Behaviour and Wellbeing
Positive Behaviour For Learning (PB4L)
“Students learn best when they feel accepted, when they enjoy positive relationships with their fellow students and teachers, and when they are able to be active visible members of the learning community. Effective teachers foster positive relationships within environments that are caring, inclusive, non-discriminatory, and cohesive.”
The New Zealand Curriculum, page 34.
Positive Behaviour For Learning School Wide (PB4L) is a framework that supports the teaching and learning of desired behaviours. It is firmly aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum, and aims to foster a culture within schools where positive behaviour and learning are a way of life.
At Golden Sands School, PB4L enables us to work together as a whole-school community to create environments, systems and practices that support children to make positive behaviour choices. The PB4L framework supports Golden Sands’ vision - to aspire to be "Positive Participants in the Global Community" and supports the teaching of our Golden Sands PROUD values (Proactive, Respectful, Open, Understanding and Dependable). We are a school that has high expectations and honours a positive learning environment for all our students, and PB4L is a programme that helps us to put this high on all our priorities.
PB4L is separated into three tiers and we are currently a Tier 1 PB4L school, at the start of a 3-5 year journey. Tier one looks at the support systems and processes across the whole school – things that impact on all students and adults. In 2020, the school community worked together to construct a whole-school behaviour matrix, and establish and implement school-wide behaviour systems and routines.
Students at the end of 2020 were asked about any shifts they had seen following one year of the PB4L school-wide approach. 97% of the learners asked, stated that PB4L had made their school a ‘better place’. When asked how PB4L had made our school a better place, they responded: “with PB4L people are sharing, and [people] are happier.” Students also remarked, “It makes everybody happy and people are treated how they want to be treated.” They concluded that PB4L,“has made it [school] better as the teachers are looking for kids showing the right things... It has been fun to learn in different ways.”
Every two weeks Learning Communities, and staff across the whole school, work collaboratively to focus on a specific area of positive behaviour that we expect to see at Golden Sands School. Teachers and students explore these ideas in detail through focused lessons, role-play, discussions, and videos etc. Our PB4L focus is shared each week with our community via the school’s newsletter.
The Golden Sands PB4L Leadership Team includes, teachers, senior leadership and an external resource teacher for learning and behaviour. The team works in collaboration with staff, students and the community to reinforce these values and identify areas for improvement, based on evidential data and consultation.