Redbank School is located behind Westmead Hospital and is

2. Redbank School is located behind Westmead Hospital and is • part of a combined DET and Dept of Health facility for • the treatment of children and adolescents with emotional, • behavioural or psychiatric difficulties. • Students attend Redbank School for periods ranging from • one week to two terms. • They have a maximum enrolment of 48 students. • Redbank has three units: • the Child and Family Unit (K- Year 6) • the Adolescent and Family Unit (Years 7-12) • the Acute Adolescent Unit (a locked ward for adolescents with a • severe psychiatric illness)

3. Professor Lori Newcomer • Research Professorat the University of Missouri • 35 years experience in education • Provides training across USA, Canada & Australia on school-wide systems of Positive Behaviour Support

4. Teaching can be tough and full of the unexpected!

6. Behaviour Reduction Strategies • Apply consistency • Use the power of proximity • Make direct eye contact • Use a soft voice • Be firm and anger-free • Link the consequences to the expected behaviours • Never accept excuses or bargaining

7. Avoid the Negative Trap • Criticism • Arguing • Ridicule • Sarcasm • Despair and pleading • Threats • Physical force

8. Experienced teacher of students with severe behaviour challenges • Appointed as a National Travelling Scholar in 2007 by the Australian Council for Educational Leaders • Held of academic positions at UNE and Bond University • Now, in private practice where she works with school communities in Australia and NZ • Author of: Dr Christine Richmond

9. Maximise your energy Look after yourself: • Exercise • Sleep • Well-balanced diet • Limit alcohol • Get the ‘big picture’ perspective

10. Reframe difficulties • See yourself as a coach of learning • See the class as a learning team • Not successful…. YET! It’s about to change. • Develop key phrases with the class • Identify strengths in individual students

11. Language shifts From: To: noisy enthusiastic chaotic energetic They keep me on my toes. horrible awful awesome difficult Yes, but what isn’t?

12. Correction Strategies • Mostly use body language cues • Eye contact → I see you • Smile → I like you • Stand side by side → proximity (effective when student is off task) • Touch (appropriate) → e.g. hand shake

13. 2. Frequently use pre-planned verbal scripts For example, ask a disruptive student: What are you doing? 2.What should you be doing? 3. Do you need help to do it?

14. 3. Sparingly apply consequences Time out brief Detention  catch-up work Sanction  temporary loss of privileges

15. 4. Always follow through More easily said than done, however, essential to build credibility and to establish the message, ‘I mean what I say’.

16. Behaviour Management5 Classic Mistakes

17. 1. Taking student behaviour personally

18. 2. Reacting emotionally rather than responding intelligently Know your own temperament & develop a strategy to calm yourself e.g. 3 deep breaths. Live by the rule, ‘if in doubt wait it out’. Seek support from your colleagues.

19. 3. Playing power games Inevitably you will find yourself in the middle of a power struggle with a student from time to time. How to extricate yourself? • Recognise when you are playing. • Stay calm and say (either out loud or to yourself), ‘I’m not playing that game!’. • Move to somewhere else in the room and redirect the focus.

20. 4. Asking students why they continually misbehave This will not help! Instead: • Seek support from colleagues • Work as a team • Never give up

21. 5. Blaming parents, television, society, or planet alignment Some parents, for many reasons, manage their children poorly. However, rather than laying ‘blame’, ‘attempt to understand’. ‘By teaching well you will positively create change in more lives than you will ever know.’ Christine Richmond