​Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L School wide) is a Ministry of Education initiative. It aims to enhance the school's climate and to create a supportive environment for personal, social and academic growth. The initiative looks at behaviour and learning from a whole school perspective as well as the perspective of each individual child.

Rather than the focus being on each individual child, the process enables us to look at the environment, systems and practices we have in place to support students to make positive behaviour choices. The analogy used is that of fish in a stream. To address the health of the fish in the stream, it is far easier to make the river environment healthy than to target each fish. Therefore, the focus of PB4L is to create a whole school environment (the stream) that will have a positive influence on our ākonga.

Our Positive Behaviour for Learning journey since the beginning of 2021, as a Tier 1 school beginning our journey, has had a large focus on our values to reinforce our school vision of 'Inspiring Excellence and Outstanding Character’ and identifying steps for all of our ākonga for this to happen. Our A+ school values - Accountable, Adaptable, Articulate, Adventurous and Accepting continue to be unpacked, reinforced and acknowledged across all areas of our school.

Last year we created a PB4L vision statement which you will find proudly on display in all our learning spaces. It is:

"The purpose of PB4L at Springston School is to create a safe and supportive environment for our A+ learners in which positive, respectful relationships are valued, enabling all to thrive."

Behaviour Matrix

A behaviour matrix has been developed for teachers and students to identify the expected behaviours at our school The matrix includes appropriate and expected behaviours in specific areas which are: learning spaces, office/sick bay, toilets, on the bus, moving around the school, outdoor play areas and appropriate use of ICT.

Each of the expectations in the matrix will regularly be taught in all learning spaces so our staff and ākonga clearly know what our expectations are and what they look like at Springston School. We have a new behaviour focus every 2-3 weeks which the whole school focus on.

Feedback on our lessons has been great; with students saying they like how clear the steps are and teachers saying that the lessons are good to refer back to when acknowledging or reinforcing our desired behaviours.

The PB4L Leadership Team is comprised of Karen Stanford (PB4L Leader), Sophie James (PB4L leader), Serena White (Teacher), Viv Familton (Teacher), Rochelle Hiddlestone (Teacher) , Sandy Taylor (Support Staff) and we have welcomed Larisha Toomey as our parent representative. This is a new team configuration this year due to staff changes.