During Term 3 and continuing into Term 4, we have been reviewing our Positive Relationships Framework that underpins everything we do to support the personal and academic growth of our students. The key passage in this document is:
There is nothing more important than healthy, positive relationships and well-being within a community. Positive relationships allow everyone to achieve maximum potential and growth. A College which lives out its values is a happy, welcoming, caring and safe place where there is great potential for everybody’s needs to be met, and where all have the opportunity to succeed and develop to their full potential.
As such, our Classroom Management Framework is designed to support positive school culture through the explicit teaching of pro-social, learning behaviours where students learn how to show Christian love for each other and learn together in a supportive community. Our overall goal is to maximise the time spent on learning and minimise the time spent on negative behaviours that impede social development, well-being and learning opportunities.
As a result, we have changed some of the ways that we recognise, encourage and celebrate in our Secondary sector. You will have seen some of these on our social media posts: Homeform Challenges, Movie afternoons, and newly implemented MacKillop Miles Rewards system, and MacKillop Way Certificate that is emailed to parents. Congratulations to all our Primary and Secondary students, who are living our MacKillop Way on a daily basis.
While these strategies are good for encouraging our MacKillop Way, they develop positive behaviours that become habits. More importantly, they allow students to experience that feeling of success, of being proud of their hard work or actions. Students learn perseverance, experience the positive impact of natural endorphins (not those from online gaming or social media), and develop a can do attitude. This is our ultimate goal – to develop the personal agency and self confidence of our students – to strive to be their best person and best learner!