Whole School Positive Behaviour Support Policy

(Developed using a Restorative Approach)

Principles - What we believe

The Oaks Primary School is a community that has a shared responsibility to nurture and support every child; that values everyone’s unique worth and contribution; that empowers every member to achieve their fullest potential; that opens up a world of opportunities.

A whole school approach

This policy is based on the principles of restorative justice and has restorative approaches underpinning its aims.

The aims of this policy are:

-to support the school community in aiming to allow everyone to work together in an effective and considerate way

-to develop children’s learning behaviour in a safe and secure environment, enabling them to become positive, responsible and independent members of the school community

-to promote positive relationships, so that children can work together with the common purpose of helping everyone to learn

Rights and Responsibilities

Everyone in the school community has rights and responsibilities to ensure that The Oaks Primary School is a place of safety where good behaviour is an expectation, through using a staged approach, firm boundaries, guidance and support; where high expectations lead to lifelong learning; where care and respect build self-esteem and self-belief.

Expectations

At The Oaks Primary School, every member of our school community has the right to learn in an environment where they are valued, respected and safe. It is an expectation that the whole school community support the aims of this policy by implementing it consistently and fairly in all areas of school life.

At the Oaks, we use a Restorative Approach to behaviour and learning. Restorative Approaches are based on the following:

• Respect – for everyone by listening to other opinions
• Responsibility – taking responsibility for your own actions
• Repair – develop skills so children and adults have the resources to identify solutions that repair wrong doings and make sure behaviours are not repeated
• Re-integration – working through a structured, supportive process that aims to solve the problem

All members of the school community are expected to follow the school ‘norms’ which are:

• We take responsibility for our own learning and support others
• We always walk around school carefully and quietly
• We always listen to what others have to say
• Be kind and caring to others
• Always treat others with respect

The core values that underpin the school’s ethos and restorative practice of building, maintaining and repairing relationships help develop emotionally literate children. This enables them to have an awareness of their own and other's needs and develops behaviour and intrinsic motivation to learn, without the need for rewards and sanctions.

It is important that staff deal with situations to establish and develop their own relationships and aim to separate the deed from the doer and the act from the actor, as integral to the Restorative Approach philosophy. At The Oaks Primary School, we have shared high expectations for the whole-school community.

The shared expectations are:

• Jointly negotiated, owned and implemented by all members of the school community
• Clear and specific
• Focused on positive and pro-social behaviours
• Focused on prevention and early intervention
• Supported by relevant procedures
• Consistent, fair and reasonable
• Linked to appropriate actions and consequences

Parents can help by:

• Having high expectations of their child’s behaviour
• Supporting school policy and working with school to support strategies aimed at improving behaviour

Children should:

• Understand that good behaviour is an expectation

• Have high expectations of their own behaviour
• Know that they will be treated fairly and consistently

At all times, the positive behaviour approach should be used and children should be encouraged to make correct choices.

Overview

The principle behind this system is:

• That all pupils have the opportunity to make positive choices about their behaviour and influence outcomes
• That teachers integrate a system within daily teaching in order to promote positive behaviour and effective behaviour management skills
• Pupils who regularly follow the norms are noticed

• A consistent approach that is used by all staff

Positive behaviour is to be reinforced / noticed at every opportunity. Catch them being good and going above and beyond in all aspects of school.

Teachers need to log behaviours on SIMS (use professional judgment) and use reflection sheets which will be monitored to ensure early intervention and provide behaviour support if required.

Further consequences

Children who ignore the rules, constantly disrupt other's learning, argue and do not respond to normal strategies and have reached the appropriate stage in the classroom consequences will be sent to the Senior Leadership Team.

Pupil behaviour will be discussed and a course of action decided, this could be:

• Restorative conversations where the pupil thinks of strategies to repair the situation
• Phone calls or letters home – Parents/Carers are informed of the situation, the steps required for improvement and next steps if no improvement is made
• Parents/Carers meeting – This may include developing and reviewing pupil targets or developing an Individual behaviour plan

Some pupils will require extra support in managing their behaviour. At these times, the behaviour policy may need to be adapted to support the pupil. The behaviour log and reflection sheets will be collated to provide the Senior Leadership Team with an overview of pupil progress. This will enable targeted support for these pupils and contribute towards:

• Individual Behaviour Plans
• Pastoral Support
• Support from the Behaviour Support Services

This policy acknowledges that situations will arise in which staff members will be required to use positive handling strategies, and in some cases reasonable force, in order to manage conflict when other measures have failed to do so.

The judgement on whether to use positive handling strategies should not only depend on the circumstances of the case but also on information and understanding of the needs and age of the pupil concerned and in accordance with the ‘Positive Handling Policy’ and DfE ‘Use of reasonable force in schools’ guidance 2013. Training for all staff will be made available and will be the responsibility of the Head Teacher. Training needs should be assessed in relation to foreseeable risks. Training that contains physical interventions should be accredited.

Exclusions

In some circumstances, the behaviour may be deemed to be so significant that it warrants a fixed term or even permanent exclusion.

Following a fixed term exclusion, a restorative meeting will take place. The aim of this meeting is to reintegrate the child back into the school community as successfully as possible. Ideally, parents/carers, the teacher and other people affected by the situation leading up to the fixed term exclusion will be included in this meeting. The focus will be on moving forward, not going over the situation that led to the fixed term exclusion.

Typically, a permanent exclusion is the outcome of a number of fixed term exclusions, however on occasions, should the behaviour be so extreme, then a permanent exclusion can be a consequence. In the case of exclusions, DfE and local authority guidance always underpins the decision making process.

Bullying, Racist, Homophobic, Sexist and Discriminatory Behaviour

Bullying, racist, homophobic, sexist and discriminatory comments are not tolerated and will be recorded on the school’s behaviour log system. The child will be fully involved in the process and guidance will be given to show him/her why these remarks/actions are so damaging.

Definitions

• Discrimination – not giving equal respect to an individual on the basis of disability, gender, race, religion, age and sexuality
• Harassment – behaviour towards others which is unwanted, offensive and affects the dignity of the individual or group of individuals
• Bullying – a type of harassment which involves criticism, personal abuse or persistent actions which humiliate, intimidate, frighten or demean the individual (in line with the schools Anti Bullying Policy)
• Cyberbullying – the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature (in line with the schools Anti Bullying Policy)