Good Practice Themes

Very significant factors

Effective Leadership

In all of the schools long-term effective leadership was apparent.

The leaders had worked with staff to develop (or continue) a whole-school vision based around the wellbeing and personal growth of students. They had identified key staff members with strong skills and interest in welfare areas and empowered them and the rest of the staff to work collaboratively towards achieving that vision. In some cases support was given through time allowance, in others through trust and encouragement. These leaders were trusted and seen by their school community as leading by example. The end result was the development of a committed team all moving in the same direction to implement a whole-school approach to wellbeing.

Once a critical mass of like-minded committed teachers built up, other teachers started to be positively influenced.

The leadership teams usually had a plan for the long-term maintenance of the school's vision and its continuous improvement.

Effective Whole-School Behaviour Management System

All schools had highly effective whole-school behaviour management systems, otherwise referred to as the Student Code of Conduct, most of which were based on pro-social values, social competencies, incentives and positive peer relationships.

It would appear that an effective whole-school behaviour management system produces the following positive benefits:

• in a culture that is firm about unacceptable behaviour and provides incentives for acceptable behaviour, fewer students bully and fewer students are prepared to support bullies
• teachers in school with effective whole-school behaviour management experience higher levels of staff satisfaction and morale. There is a lower rate of staff turnover and hence more consistency and connectedness
• teachers feel more confident about managing their classes when they perceive that there is a sound and fair behaviour management system in place. They are also more prepared to implement new wellbeing and anti-bullying initiatives when they don't have to spend all of their time managing behaviour and worrying about their students responding negatively. They have more time available to undertake personal and social learning activities with their students.

Positive Student-Student Relationships

All schools proactively focused on strategies for developing positive peer relationships across all year levels.

Sometimes this was achieved through programs that encourage students in the same year level to work across class groups (eg. making sure that all Year 7 students at their camp worked in teams with many peers who were not in their home group) or through integration across different year levels (eg. cross-age productions, sporting teams, clubs etc.)

Wellbeing as a School Priority

In most schools there was a clearly stated philosophy, which was translated into practice, that student wellbeing was a high priority that underpinned effective student learning and behaviours.

A Whole-School Approach

A whole-school approach was apparent in most schools. This was reflected in their policies and documentation, and the consistency between the perceptions of staff, students, parents and the leadership team. Their approaches were strategic, comprehensive and embedded rather than fragmented or ‘added-on’.