SD68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith
· To establish and maintain safe, caring and orderly environments for purposeful learning
· To clarify and publish expectations for student behaviour while at school, while going to and from school, and while attending any school function or activity at any location.
At Fairview Community School, students are expected to:
·
Use the 5 keys to success, (be safe, be peaceful, be
kind, be respectful, be cooperative)
·
Help to make the school a safe, caring and orderly
place.
·
Report to an adult, in a timely manner, incidents of
bullying, harassment, intimidation or unsafe conditions.
·
Accept
responsibility for your own learning and conduct.
·
Act in a manner
that brings credit to their school, family and community.
The following points are examples only and are not an all-inclusive list,
· Behaviours that:
- interfere with the learning of others
-
interfere with an orderly environment
- create unsafe conditions
· Acts of:
- bullying, harassment or intimidation
- physical violence
- retribution against a person who has reported incidents
· Illegal acts, such as:
-
Theft of or damage to property
- Possession, use or distribution of illegal or restricted substances such as firecrackers, drugs or alcohol
-
Possession or use of weapons
Fairview Community School believes that all
students, staff and volunteers should be provided a safe, secure and welcoming
learning and working environment. To
that end, acts of bullying and harassment will not be tolerated.
Bullying is defined as an intentional action on the
part of an individual, which causes emotional or physical distress of a
victim.
Barbara Coloroso, the author of, The Bully, The
Bullied and The Bystander”, says, “bystanders are the supporting cast who
aid and abet the bully through acts of omission and commission. It is important that kids recognize that
they are all responsible for helping to create a safe, caring, respectful and
bully-free environment.” Bystanders
will have consequences when they don’t accept the responsibility of reporting
incidents to teachers or supervisors. Bullying includes: a power imbalance of
one individual over another, pleasure or gain being derived by the hurt of
another, and having a profound effect on the victim.
Bullying
takes three main forms:
Physical bullying – involves hitting the victim in some way or taking or damaging a
victim’s property.
Verbal bullying – using words to hurt or humiliate others.
Relational bullying – trying to convince their peers to exclude or alienate a certain
person or people, and cut the victims off from their social connections.
Expectations will increase
for students as they become older and more mature, and as they move through
successive grades. Students are
expected to exhibit increased personal responsibility and self-discipline. It is expected that students take ownership
for their part in any problem.
· Disciplinary action, wherever possible, is preventative and restorative, rather than merely punitive. The goal will be to take ownership for individual action, fix damage that may have occurred if possible and prevent the problem from reoccurring. It is intended to strengthen both the victim and the offender.
· Students, as often as possible, are encouraged to participate in the development of meaningful consequences for violations of the established code of conduct, e.g., participating in working through a “think sheet”.
Step 1
This involves a discussion between student and staff member. When students choose not to meet behavioural expectations, there will be natural, logical and consistent consequences. Minor indiscretions are handled by staff. Frequently the consequence will be in the form of a time-out or being sent to a triad room to reconsider their choice of action. It may also involve completion of a "think sheet” where students can reflect upon their actions and consider better choices next time. Parents may be informed and if so, are required to sign the “think sheet”.
Step 2
Office Referral Forms are issued for major offences (i.e. rough play, bullying, fighting, physical abuse of others, throwing objects, defiance of authority, disrespectful/abusive language) and continual defiance of school rules. Students are referred to the school administration and may be sent out of their class to the behavioural support room. Parents are informed and consequences may include loss of privileges or loss of lunch and afternoon recess playtimes.
Step 3
Parents
are contacted for serious incidents of misbehaviour or if minor incidents
persist beyond step two. Depending on the
severity or frequency of the misbehaviour, students are given in-school or
at-home suspensions for:
· persistent inappropriate behaviour, which disturbs, interrupts or disquiets the usual, orderly operation of the school and/or
· inappropriate behaviour judged to have a harmful effect on the safety of other pupils.
For the following, students will possibly be suspended from between one to five days: fighting, overt rudeness, alcohol and/or drug use, stealing, vandalism and any action that deliberately endangers the health and safety of others.
In addition to applying logical
consequences for misbehaviour, our discipline procedures include such methods
as developing behaviour contracts and counseling for pupils.
In cases of serious breaches of the Code of Conduct, the school will
advise other parties, including:
· Parents of student offender(s) – in every instance
· Parents of student victim(s) – in every instance
· School district officials – as required by school district policy
· Police and/or other agencies – as required by law
· All parents – when deemed to be important to reassure members of the school community that school officials are aware of a serious situation or incident and are taking appropriate action to address it.