Promoting positive behaviour
Common practice ways of thinking...
A safe and caring school works well at four levels:
- the whole-school – where school values, policies, and practices are clearly defined and communicated to everyone
- the classroom – that supports good social, emotional, and life skills
- the individual child – who receives support when they are considered at high risk
- parents, families, whānau, and the wider community – who are well connected with, and involved in, the school.
Ko te oranga taiao, he oranga tangata – environmental health is personal health. Child wellbeing depends on:
- individual wellbeing (spiritual, mental, and physical health and relationships) being in balance
- whānau having capacity for care, guardianship, and long term planning
- vibrant communities that have cultural and intellectual resources and a secure cultural identity.
Systems-thinking solutions are needed to address bullying behaviours.
Approaches need to be aimed at changing the culture of the wider system and need to bring students, schools, families, and communities together to build the skills, strategies, and capabilities of all involved.
Bullying depends on the bully-victim-observer trade.
Prevention programmes need to teach negotiation skills to potential victims, refusal skills to potential observers, and leadership skills to all students who may use bullying as an inappropriate way of being a leader.
Common practice ways of working...
Enquire
- Gather data about safety and bullying behaviour through interviewing staff, children, and the community. (Have an attitude of curiosity not animosity in your enquiry.)
- Engage the community in a review to raise awareness, identify needs, create a shared vision, and commit to action.
- Identify contributors to bullying behaviour over which parents, educators, and professionals have influence. These will be found outside the person: the events that reliably precede and follow challenging behaviour.
Plan
(if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail)
- Collaborate with students, staff, parents, whānau, and the community to develop a school policy and protocols.
- Develop a plan outlining how you will address the contributors to bullying behaviour, model and teach expectations, build students’ resilience, allow for natural surveillance across the school, and make sure adults are highly visible.
- Choose the smallest change that will have the biggest impact on the ‘hot spots’ or ‘hot times’ where aggressive or bullying behaviours are more likely to occur.
- Generate a list of replacement behaviours. Frame these in positive, observable terms.
Inspire
- Model and teach expected behaviours.
- Model and teach self-regulation, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills.
- Teach children how to respond in bullying situations (stop/walk/talk).
- Train staff in responding to bullying behaviours and teaching required skills.
- Provide generous quantities of positive adult/teacher attention and other reinforcement.
- Respond to unwanted behaviour with firm and predictable responses that are delivered consistently by everyone. Choose from a continuum of responses that match the intensity of the unwanted behaviour.
Review
- Maintain your programme of activities to address policies and practices over time, and regularly evaluate.
- Applaud the adaptability of children and young people and celebrate their success.
- Applaud the innovations and commitment of staff.
- Make a big deal of it – regularly tell parents, families, whānau, and communities of the achievements of children and young people.
Tips & tools
Information sheets
- Responsive Schools by the New Zealand Children's Commissioner. A comprehensive resource on bullying and approaches to bullying.
- Bully prevention manual American-based manual with six lesson plans.
Information sheets:
- Understanding bullying behaviours (PDF 88KB)
- Understanding why children behave the way they do (PDF 90KB)
- Creating a safe and caring environment that deters bullying (PDF 124KB)
- Aspects of school life that could be reviewed by schools (PDF 107KB)
- Promoting positive behaviour and learning in non-classroom settings (PDF 84KB)
- Building social and emotional competencies (PDF 86KB)
Survey tools: Wellbeing@School – student and staff surveys and tools to assist New Zealand schools to create a safe and caring learning environment.
Useful information for parents
- Bullying – Ministry of Education
- Tackling Bullying - A guide for parents – BullyFree NZ
Useful information for students
- Step up, be safe, be proud – a guide to responding to bullying written by secondary students for other students (Ministry of Education).
Other useful sections of this website:
Stories and examples
We are still developing this section. Please visit again soon for stories and examples.
Useful reading
- New Zealand Police Stop Bullying Guidelines for Schools provides teaching guides and resources to assist teachers to address bullying.
- The Good Behavior Game – a classroom approach that rewards children for displaying appropriate on-task behaviours during instructional times.
Useful programmes
Ministry of Education
- Positive Behaviour for Learning School-Wide
- The Incredible Years Teacher
- Autism New Zealand – they deliver the Tilting the Seesaw for Teams professional learning course for people who support students with autism aged 5-12 years
New Zealand Police
- Kia Kaha Youth Education Programme provides teaching guides and resources to assist teachers to address bullying.
Community agencies
Overseas programmes