I met with many Stage 4 parents on Monday night at our teacher interviews. I am happy to say that for the parents I saw I had nothing but praise for their children. Most of my appointments were regarding Year 7 students and I explained that for the past two terms these children have been busy transitioning into the Open Learning Space, (OLS). By the end of this term students should be feeling far more settled and organised as they understand the demands of being in high college and the expectations that are placed on them.
To help with this transition Stage 4 teachers have developed a behaviour system that looks at creating positive behaviour habits and allows for reinforcement of these as well as helping students become more aware of poor decisions they might make.
We began developing this system last year with the introduction of a yellow and red card system for behaviour. It represents the discipline pathway that students will experience on the football pitch or tennis court. We have modified it somewhat to include pass, goal or hit and ace for good choices made.
For each goal or ace a student is rewarded with an ice pop from the canteen, courtesy of their teacher’s pocket!
To achieve a goal a student has to display respectful, responsible behaviour or consistently apply themselves to their work. When they have reached two goals they are awarded a Win Bin token to place in the Win Bin. At the end of the term those with tokens in the Win Bin are in the running for either a $25 iTunes or $25 Rebel voucher, (courtesy of their teacher’s pocket!)
There are many students well on the way to achieving their first Win Bin token.
I believe that this has had a positive affect on the stage and hear little conversations that identify the students desire to not do something ‘bad’ because they want to ‘keep a clean sheet’! I am impressed with their attitude in being responsible for their learning.
As we come to the end of Term 2 we have however seen some negative behaviours that have led to red cards being issued and seen some students miss training. I would like to remind students and parents that students are becoming tired and irritable and it is times like this that students make silly decisions inside and outside of college. Let’s help our students to understand this and perhaps suggest they get to bed a little earlier than normal or have a chill-out weekend. This is vitally important so they are alert and in their best form both in class and for their football or tennis.
Leave a Reply