Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)
“Red Hill Special School engages in Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) because we acknowledge that by working together to provide a safe, consistent, and engaging learning environment we enhance the wellbeing of students, staff, and community."
Red Hill Special School has three values that form the basis to all of our PBL work. We value being “safe", “respectful" “learners". We have developed a matrix to teach expectations aligned with each value. These expectations have been sorted into “all areas", “classroom" and “outside the classroom". The “all areas" expectations teach key concepts for our students. The “outside the classroom" expectations refer to any space within the school and the community that students may use during the school day that is not the classroom. The matrix uses “I" words for students to take ownership of these expectations.
PBL Teaching Matrix - Red Hill Special School
This matrix may evolve over the years to ensure that it is relevant to the changing student population needs. You will find powerpoint lessons for these expectations and all things related to PBL and the Zones of Regulation on the PBL SharePoint page. These lesson plans can be adapted by individual teachers to meet their class needs. There is no expectation to complete the powerpoints in one sitting. Lessons are released fortnightly.
PBL emphasises positive relationships and inclusivity. A key component to achieve this is to challenge ourselves and our teams to have five positive interactions for every one correction we have with each of the students. We aim to shape our language in a way that explicitly tells students what behaviour we want to see, not what behaviour we don't want to see. Staff are encouraged to look for opportunities to acknowledge when students are meeting the expectations outlined in the matrix. We can then reinforce these 'positive behaviour choices' through words, facial expressions, gestures and class based systems such as 'working for' reward tokens aligned with favoured choice activities. Teachers present a weekly certificate to a student from their class that is also aligned to our PBL values and expectations. We have an end of semester celebration where all students are celebrated for their achievements within a particular expectation of focus for them.
If you have any further questions please refer these to Steve McKnoulty (Internal Coach), Drew Serisier (Team Leader) or any one of our PBL Team members.