Cranbourne Secondary College
Karie Hullin:
Cranbourne Secondary College is a very large secondary school in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It's a very multicultural population.
David Caughey:
Between 1,200 and 1,300 students in terms of enrolment in any given year. The School-wide Positive Behaviour Support at Cranbourne Secondary College provides clarity for the whole school community regarding behaviour expectations.
Bianca:
So PBS is implemented in our classroom, in our schools, through our school values, which are safe, respectful and responsible. So, our values are reflected through our actions.
David Caughey:
The central crux, if you like, of SWPBS is that behaviour can be taught.
Rick Taig:
Staff teach students the behaviours that are expected and issue credits when students are able to demonstrate the correct positive behaviours.
Max Smith:
As educators, our job is to ensure the students know what the desired or appropriate behaviour is.
Karie Hullin:
Once we've worked on teaching the behaviours, we then need to provide feedback, which is essentially reinforcing the behaviours verbally.
Bianca:
Students were involved in helping set up PBS because our school believes in student voice and agency.
Karie Hullin:
And they engage in it because they want to see this as being a fabulous learning community too. So part of SWPBS is data collection on student behaviour. We're not reliant on anecdotal evidence about what the challenges are we're facing. We know from our data explicitly who it is, where it is, what it is, when it is, which allows us to plan an appropriate response.
Max Smith:
Having those behaviours sitting there, for parent meetings and just being able to track data with the students has been a significant bonus, I suppose, for us.
David Caughey:
What I've really noticed is a large uplift in our percentiles, which tells me that SWPBS has been significant in terms of helping the day to day rigors and expectations of being at school.
Karie Hullin:
We used to warn, warn, warn, issue a consequence. In reality that wasn't working in our context, so providing staff with those educative strategies has helped to improve student behaviour and address those inappropriate behaviours.
David Caughey:
The implementation team was very much guided by the department model and then since its implementation, we've been able to adapt that model to suit the school.
Karie Hullin:
It is adjustable to your context and your needs.
Max Smith:
It's not just limited to what's happening within the particular classroom. It really supports what's happening in the yard, excursions, camps. Whatever we need it for, it's usable and flexible in that environment.
Karie Hullin:
And it can address any problem that your community is facing.
Rick Taig:
The framework definitely sets students up to take steps into post-secondary education or post-secondary work and sets them up with the skills that they need to be successful in the future.
Max Smith:
We’ve seen a significant change in the behaviours from students and staff around the school as well.
Bianca:
And it has created a more respectful and pleasant environment for everyone.
Karie Hullin:
Why wouldn't you want to use education principles and what we do every day for teaching and learning to change student behaviour?
David Caughey:
Really, it's in the title. This is about something positive. This is about finding the positives. And I think all educators do actually want to find the positive in our young people and how we can support that and nurture those positives, so they can be more successful in their learning.
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