Today’s parent forum focused on our understanding of behaviour and in particular the challenging behaviours that we have seen a concern rise within education.
Some of these concerns have been attributed to the lack of social experience during the pandemic as well as the different challenges faced by students in the context of media, technology and social experiences.
We began today’s session sharing what we have been learning about behaviours and the work we’ve done through engaging with SENIA International including looking at the work of Dr Ross Greene. Dr. Greene’s mantra is “Kids do well if they can” - as opposed to kids do well if they want to. This shift in philosophy embraces the idea that we need to take a stance of curiosity to understand what is behind the behaviours that we see, whether that’s a lack of skills, challenging circumstances or other areas of growth that need to be supported.
We also highlighted some of the broader actions that we’ve taken in supporting this understanding across the school, such as developing a more healthy view of conflict and what it means to be kind to others.
Another wider school wide action has been to support a shared vision of expected behaviours through the Leopards Way: Problem Solve, Always Kind, Work Hard and Show Respect - if you would like to learn about our exploration of this acronym please see the parent forum blog posts published in September 2023.
Leopards Way in Multiple Languages
The counsellors went on to unpack some of the approaches that we take to support students, families and teachers in navigating these challenges beginning with appreciating the atypical social growth and challenges that students normally face.
The counselors shared a variety of resources that can help us support students in navigating conflict, including tools such as Zones of Regulation, Kelso’s Choices and the THINK acronym.
They also explored more challenging situations and when conflicts can morph into bullying behaviours and how we support students and families in these contexts. Part of this work is to make sure that we have a shared understanding of what bullying is and what conflict is, but also to make sure that as adults we are listening and supporting. If you notice any changes in your child that you are concerned about, please do reach out to your child’s homeroom teacher or advisory teacher in the first instance.
We ended the session with some breakout sessions, where some of our teachers shared some of the strategies they are using to support emotional regulation, collaborative problem solving and creating spaces to listen.
These Paper Bases Resources can be helpful reminders for your home.
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