Overview

James Cook Boys Technology High School is committed to explicitly teaching and modelling positive behaviour and to supporting all students to be engaged in their learning. 

Our goal is to inspire every child to participate positively in society. We focus on promoting excellence, opportunity and success for every student, every day. We value and strive to develop safe, respectful, responsible, active learners in a caring learning community. 

The principles of positive behaviour support, trauma-informed practice, inclusive practice, and social emotional learning underpin our daily practice. High expectations for student behaviour are established and maintained through effective role modelling, explicit teaching, and planned responses.

Our processes are founded on the idea that students must learn to take responsibility for their own actions and to ensure all staff respond to these challenges consistently to support students to acknowledge harm and learn from their behaviour.

To achieve our mission, key approaches and programs prioritised and valued by the school community are:

• The Best Man Program supports students to engage in targeted wellbeing sessions that are stage specific. These sessions include: 
  • Respectful Relationships 
  • Rock & Water
  • Mental Health 
  • Cyber and Online Safety
  • Anti-racism 
  • Anti-bullying 
  • Goal setting and future planning
  • Resilience 
• Positive Behaviour for Learning framework 
• Peer Support
• Student Leadership 
• Semesterly Rewards Excursions and Activities
• School Camp in Years 7, 9 and 11
• Stage 6 - Life Ready Program 

These programs prioritise social and emotional learning which supports good mental health, positive relationships and supports prevention of bullying.

Selected staff utilise restorative practices. This is an approach that encourages behaviour that is supportive and respectful. A restorative approach focuses on building, maintaining and restoring positive relationships, particularly when incidents involve interpersonal conflict or inappropriate actions.

Partnership with parents and carers

James Cook Boys Technology High School partners with families in establishing expectations for parent engagement in developing and implementing student behaviour management strategies, including for bullying behaviour by:

• inviting families and student feedback through formal and informal means, for example, through Tell Them from Me Surveys, school surveys, and consulting with the school’s P & C Association and local AECG
• using concerns raised through complaints procedures to review school systems, data and practices.
• communicating these expectations to parents/carers through the school newsletter, website, Sentral Parent App, Facebook and provide links to information and resources in the Behaviour support toolkit.

School-wide expectations and rules 

James Cook Boys Technology High School has the following school-wide expectations and rules: 

To be safe, respectful, responsible, active learners.

Behaviour code for students

The school is committed to providing a safe, supportive and responsive learning environment for everyone. We teach and model the behaviours we value in our students.

The Behaviour Code for Students can be found at https://education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/policyprocedures/pd-2006-0316/pd-2006-0316-01. This document translated into multiple languages is available here: Behaviour code for students (nsw.gov.au)

Whole school approach across the care continuum

The school embeds student wellbeing and positive behaviour approaches and strategies across the care continuum and responds to behaviours of concern, including bullying and cyberbullying behaviour. Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include mutual disagreements or isolated incidents.

These approaches and strategies are built on a foundation of evidence-based effective classroom practices that set the tone for engagement with learning and respectful relationships. These practices include:

• explicitly teaching classroom expectations
• establishing predictable routines and procedures that are communicated clearly to students
• encouraging expected behaviour with positive feedback and reinforcement
• discouraging inappropriate behaviour
• actively supervising students
• maximising opportunities for active engagement with learning
• providing carefully sequenced engaging lessons that provide options for student choice
• differentiating learning content and tasks to meet the needs of all learners

Planned responses to positive appropriate behaviour, inappropriate behaviour and behaviours of concern, including bullying and cyber-bullying

Planned responses to behaviour that does not meet school expectations are either teacher or executive managed. Staff use their professional judgement in deciding whether a behaviour is teacher managed or executive managed, as guided by the school’s classroom and playground behaviour matrix. They should consider whether the behaviour poses a risk to the safety or wellbeing of the student or others.

A behaviour of concern is a challenging, complex or unsafe behaviour that requires more persistent and intensive interventions. A behaviour of concern does not include low-level inappropriate or developmentally appropriate behaviour. 

• Teacher managed – low level inappropriate behaviour is managed by teachers in the classroom and the playground. 
• Executive managed – behaviour of concern is managed by school executive.

Corrective responses by teachers may include: 

• rule reminder
• re-direct, offer choice or error correction
• prompts
• reteach
• seat change/play or playground re-direction
• stay in at break to discuss/complete work/walk with teacher
• conference
• detention, reflection and restorative practices
• communication with parent/carer

Responses to serious behaviours of concern

Responses for serious behaviours of concern, including students who display bullying behaviour, are recorded on Department systems. These may include:

• review and document incident
• determine appropriate response/s, including supports for staff or other students impacted
• refer/monitor the student through the school’s Learning Team and/or Wellbeing Team.
• develop or review individual student support planning, including teaching positive replacement behaviour and making learning and environmental adjustments
• detention, reflection and restorative practices (listed below) 
• liaise with Team Around a School for additional support or advice
• communication and collaboration with parents/carers (phone, email, parent meeting)
• formal caution to suspend, suspension or expulsion.

The NSW Department of Education Student Behaviour policy and Suspension and expulsion procedures apply to all NSW public schools. 

Responses to all behaviours of concern apply to student behaviour that occurs: 

• at school 
• on the way to and from school 
• on school-endorsed activities that are off-site
• outside school hours and off school premises where there is a clear and close connection between the school and students’ conduct
• when using social media, mobile devices and/or other technology involving another student or staff member, where there is a clear and close connection between the school and students’ conduct.
• Students or parents can report bullying to any staff member. NSW public school principals have the authority to take disciplinary action to address student behaviours that occur outside of school hours or school grounds, including cyberbullying. Students who have been bullied will be offered appropriate support through our wellbeing team. 

Reporting and recording behaviours of concern 

Staff will comply with reporting and responding processes outlined in the Incident Notification and Response policy; Incident Notification and Response Procedures; Student Behaviour policy and Suspension and expulsion procedures

Students and/or parents/carers can report cyberbullying to the eSafety Commissioner and reporting links for most sites, games and apps can be found at the eSafety Guide.

Detention, reflection and restorative practices

Toilet and food breaks are always included when students are withdrawn from the playground as a planned response to behaviour. The maximum length of time will be appropriate to the age/developmental level of the student.

Review dates

Last review date: Thursday 19^th December 2024

Next review date: Monday 8th December 2025

Responding to incidents of Bullying

The following response strategy details the actions James Cook Boys Technology High School staff will take when they receive a report about student bullying, including bullying which may have occurred online or outside of the school setting. The timeframes will vary depending on the professional judgment of staff who receive the bullying complaint and their assessment of immediate risk to student/s. 

1.     Identify Bullying Incident

• Staff member, student or community member reports bullying.
• Observe signs of bullying (physical, verbal, social, or cyber).

2.     Initial Assessment

• Determine the nature and severity of the incident.
• Gather initial information (who, what, when, where).

3.     Immediate Support

• Provide immediate support to the victim.
• Ensure the victim feels safe and secure.
• Offer counselling or support services as needed.

4.     Report the Incident

• Report to the designated staff member (e.g., Deputy Principal, Head Teacher, School Counsellor, Anti Racism Contact Officer or Student Support Officer).
• Document the incident in accordance with school policies and procedures.
• Contact the parent/carer of the student involved to inform them of the potential incident

5.     Investigation

• Conduct a thorough investigation.
• Interview the victim, alleged bully, and any witnesses.
• Collect evidence (messages, statements, etc.).

6.     Determine Action

• Based on the investigation, determine appropriate actions.
• No bullying found: Inform all parties and monitor the situation.
• If bullying is confirmed:
  • Implement appropriate interventions as per school policies.
  • Provide support and counselling for the bully (if appropriate).
  • Report the outcome of the incident to the parents/carers of the students involved.

7.     Follow-Up

• Check in with the victim to ensure their ongoing safety and well-being.
• Monitor the situation between involved parties.
• Reassess the effectiveness of the actions taken.

8.     Review and Reflect

• Review the incident and response for future improvements.
• Update policies or school procedures if necessary to prevent future incidents.