Friendly School and Families
Schools throughout Australia and worldwide are increasingly recognising the need to address bullying, resilience, social skills and self-esteem. Our school is committed to using the Friendly Schools & Families (FSF) Program in all classes. This Australian program is based on six years of rigorous scientific research with over 6000 school students, their parents and teachers. It is one of a few evidence-based programs designed to improve social skills and reduce bullying in Australian schools. The aim of the program is to help schools and parents prevent bullying. As well as classroom teaching/learning activities we have developed new policies and clearer procedures and introduced playground activities to prevent or reduce bullying and strategies to help students cope with social difficulties.
Part of the F.S.F. program means that a set of curriculum materials are taught each week in every classroom at Charles Conder Primary School. All classes K-6 began their lessons last term, with the pre-school children beginning this term. The program content is taught through such methods as Circletime, storybooks, role-plays, puppets, small group cooperative learning and games. The curriculum is strongly linked to the promotion of values and relational practice and centres on:
• How to develop and maintain friendships,
• How to identify and respond to bullying,
• How to stay safe, get along with different people and be fair,
• Developing self-regulatory behaviours, including managing emotions appropriately,
• Managing conflict, and
• Developing effective communication skills.
Our goals for a Friendly and Safe School
We started implementing some aspects of FSF in 2007 and will expand on these in 2008. Some of the goals that we will have been working on include:
| * Providing all students with opportunities to develop and practice getting along with other children through classroom learning activities; |
| * Providing access to staff development activities that build capacity in teaching social skills and emotional literacy; |
| * Creating a more positive social environment within our school which actively discourages bullying; |
| * Increasing the range of activities available to students during recess and lunch times; |
| * Continuing to encourage all staff, students and parents to treat all school community members with respect and tolerance; |
| * Using Restorative Practices to manage harm, resulting in victims having more involvement and wrongdoers reducing their re-offending rate; |
| * Providing high visibility and proactive supervision in the playground; |
| * Hosting events that bring the community together at least once a term; |
| * Implementing a clear and consistent approach to managing reported bullying incidents; and |
| * Providing parents with resources and strategies to help them communicate effectively with their children about bullying. |
What we’ve achieved so far:
| * Weekly data regarding incidence of antisocial or unsafe playground behaviour has reduced by 90% since Term 2, 2007. |
| * About 75% of our students are involved in one or more activity in the Playground Enrichment Program. Each term, since the inception of P.E.P. in Term 2, 2007, we have averaged 22 different activities being offered over the course of the week. |
| * The Student Action Group initiative won an A.C.T. Children’s Week award in 2007 for their service to promoting safety and harmony in the school community. |
| * The Student Environment Domain staff team was nominated for an ACT DET award in 2007 for their innovative work in improving school safety, harmony and fair process. |
| * Several staff members have presented professional learning activities for other schools across the system and in the private sector. |
In mid 2007, Terri Mountford and Danielle Hoogland were invited to present at the National Safe Schools Conference. There has been a stream of local, national and international visitors to view our initiatives ever since. An article about this work has appeared in the ACT Teacher magazine. A report will also be presented at the 2008 National Values Education Conference.
As part of our ongoing commitment to developing social and emotional wellbeing in our young people, the teachers on the Student Environment Domain Team have been using the new ACTDET document ‘Every Chance to Learn’ to add extra lessons to our FSF program, focusing on such topics as:
• Forms of discrimination,
• Road safety,
• Protective Behaviours,
• Personal Development (including puberty and Drug Education for grades 5 & 6 students),
• Forms of influence, including peer pressure and media influence,
• Nutrition,
• Manners, and
• Self-care, including hygiene.
Occasionally, fact sheets for parents will appear in the ‘Conder Byte’ portion of the school newsletter. Also, there are some topics and lessons that teachers will send you home extra information about before certain concepts are taught, eg, protective behaviours and puberty. We encourage you to involve yourself in conversation with your child/ren about their wellbeing.
