Palmwoods State School is a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) School. As a whole-school framework it promotes positive behaviour across a school and helps schools develop safe and supportive learning environments. Palmwoods State School's Student Code of Conduct was developed in collaboration with the school community, and sets out school policies and procedures for student support and disciplinary actions.
Our Student Code of Conduct implements the PBL framework to ensure all students are explicitly taught the expected behaviours and establish clear and consistent boundaries. Staff take a proactive, preventative approach to ensure all students receive the appropriate level of support to help them to be successful at school. Student outcomes are monitored so identified students can receive additional support when needed, and a minority of students can access intensive support to enable them to engage successfully at school.
At Palmwoods State School we have three positive, school-wide behaviour expectations for all members of the school community to follow – We are Safe, We are Respectful and We are Learners. It is important that all students are taught what is expected of them and have opportunities to practise these behaviours. A key role of the principal and all school staff is to set high expectations for behaviour and learning across the whole school community and for all students. Having clear expectations for behaviour allows schools to provide consistency in what they teach, acknowledge and correct in terms of student behaviour.
When staff use the PBL framework, inappropriate behaviour is seen as a behavioural error and students are provided with support to learn more appropriate behaviours. Logical consequences for behaviour in line with school expectations are applied consistently, but with consideration of individual circumstances.
Providing students with age-appropriate, positive reinforcement for expected behaviours is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve classroom behaviour and develop a positive classroom environment. Everyone needs positive feedback to learn and maintain a behaviour or skill. Behaviour is reinforced when we are provided with something we value following a desired behaviour. This may be verbal praise, non-verbal acknowledgement, earning of tokens, provision of tangible rewards, opportunities to perform a task or participate in an activity.
At Palmwoods, positive, behaviour-specific feedback is paired up with the awarding of a “Palmy Point". Students collect Palmy Points for demonstrating an expected behaviour, and can trade their points in for rewards throughout the term. All of these rewards are either low or no-cost, and choices range from wearing slippers for a day, to attending an extra specialist lesson with another class, to sitting at the principal's desk and making a phone call home!
You can learn more about Positive Behaviour for Learning here: https://behaviour.education.qld.gov.au/supportingStudentBehaviour/PositiveBehaviourforLearning/Documents/pbl-parent-information.pdf