Kia ora West Rolleston whānau

This week the PB4L team ran a professional development session with the staff, all about active supervision. We have been using the term active supervision this year in place of the old playground duty as a part of our work on introducing PB4L at our kura/school.

What is Active Supervision? We know that when there are issues in the playground between peers, this is often brought back into the studio and can have an impact on both teaching and learning. Active supervision is all about what we can do as teachers BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER break times to encourage positive behaviour and reduce problem behaviour happening. 

The key ingredients in making sure this happens is based on the acronym of SMILE.

Scan is all about shifting our attention, listening and looking purposeful.

Move is about making sure we are always on the move and covering all areas.

Interact is about making sure our interactions are brief so we don't miss any problems.

Learn is about teaching the behaviours we want to see in the playground.

And Encourage is about discussing the behaviour we want to see with the kids before they go out to play and then checking in after playtime to see how things went.

So active supervision is about what we can do, our role as adults, to minimise incidents and reinforce the behaviour we want to see.

This term you will see the staff out on active supervision with their sun hats and brand new high vis vests on, with a spring in their steps making sure our kids are able to be healthy and happy learners.