'Educating the whole person, in a spirit of enquiry, to judge wisely, act fairly and live well.'
Referring to our Vision and Values Statement and our position as a Rights Respecting School, we believe positive relationships and behaviour are integral to achieve a happy, healthy and safe learning community.
It is a primary aim of our school that every member of the school community feels happy, valued and respected, and that each person is treated fairly and well. We are a caring community with mutual trust and respect for all.
The purpose of our positive relationships and behaviour policy is to establish a context for the promotion of positive relationships in order that all members of the school community can support each other, work together productively and learn.
The policy aims to promote relationships that are safe and secure and is directed, first and foremost, to the task of educating the young people who attend Bathgate Academy in the fullest sense. This policy aims to help children to become positive, responsible and increasingly independent members of the school community. As a school we reward positive behaviour because we believe that this is not only conducive to our learning environment but will develop an ethos of kindness and co-operation. Therefore:
This policy is designed to promote good behaviour, not merely deter anti-social behaviour.
Central to this policy and its implementation is the notion of choice. Throughout we refer to 'good' choices (which produce consequences that we, as a community and profession, deem to be positive) and choices that are 'poor' (which lead to consequences that we deem to be negative). There are two key reasons for using the language of 'choice':
it promotes self-management of behaviour and enables some reflection on behavioural choices made, in acknowledgement of the fact that when we act there are options available to us;
it avoids labelling young people and does not conflate poor behaviour with character- - instead, we refer to the choices we make and place emphasis on choosing positive courses of action over negative ones by, as our vision statement puts it, supporting our pupils to 'judge wisely'.
It is recognised that there will be occasions where students will behave in a manner which will require the member of staff to challenge, offer guidance and support, and issue appropriate sanctions. However, we promote positive behaviour through our whole school ethos and values and we are now much better at referring to relationships, rather than 'behaviour management' or 'indiscipline' when talking about the ways in which we deal with negative behaviour.
There is a continued move away from more punitive methods (e.g. punishment exercises) to more positive approaches (e.g. restorative practices) and we all know and accept the importance of good relationships between staff and pupils. We place increasing recognition on the potential underlying reasons for challenging behaviour and that pupils needs' should be looked at holistically and in the context of their home and family life. This builds our need to be aware of and respond to issues and challenges that often originate within the wider community.
Rewarding good behaviour and achievements is a priority at Bathgate Academy as we recognise how using positive behaviour management can strengthen relationships and contribute to a positive learning environment.
As a school we understand that no matter how challenging a child's behaviour may be within our classrooms this does not mean the pupil loses their right to be regarded as a learner.
This Policy will be reviewed during academic session 2018-2019.
