As a community, St Columba’s actively works to support the well-being of our children and value positive relationships within our school community. A significant part of this framework for us is supporting and promoting PB4L – Positive behaviour for learning.
Everyone makes mistakes! These might be mistakes with learning or mistakes with behaviour. When we make a mistake it is important we learn from it. The best learning occurs when the message is consistent and just.
As a staff, we have worked together to establish expected behaviours at school and the consequences for the undesirable behaviours – with the focus always being the teaching of the desired behaviour. For major behaviour breaches we run a restorative justice session.
We praise students and community members who consistently demonstrate our school values – compassion, respect, hospitality, courage, justice and service and always model our interactions with each other on these core values.
At the start of each year parents receive a copy of the behaviour expectations at St. Columba’s.
In addition to this, we like to remind our students of the following:
Bad times don’t last. Things always get better. Stay optimistic.
Other people can help if you talk to them. Get a reality check.
Unhelpful thinking makes you feel more upset. Think again.
Nobody is perfect—not you and not others.
Concentrate on the positives (no matter how small) and use laughter.
Everybody experiences sadness, failure, rejection and setbacks sometimes, not just you. They are a normal part of life. Try not to personalise them.
Blame fairly. How much of what happened was due to you, to others and to bad luck or circumstances?
Accept what can’t be changed (but try to change what you can change first).
Catastrophising exaggerates your worries. Don’t believe the worst possible picture.
Keep things in perspective. It’s only part of your life.