At St Ita’s our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviours (WSAPB) is the foundation stone that underpins everything we do in creating a community that is based on respectful and safe behaviours for all.

All members of the school community have a significant role to play in supporting a WSAPB where each child works collaboratively and has the opportunity to fully participate, engage in the process of schooling and become a successful learner.

The characteristics of our WSAPB includes prevention, instruction, use of evidence-based practices, and utilising data for informed decision making. A positive behaviour approach supports teaching and learning environments so that the academic outcomes of students are maximised. This provides a structure and process for our school community and classroom procedures so that a positive social culture is established.

Our school wide expectations are reflective of the values of the Gospel, aligning with the Religious Education Curriculum mandated for the Sale Diocese, To Live In Christ Jesus and the Personal and Social Capability of the Victorian Curriculum.

In the spirit of St Ita, we aspire to live the Gospel, creating a sense of respect, responsibility, compassion, courage and being problem solvers.

School Wide Expectations

School wide expectations are a list of specific, positively stated behaviours that become the agreed way of operating within the school community.

School wide expectations are linked to the mission and vision of our school. They are broadly stated, relate directly to skills, and apply to all people across all school settings.

School wide expectations are important for providing a common vision, language and experience for the entire school community.

HOW WE TEACH RESPECT IN OUR LEARNING COMMUNITY

We all know what it feels like to be respected (or disrespected). But what does the word respect really mean? To teach respect in the classroom we must be able to define it. We won’t bore you with dictionary definitions—they’re not particularly helpful when working with kids, anyhow.

Respect can be summed up this way: It’s about treating others as you would like to be treated.

What does this actually look like in the classroom? We know that children who show respect and are shown respect:

• Feel safe around their peers and their teacher;
• Don’t yell or talk over others;
• Listen to others even when they disagree;
• Don’t try to control others;
• Talk openly about their needs and wants;
• Admit when they’ve made a mistake; and
• Freely express who they are and allow others to do the same.

SOME WAYS WE TEACH AND ENCOURAGE RESPECT WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY

We Model respect.

Children look to adults for clues about behavioral expectations. If they see their teachers and caregivers treating others with respect and compassion, they're more likely to do the same. Children are master imitators. When we expect them to show kindness or say please and thank you, we must act as role models and do the same.

We start with ourselves.

Too often adults make the mistake of demanding respect from children while treating children disrespectfully—by shaming, lecturing, or criticizing them when they "push our buttons." Teachers and caregivers must commit to unlearning ineffective or harmful responses to children. We can train ourselves to think before speaking and choose our words carefully, knowing that children imitate what they see and hear.

We discuss respect with our students. 

We use age-appropriate language to let students know how they should treat others. Teach your children to use respectful words and phrases, like "Yes, Miss / Mrs. Smith," and say please and thank you. Explain that respect is visible in behaviour, attitude, and actions toward others. Make sure kids know that it's not okay for anyone to use disrespectful behaviour, including adults.

We recognise praise respectful behaviour. 

Recognize students when they demonstrate kindness, good manners, empathy, and respect for others. This intentional acknowledgment leads to positive outcomes. Imagine what happens when the school staff looks for these behaviours, publicly praises the students, and then records the positive behaviours on a chart. Students are more likely to repeat the behaviours, resulting in a more encouraging classroom environment and school culture change. One of the best ways for teachers to shift their focus toward the students' positive attitudes and actions is simple tools and training that quickly add structure to guide teachers.  

NEW CHILD SAFE STANDARDS

St Ita’s is committed to child protection strategies and procedures to ensure the care, safety and protection of all children and young people against all forms of abuse and or neglect.

These Government mandated new child safe standards are designed to further strengthen child safe environments and protect children from abuse. These standards will replace the existing 7 standards and the focus of each one listed down below.

As part of St Ita’s ongoing commitment to child safety, our school’s child safety team will ensure that all standards will be unpacked implemented and actioned within the school environment with all staff, students and families. This will take place throughout the remainder of the year. More information will be shared via our newsletter.

The 11 Child Safe Standards are;

PARENT HELPER & VOLUNTEERS AT ST ITA’S PRIMARY

In this week’s newsletter we will be outlining the procedures to get our parent volunteer program back up and running within St Ita’s. Due to Covid, the support of parent helpers in our school was limited and we look forward to opening our school back up to parents who want to commit a portion of time to assist our students.

Parent helpers are one of the greatest resources a school can have – with many benefits for the school and for the parents who volunteer including:

Benefits for School:

• Able to offer better prepared, more individualised programs to each student
• Able to offer better services and facilities to our students and community (eg canteen, garden club, second hand uniforms, book week, library etc)
• An active parent body is an essential part of a vibrant, positive school climate
• Children behave better when they know that their parents and carers are actively involved in the school

Benefits for our Children:

• Children see parents and community members helping the school and they realize that it is important to all of us
• Children see adults working together effectively and interacting in friendly, positive ways and it helps them
• Children can ask parents or carers to help out in specific roles and it makes them feel really special when their mum, dad or carer are in the school.

Benefits for our Parents:

• You meet lots of great people
• You have a chance to be actively involved in your child’s education.
• You keep informed about what’s happening at the school and in your child’s class
• You can have informed input into the direction of the school by being involved in P&F or School Board
• You get to see your child in a different social setting
• You can speak about school stuff with your child and really know what they are talking about!
• You can build a strong, positive relationship with your child’s teacher – and this is one of the best things you can do for your child!
• You learn skills which can, in turn, assist you in helping your child.