Create safe and nurturing environments at the start of the school year.
We all know that creating safe and nurturing environments is going to be vital as our children come back into school over this Covid19 pandemic.
Now more than ever they are going to need structure and routines, that keep our children physically and emotionally safe.
In many of the schools I work in they ask me, ‘what makes effective school rules?’
And time after time I see
- Too many rules
- Values mixed up with safety routines.
- Children and staff unclear about the school rules and whole school moral values.
- Rules that tell children what not to do, not what to do. E.g. Don’t fight, don’t talk in class. Instead of Do listen, do be kind.
- Mixing up values with safety routines?
If you prefer to listen I’ve recorded the premise of this blog over on YouTube, or please do read on if that’s your preferred way of digesting.
Why do we need school rules?
The main reason is so that everyone in the school can live under the same umbrella of agreed and commonly held values.
A few years ago, I worked with a school in special measures in Birmingham where Ofsted had identified the school as being unsafe.
It was clear on visiting that the children had no clear rules or boundaries and the one’s they had were inconsistent and different in every classroom and corridor!
When this is the case, we create a very unsafe place for children to be.
I worked with them on behaviour management systems and one of them was to have a whole school way of working and that included – whole school rules.
Where to start:
Speak to the children, staff and lunchtime supervisors and discuss the moral values and behaviours that are important to them and would make the school a safe and nurturing place, where they can learn and flourish.
Get them all to draw up the rules they would like and then draw the themes together.
Rules generally fall into the following categories:
- Respect for self
- Respect for others
- Respect for property
- Respect for the environment
- Responsibility for your actions.
Some basic rules that I find work well are:
- We are kind and helpful to everyone
- We listen to each other
- We are honest and truthful
- We work hard
- We are respectful and polite
- We take care of our school, playground, and equipment
The above rules are a good example of school rules that are moral values.
They are not the same as safety routines, although those also have their place.
These are ‘being’ rules as opposed to ‘doing’ rules.
When a child grows up, we want them to be able to say, ‘I am an honest person,’ and to know that they are and understand what that means to them. We don’t need them to grow up saying ‘I’m the sort of person who always walks on the left.’ Handy as that is in school, it is not a moral value.
We need to keep the two kinds of rules apart. It helps to call one rules and the other routines.
Routines are things like, walk on the right, where the pencil pots go etc
How many school rules should we have?
I’d suggest you have no more than six. Too many and children and staff don’t remember them.
Discuss your rules in the assembly after the holidays
At the start of the academic year in the welcome back assembly, (although for many this may take a different format with the impact of Covid19) it’s important to remind children of the school and playground rules, which new children won’t know and other children may have forgotten in the six-week summer holidays! It is also important that every member of staff is invited to this assembly, including lunchtime supervisors so that the children see that everyone in the school knows what the rules are and that everyone is working together.
It is also important that every member of staff is invited to this assembly, so the children see that everyone in this school knows our agreed moral values and that everyone is working together. That includes your lunchtime supervisors, MDSA’s, cooks, caretaker, school business manager, office staff etc.
Where to put the school rules
When you have created your school’s rules, get a signwriter to put them onto Perspex and then your whole school rules can be displayed in each classroom, dining hall, playground, school hall, dining hall, staffroom and corridors.
Phrase school rules in the positive
Use positive language. As I explain on my courses, children hear you what you say and are motivated to do the right thing when you phrase it in the positive. Children don’t hear the word ‘don’t.’ For instance, if we say ‘don’t run’ they only hear run!
If you’re wondering about this, don’t think of pink elephants! Now, what do you see! Yes, pink elephants.
So remember to phrase your school rules in the positive –
We are kind,
We work hard …….
Playground Rules
Do remember to put your school rules/values in the playground. Very often children think there’s a different set of moral values inside to outside and this makes it very tricky for your lunchtime supervisors.
Additional rules for lunchtimes can include:
- We play well with others
- We care for our playground and equipment
Let me know how you get on and if you have any questions just drop me a line at therese@positiveplaytimes.com
If you’d like to know more about my Lunchtime Supervisor Superhero Training, go to: https://www.positiveplaytimes.com/lunchtime-supervisor-training/
I’m also running Online Training on 24th September 9.30 am -11.30 am and on November 19th 9.30 am -11.30 am. Click here to book
