At Umina Beach Public School, students and teachers have adopted an evidenced based approach to behaviour management by incorporating the school wide system of Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL).
PBL explicitly teaches, reinforces and positively rewards expected student behaviour related to the school's Safe, Respectful, Learner expectations.
What is Positive Behaviour for Learning?
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is an evidence-based framework designed to promote positive behaviour and create a supportive school environment. It focuses on teaching students appropriate behaviours, recognising their achievements, and fostering a culture of respect and responsibility. PBL encourages collaboration among students, staff, and families to establish clear expectations for behaviour and to provide consistent support. By implementing PBL, our school aims to improve student engagement, reduce disruptive behaviours, and enhance overall school climate, helping all students thrive academically and socially.
At our school, we have established key expectations that guide student behaviour:
Safe: We encourage students to engage in actions that ensure their safety and the safety of others. This includes behaviours such as following school expectations, being mindful of surroundings, engaging effectively with others and using equipment correctly.
Respectful: Students are taught the importance of treating themselves, their peers, and staff with respect. This involves behaviours such as listening actively, using polite language, and valuing the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of others.
Learner: Students are encouraged to engage actively in their learning, ask questions, and seek help when needed. We emphasise the importance of resilience and perseverance in facing challenges, encouraging students to view mistakes as opportunities for learning. Collaborative learning is fostered, where students work together, support one another, and celebrate each other's successes.
Through PBL, we provide a consistent framework for recognising and rewarding positive behaviours, which helps to reinforce these expectations. By creating a supportive environment where students feel safe, respected, and responsible, we aim to enhance their academic engagement and overall wellbeing. This collaborative effort among students, staff, and families is essential in fostering a school atmosphere where everyone can thrive.
Umina Beach School Behaviour Support and Management Plan
Umina Beach Public School is committed to academic excellence, student wellbeing, and a strong school community. Our vision emphasizes continuous growth, our purpose highlights holistic student success, and our values reinforce a supportive, respectful, and high-achieving culture.
We work actively to develop safe, respectful learners in a caring learning community, equipping all students to participate positively in the school community and beyond. Principles of positive behaviour support, trauma-informed practice, inclusive practice, and social emotional learning underpin our daily practice. High expectations for student behaviour are established and maintained through effective role modelling, explicit teaching, and planned responses.
To achieve our vision, purpose and strategic goals, key programs are prioritised and valued by the school community. These are expanded fully in our Umina Beach School Behaviour Support and Management Plan.
Each year, students participate in specially designed PBL lessons called "Expect Respect" . This social curriculum is a way to teach expected pro-social behaviours that support a respectful school climate and work to address and reduce disrespectful or bullying behaviour.
The specially designed lesson series, “Expect Respect”, focuses on reducing anti-bullying behaviours by proactively teaching, reinforcing, and rewarding expected social behaviours. This series of lessons has been developed specially for our school context and covers topics such as:
- what is respect’?
- how do we show respect to others?
- how to be friend-ly (but not friends with everyone).
- how to be tolerant of others.
- understanding the concepts of inclusion/exclusion and how this is a covert bullying behaviour.
- how to be an 'upstander’ not a bystander.
- when to tell an adult
- how to solve common friendship problems.
‘Whilst most lessons focus on not over-using the term 'bullying', it is important that the school has in place a common language to talk about the complex social dynamics that take place in (and out of) school between students and be very clear about what is okay (and not okay). The school is working to provide parents and carers the opportunity to view lessons in video format on the school website.
"Expect Respect" forms a significant, proactive part of our school's Anti-bullying plan, which outlines how all members of the school community share a responsibility to create a school culture of care and respect for one another where individual differences are appreciated, understood and accepted. At UBPS, we believe that children have a right to a school environment which helps them to feel safe, respected and to be uninterrupted from their learning experiences. In preparing children to grow into responsible citizens with the capacity to contribute positively and productively to our society, schools must equip them with strategies to identify and respond to bullying behaviour and to avoid becoming a bully. An important focus of our strategy is to empower the bystander.
At Umina Beach Public School, the focus on anti-bullying is proactive, preventative and teaching-based: students are taught expected social behaviours required to develop an inclusive and supportive school culture based on respect.
Our philosophy is fourfold:
1. Teach the definition of bullying behaviour (teach the difference between what is rude, what is mean and what is bullying) and then teach the pro-social behaviours we expect to see at our school. This means explicitly teaching how to be respectful.
2. Teach students how to report possible bullying behaviours (immediate self-report or peer report) and who to report to (teachers first).
3. Teach teachers how to respond consistently and respectfully to any report of bullying behaviour and how to explore these reports with relevant students in a respectful way.
4. Develop school-wide systems for reporting concerning behaviour (eg self-report, anonymous report, online report).
You can read more about our Anti-bullying plan here.