East Bentleigh Primary School is committed to providing a safe and nurturing learning environment that recognises and caters for the different academic, artistic, cultural, health and pastoral needs of students. Our aim is that students from our school will make positive choices and be self disciplined, resilient, confident, creative, passionate and compassionate individuals who care for each other.
Social and emotional wellbeing underpins effective student learning and positive behaviour management. Student wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility and a shared concern. A positive school culture and classroom environment ensures that students feel valued and cared for, and can effectively engage with their learning. The school aims to develop social competencies through pedagogy, curriculum, behaviour management, shared expectations and values.
At East Bentleigh Primary school a number of programs and activities help teachers support our student’s physical, social and emotional wellbeing.
Supporting Physical Health
The walking bus: each Wednesday morning, children to meet with teachers at a designated spot, to walk the rest of the way to school.
Fitness: twice weekly the sport leaders manage fitness activities for classes three to six. Children move through a range of fun and active activities in a tabloid sport format
Healthy lunches: children are encouraged to include healthy food in their lunch box, including fresh salad and fruit.
Supporting Positive Behaviour and Relationships
Circle Work: the involvement of all students in regular classroom circle work, aims to enhance relationships between students and to improve social competency and emotional intelligence. Through circle work, children are encouraged to build a classroom community, positively manage their own behaviour, develop a resilient and optimistic attitude to a variety of challenges and be caring and considerate of others.
Positive Education: the school is currently in the ‘acquiring knowledge and understandings’ around positive Education. A comprehensive scope and sequence program will be developed throughout 2014.
Bucket filling: students learn about the concept of emotional buckets and are explicitly taught the types of words and behaviours that both fill and dip into the buckets of others and therefore their own. They cover concepts such as using their lid to protect themselves against dippers, group filling and group dipping.
Restorative practice: is a strategy that seeks to repair relationships that have been damaged, including those damaged through bullying. It does this by encouraging a sense of remorse and restorative action on the part of the offender and forgiveness by the victim.
Buddies: many classes combine for cross age activities, helping to develop positive and meaningful relationships between children from different age groups and different streams.
Peer Mediators: Children in class six are trained to manage small issues and conflicts between younger students. They commit to biweekly yard duties and award students for positive behaviour at weekly assemblies.
