You may have heard the children and their teachers talking about Zones - a way of moderating your feelings and a way of expressing yourself. Our students are aiming to stay in the green zone most of the time - it is the zone where we feel calm, focused and ready for learning. Now we are ready to add the next layer to our school-wide approach to feeling and acting...traffic lights.

Over the next five days we are introducing traffic lights to every classroom. Traffic lights were last seen at St.Thomas More five years ago- they are a visual reminder to children about their positive and negative behaviours in their learning team. Every one starts the day on green- feeling fresh and actively listening, keen to be involved in new learning.

As the day goes on some children may need reminding to stay on focus or to learn collaboratively or to be a team player. If teachers observe negative behaviours creeping in the students will move their name into the orange zone - and this should be enough to turn the behaviours around. 

If a student moves into the red zone there are several agreed consequences which teachers will bring into effect.

Consequences include completing a "think sheet" which gives students time to reflect on their behaviour which has either physically affected others or which may have emotionally affected others. There is a pictorial think sheet for the Year 0-3 and a written think sheet for Year 4-6 students.

The think sheet will be signed off by the teacher and then a copy will be sent home to parents to read, discuss and sign/return to school. We will be keeping copies of 'think sheets' because they will give us - teachers/leadership - another way of tracking students who may be needing extra support.

St.Thomas More school community is very fortunate to have a Learning Support Co-ordinator, Lisa Budd, allocated to us through our involvement with the Faith based Kahui Ako (Community of schools). Lisa spends time in Aquinas, Aubert and our school assisting families and supporting teachers with positive programmes to get the best results for students. Lisa will be able to build relationships with our families so that on transitioning to Aquinas our Year 6/Year 7 students and their families will have a welcoming face to connect with in the new school environment. 

All Lisa's work is confidential and your privacy is respected - on entry to our school parents give consent for Lisa to be contacted if teachers need additional expertise and support for their students who may be having academic or social learning challenges.