We are: inclusive and caring of others, upstanding when people need help, have a Growth Mindset, trustworthy, respectful of property and people through our words and our actions.

Together the students identified the elements that they thought were important to allow us to work together. We then collated all of the ideas and looked for common themes and patterns. There were 5 broad themes.

One of these (Carol Dweck's research around the importance of belief in your ability to improve) is summarised as having a Growth Mindset. This builds on work we did last year where this was identified as important to their learning.

This is a phrase you'll hear over and over again in education. Another way of saying this is that effort matters. You might think this is common-sense. Over time, the tortoise almost always beats the hare!

Other examples abound e.g. “My secret is practice,” reads the contribution from David Beckham. “I have always believed that if you want to achieve anything special in life you have to work, work and then work some more.”

Walk into the Mathematics Class in Rm 16 and you'll see some of the same messages. An example of this is the story of Sylvester Stallone who at one point was so poor he had to sell his dog for $25 just prior to writing the script for Rocky. He paid $15000 out of his first $30000 he earned to buy back his dog.

Another of our treaty principles is that of caring. We know that we have pupils who need more help than others, of immigrants who are not as able in their understanding of English, of people whose families have encountered difficulty. A learning community takes care of its own and looks out for them.

Trustworthiness is essential - particularly with our BYOD model and the increasing reliance on working together to succeed.

To be 'upstanding' is to speak out and challenge people when they are not abiding by the terms of our treaty. To not stand by when others are being bullied. To do the right thing, even when it is hard.

Finally, we are respectful. Both of things and people. Personal and School property is valuable and we need to take care of it or we all suffer. People matter and by being respectful of them, we show respect for ourselves.

Finally - we all signed the treaty to show our commitment and to create a visual reminder we can refer to if needed later. Obviously this was also a great way to  help pupils to think about their own values and how these might need to be reflected in our changing school values.