We are a primary school with 280 students located in an urban setting.

Where It Began... We have a school with a high degree of cultural and linguistic diversity. We also have many children with impairments and disabilities. We assist these students by employing integration aides. We wanted to make sure that all students attending our school understood the importance of pro-social values.

Getting Started... We wanted to make sure that our school promoted values of:
* Responsibility for learning
* Cooperation and Teamwork
* Respect
* Loyalty
* Support and Consideration for Others
* Honesty
* Humour, Fun and Enjoyment.

How We Went About It... Our school has a vision for all students to "aim high", develop confidence, achieve and become lifelong learners. All the teachers collaborated to see that key values are embedded in the teaching and learning practices rather than added on to them.

The values approach of our school is seen to be an essential element of aiming high and academic excellence in educational results.

There is a deliberate focus on values at the weekly assembly and the values are a significant component of the school song.

The school song is sung at every weekly assembly.

New staff members are introduced to the values and direction of the school through a three-day training program at the end of January.

Our teachers teach social skills and reward pro-social behaviours in a variety of ways. There is a special effort raffle and teachers place a marble in a jar for pro-social skill observed in the classroom. When enough are collected, students receive a larger whole-class reward. There are awards for excellence in behaviour as well as sporting excellence.

Yard duty teachers have ten rules and a behaviour-tracking sheet. We try to re-educate students about pro-social values and behaviours, rather than using a disciplinary approach with consequences for misbehaviour.

Children have been taught to use the ICI approach which is Ignore, Confront and then Inform in bullying situations.

Students are taught to take the lead in parent-teacher interviews and report directly to them about their schoolwork.

What We Are Learning... With students taking the lead in parent-teacher interviews we have found that this formate leads to high levels of attendance at the interviews.

Positive peer relationships are apparent in the school and reflect cooperative group work.

What's Next... We will continue to teach, model and reinforce positive social behaviours and to incorporate a focus on value in all teaching and learning.