Behaviour expectations
At Mackay West State School, we embrace a Schoolwide positive behaviour focus and we expect that each member will strive to:
Be safe, Be responsible, Be respectful, and Be a learner.
Our school’s values are underpinned by a clear set of school and classroom expectations that teachers and students unpack together at the beginning of each school year and revisit regularly throughout the school year.
Parents and carers who promote these expectations in the home setting provide an easier transition for their students to the school setting and prepare them to be valued members of our community.
In what ways can students demonstrate these expectations?
By acting in a safe and responsible manner for the protection of others and themselves.
By being cooperative and caring of others.
By being considerate of others and the school environment.
By staying focussed, striving to do their best and accepting challenges.
The behaviours that we expect of our students are set out in our School-wide Positive Behaviour Matrix. Consequences for inappropriate behaviour are set out in the Student Responsible Behaviour Plan which is available on our school web page or on request from the administration office.
Safe and respectful behaviour
By encouraging safe and respectful behaviour, our school aims to eliminate bullying in our school setting. Bullying is a term used to describe ongoing or repeated harassment of a child by another child or children. It can be verbal, physical, emotional, racist or sexist in nature.
Please be aware that a one-time incident is not considered to be bullying, but at the same time may require adults to intervene on the child’s behalf. We can lessen the incidences and impact of bullying if we encourage children to develop coping strategies or what we term, resilience. Nonetheless, in cases of bullying, the child should be given maximum support from family, school staff, friends, and peers.
Please contact the Principal/Deputy Principal if you have any concerns about your child’s safety or wellbeing.
Equipping children to respond appropriately
Bullies set out to get a reaction from their victim – either for the victim to hit back, get upset or do something against their will. If the bully gets a reaction the first time, he/she is empowered and will then target that child as an easy mark. Equip your children to ignore the initial behaviours and not to show any outward signs that they are upset, as this is what the perpetrator wants. If the perpetrator doesn’t get the desired reaction, the power is then taken away from them.
Encourage your child to adopt these strategies when dealing with bullies:
Ignore it
Use the Stop, Walk, Talk process
Bullies will not target those that they do not get some sort of response from.
Positive rewards
We have schoolwide positive reward systems for all settings in the school to acknowledge students who uphold our expectations.
Modelling positive behaviours
Children model behaviours on their experiences and if they are exposed to a good set of social skills at home these are then brought to the school setting. Parents and schools need to develop the premise of:
Tell; Show; Practise;
Eg. Parents tell their children about the need to wash their hands after toileting and why it is necessary to do this. They then show them how to do it. Finally, they ensure that they practise the skill.
A sound set of social skills is essential for children to interact in the school environment and our staff has developed the following outline.
Social skills
In order for children to develop coping skills known as ‘resilience’, teachers and administration advocate the purposeful teaching of ‘social skills’. Although most social skilling is taught in family situations in the child’s early years (0-5 years), these skills are reinforced and developed within the primary school environment.
Inappropriate behaviour
The following behaviours are inappropriate at our school:
Rough play; poor manners; disruption to class-time learning; safety and health rule infringements; insolence to teachers, other members of staff and school visitors; physical or verbal abuse; wilful and persistent disobedience; wilful damage to the property of the school and others; harassment (repeated annoyance to students or staff or visitors); theft; truancy.
Our Student Code of Conduct and Behaviour Plan is available for your perusal by open the link below.