This year we have implemented Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) at Manawatū College, which is a programme designed to strengthen positive relationships between students, staff and whānau so students feel connected and empowered with learning in our community.

PB4L is a school wide approach for reducing issues with behaviour; strengthening relationships and creating a positive environment by creating a school culture that removes behavioural issues as a barrier to engagement and thereby increasing the potential for student achievement.

For non-educators, PB4L, at its core, is about explicitly teaching students the behaviour we expect at our school and we approach this in the same way that we teach our curriculum, whether it be on the sports field or in the classroom. Our PB4L journey began in September last year, where we undertook extensive community consultation that resulted in the development of new school values; Manaakitanga | Respect, Kotahitanga | Unity, Manawaroa | Resilience and Kaihautūtanga | Leadership. The development of our new values was the platform that helped us launch PB4L this year.

At the start of the year our staff created a matrix that detailed school-wide expectations of desired behaviours. This matrix gave students a clear overview of ways that they could demonstrate our values, both in and out of the classroom. In Term 2, we started the process of explicitly teaching positive behaviour. Each week there is a school-wide focus on one of our values and students who demonstrate these in class receive an acknowledgement from their teacher. We call these acknowledgements ‘Tohu Mihi’. Students can trade their Tohu Mihi for items in our online reward shop, where points can be used to ‘buy’ a range of different rewards, to help reinforce the positive behaviour.

We wanted to take this opportunity to share this story with our community to raise awareness of the work that is being put into PB4L at Manawatū College. Our goal is to ensure that all students have an opportunity to learn what positive behaviour looks like at our school and how this can impact their success with learning. Thank you again to our parents/caregivers who have supported us through this journey so far; we hope you are starting to see the positive impact that PB4L is having on your child at home and school.