed were:
Morning duty: becomes difficult when duty teacher is the only teacher on playground with whole school

• teachers need to be out on the playground on time
• students need to be reminded that they are not to leave the basketball court once they have arrived at school
• parents need to be reminded to leave the playground once they have dropped their child/ren off
• all ball games need to cease when first bus arrives
• possibility of having a 5 minute warning bell - more so for teachers - to ensure that the duty teacher is supported by those who are available
  

Data - Area

As with the other the data, area also demonstrates a decrease in the number of incidents recorded in various areas of the school. We do see here that the incidents are occurring on the basketball court and the infants playground more significantly than other parts of the school. Whilst the back ovals show a high proportion of offences in week 4 it does beg the question - are the children, who live in rural areas, feeling too confined on the basketball court? Let's continue to watch the data and monitor this area.

Data - Action

The most significant immediate action that is occurring is that of 'time out'. It appears to be most successful and the pattern shows that possibly students needed a reminder with time out and this was followed by more appropriate playground behaviour. Very few incidents have had to be referred to the Assistant Principal or the Principal. This is pleasing to note as it confirms the comment previously posted by Mel that students are more accepting of their behaviour and recognise their mistakes.

Data - Behaviour

The behaviour data shows that inappropriate play was significantly recorded with minimal decrease over the term. The 'other' category was also significant. At our meeting this morning the PBS team discussed the possibility of including categories of 'teasing' and 'fighting' as these are what is coming up in the 'other' category when recorded on the clipboard. It was pleasing to note that 'ignoring teacher direction' decreased over time. Is there anything else that you see as a significant observation with behaviour?

This is the data - Time

This data shows the time incidents occurred throughout weeks 1-9. The greatest number of incidents occurred in weeks 1 and 3 throughout the second half of lunch. This decreased significantly as the term progressed. Possibly throughout this time classes would have been out of routine throughout this time due to the preparation and celebration of Grandparents Day.