"We haven't stopped all bullying behaviour but more people are feeling safer and more people know what to do."

...Assistant Principal

We are a primary school of 470 students close to a small town.

Where It Began... Our community has a long history of severe economic and social hardship. In the last decade the area has become a busy industrial region, however poverty and low educational expectations have remained a reality for many families and, at school, bullying and/or other challenging behaviours have remained a concern.

To make a difference, we believed it was crucial to increase students' connection to schooling and their experience and expectation of success, both academically and socially.

Getting Started...

Our school motto is learning, caring and sharing. We decided to actively teach and reinforce these behaviours through all areas of school life to really build a friendly and safe school community environment that supports all students to achieve the best possible educational outcomes.

From the analysis of data collected from students, teachers and parents we identified three interconnected priority areas:

• Raising literacy standards
• Supporting children with special needs
• Addressing bullying and other challenging behaviours.

How We Went About It...

To raise literacy standards, we are working on the following areas:

• Reading Recovery, Flying Start, Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS) and LEXIA (peer tutoring) were enhanced to support students identified as needing additional assistance.
• Parents and family members started and continue to work in classrooms to support our students.
• Our kindergarten teacher facilitates regular early learning groups where invited speakers join parents to discuss ways they can enrich their child's learning experiences.
• Primary children peer tutor early childhood children on a weekly basis for mutual benefit.

To support children with special needs

• Students in grades 3-6 support special needs students at playtimes through our Playground Friends program.
• Primary students lead daily exercise programs tailored to individual student's special needs.

To address bullying and other challenging behaviours

• Students receive bravery awards and acknowledgements if they Take a Stand, Lend a Hand when someone is being treated unkindly.
• With assistance from their teacher, a small group of grade 3/4 students supported positive relations and addressed low-level bullying among their classmates using special training based on the 'method of shared concern'.
• Our Lend a Hand team, a small group of students, look out for unhappy children and lend a hand to care for them. We extended our Lend a Hand to all students doing anything that relates to helping out. Each student's effort is acknowledged in the assembly area. Last year we had a Lend a Hand Tree where children who demonstrated caring decorated a handprint and attached it to the tree. We now have a deep blue sky called our Caring Sky where students attach stars.
• Our Lend a Hand program includes helping in the wider community. We have sponsored projects in Africa providing water, goats and tree seedlings. We have also sponsored eye surgery. We are now saving to fund research into the cancer that is decimating our Tasmanian Devils.
• Volunteer students coordinate the Friendship Stop, a place to go at recess and lunch to participate in organised games.
• Students learn about caring for animals through our Wallaby Watchers program. The children assist in protecting wallabies that enter the play area.

Social skills programs are taught in a variety of situations. Themes have included: Sharing and Cooperating; Honesty and Generosity; Good Manners; Responsibility; and Bravery.

What We Are Learning...

We continually discuss and revise what we do guided by the data we collect from students, teachers and parents. These discussions take place in staff meetings and at Positive Behaviour Support committee meetings which include staff and parents.

Examples of our achievements include:

Raising literacy standards

• Literacy results for our Grade 3 students have improved significantly according to the Literacy and Numeracy Monitoring Program conducted annually by the Department of Education in which all government-school students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed.

Supporting children with special needs

• In 2007, our efforts were recognised when we received the Rosie Award for Inclusive Practice from the Australian Association of Special Education (AASE), Tasmanian Chapter.

Addressing bullying and other challenging behaviours

• Data collected during second and third term 2007 from our Reflection Room (time out) noted that out of 66 incidents none were bulling behaviours.

Parents are more involved in working cooperatively with the school

What's Next...

Areas for future action include:

• Engaging senior students, especially at break-times.
• Researching restorative justice practises

Our school community will continue to strive for high quality programs that lead to positive educational outcomes for all our children.

Find out more

Reading Recovery is an early literacy intervention with specialised teaching that will enable individual students at risk to improve quickly with intensive language support each day.
http://www.education.tas.gov.au/school/educators/resources/literacy/recovery

Flying Start is a staffing allocation made to schools to support literacy teaching and learning in Years K to 2.
http://www.education.tas.gov.au/school/educators/resources/literacy/flying

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