At Theodore Primary School we support students' social, academic and emotional well-being. This is a joint responsibility between home and school.
We believe in supporting our students to become caring, considerate, compassionate and active citizens. We do this by explicitly teaching social skills that complement our school values of compassion, integrity, personal best and respect.
In order to improve teaching and learning, educators at Theodore Primary School have developed a strong understanding of how their own and their students’ brains function. Teachers have adapted their teaching, the learning environment and whole school practices to better meet the learning needs of our students. A whole school mindfulness program has been a significant strategy in how we have applied our neuroscience understanding to help students to regulate their emotional state to promote engagement in learning.
The mindfulness curriculum based on MindUP explicitly teaches students about the brain and emotions, along with practical strategies for emotion regulation such as mindful breathing. To help facilitate and support students learning from our mindfulness curriculum we have developed a ‘time in’ space in each classroom that our students can easily access. These spaces allow our students to practise the techniques they have been explicitly taught around mindfulness and emotional self-regulation within their classroom settings. The spaces are designed to reduce stimuli (class noise, light, teacher talk) that might otherwise overwhelm and arouse our students. This assists them to relax, reduces their anxiety and helps promote a feeling of safety. Being able to access the space within their classroom allows our students to stay connected to their teacher and minimises the disruption to learning.
Theodore Primary School is a KidsMatter school. KidsMatter is a mental health and wellbeing framework for primary schools, early childhood education and care services, and is proven to make a positive difference to the lives of Australian children. Children with healthy minds thrive. KidsMatter is a framework that helps schools grow healthy minds and healthy communities.
Positive and responsible student behaviour is essential to the smooth running of the school, to the achievement of optimal learning opportunities and to the development of a supportive and cooperative school environment. Theodore uses restorative practices to repair and strengthen or build the relationship.
At Theodore Primary School we aim to:
- Build a school environment based on safety, respect and quality learning
- Manage inappropriate behaviour in a positive and professional manner
- Establish well understood and logical consequences for student behaviour
We do this by:
- Having a code of conduct which places significant emphasis on the development and recognition of positive behaviours and which outlines, agreed behavioural development and management strategies
- Ensuring that we maintain an up-to-date database of student behaviour
- All staff undertaking professional development about student behaviour and management
- Ensuring the school curriculum includes units on resilience, peer pressure, positive choices, bullying, conflict resolution and leadership
- Implementing individual behaviour plans focussing upon agreed goals for students experiencing difficulty achieving positive behavioural outcomes
- Implementing consequences for ongoing inappropriate behaviour which may include counselling, mediation using the restorative questions or suspension
- Keeping parents informed and actively encouraging them to assist in the development of their child's behavioural choices.
Our Student Management procedures align with Directorate policy and a copy is available upon request.
Student Support and Intervention
We examine and assess the individual needs of students during Special Needs and Case Conferencing meetings. Here teachers identify student strengths and areas for development, they then create action plans to support further development.
Our school offers support to students through the access to:
- school psychologist
- Learning Support Centre (LSC)
- Learning Support Unit (LSU)
- English as an Additional Language Dialect teacher (EALD)
- Learning Support Assistants (LSA)
- Individual Learning Programs (ILPs) and Individualised Behaviour Management Plans (IBMPs)
- Personalised Learning Plans for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students