Safe and Caring Schools Instructional Strategies

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Safe and Caring Schools Instructional Strategies
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Special Education Conference, 2007Agenda

• What is a Safe and Caring School?
• What is SACSC Programming?
• Youth Action
• Restorative Justice and Classroom Conferencing
• Community Partnerships

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Attributes of a Safe and Caring School

• Based on extensive research and province-wide
  consultation
• Focus on building an effective learning
  environment for ALL students

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What is a Safe and Caring School?

• A place where all children/youth and adults feel
  like they belong
• All students fulfill their academic potential
• A strong sense of self worth
• Personal responsibility and accountability

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Attributes of a Safe and Caring School

• Outlined in the What is a Safe and Caring
  School brochure
• Covers
• General Nature of the School Community
• Behaviours
• School Citizenship
• Activities and Programs
• Rules and Expectations

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• Based on 10 years of Research,
• the SACSC comprehensive
• approach to character education,
• bullying and violence prevention
• programming has won
• international, national and
• provincial awards and has been
• recognized as a Best Practice.

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What is SACSC Programming?

• Whole-school culture building activities
• Curriculum resources
• Professional development
• for teachers, support staff and administrators
• Community programming
• for parents, coaches, extra-curricular leaders or
  other interested adults who works with youth
• Special programming/projects
• Youth Action, Restorative Justice/Classroom
  Conferencing

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Five Key Topics Based on Attributes

• Integrated into all SACSC programming
• 1. Living Respectfully
• 2. Developing Self-Esteem and Self-Respect
• 3. Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice
• 4. Managing Anger and Dealing with Bullying and
  Harassment
• 5. Resolving Conflict and Working Together

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Special Programs

• SACSC Youth Action program
• SACSC Restorative Justice
• Global Education and the UNESCO Associated
  Schools Project Network program
• Ongoing development/pilot of additional programs
  as needed

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People like to come to school (now) because they
know it is safe. (Elementary student, Wabasca
focus group, 2004)
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Consider

• Students who have good social skills contribute
  to a positive learning environment in classrooms
• Students with high self-esteem tend to be more
  likely to explore their full potential
• Students who are fearful for their safety often
  do not want to attend school

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Consider

• Disrespectful behaviour, often causes students to
  view their classrooms as unsafe or unfriendly
• Emotional distress creates deficits in students
  intellectual abilities
• An environment in which intimidation and bullying
  are allowed to occur impedes students abilities
  to learn

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Youth Action and Peer Leadership/Mentorship
The Expecting Respect student group has grown
by leaps and bounds. They are meeting twice a
week on their own time and have really improved
their leadership skills. (Teacher, Wabasca,
2005)
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Youth Action

• Youth Action provides an opportunity for students
  to take and active role in addressing issues in
  their school/community
• Students conduct research among their peers and
  then develop, undertake and evaluate projects
  that address the issues they uncover

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Youth Action

• Youth Action can be easily adapted for different
  student capacities and skill levels, and can be
  an effective strategy for engaging special needs
  students in the school community
• Themes could include a variety of topics from
  recycling and respect for school property, to
  global issues, bullying, or drug use

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Steps Involved in the Youth Action Projects

• Selecting a focus
• Collecting data
• Analyzing and interpreting the data
• Taking action

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Youth Action Examples

• Global Issues
• Participants identify
• What the students in their school know about the
  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, reduce
  child mortality, promote universal primary
  education, gender equality, etc)
• Actions already taken related to the MDGs

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Youth Action Examples

• 2) Safe and Caring Focus
• Participants identify
• Which Safe and Caring topics should be addressed
• Living Respectfully, Developing Self Esteem,
  Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice,
  Managing Anger and Dealing with Bullying and
  Harassment, Resolving Conflicts Peacefully
• Actions already taken related to the SACSC topics

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Youth Action Process

• Students and their supervising teachers attend
  SACSC Youth Action Training Workshop
• information on data collection and conducting
  focus groups
• Students collect data from their peers then
  analyze the data, identify themes and key issues
  and report their findings

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Youth Action Process

• Students attend a second SACSC Youth Action
  Training Workshop
• to develop an action plan that addresses
  identified themes and implement and evaluate
  their plan
• Students undertake their project(s)
• Students report their findings and experiences

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For more information on Youth Action

• And related resources, please visit the following
  
• webpage
• http//www.sacsc.ca/Youth_Action.htm
• To participate, please contact the Director of
  Educational Programming, Karen Hobbs(780)
  447-9484, khobbs_at_sacsc.ca

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Restorative Justice and Classroom Conferencing
I like Safe and Caring Schools because there are
no bullies around. (Elementary student, Wabasca
focus group, 2004)
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What is Restorative Justice?

• An approach to justice/discipline emphasising
  respect, addressing human needs, honesty and
  reparation
• Respectaccorded equally to all participants
• Inclusivenessfull participation and consensus of
  those affected
• Accountabilitythe offender takes responsibility
  for the behaviour
• Reparationthe parties decide what restitution or
  other measures are appropriate
• Restorationrestore the harmed, the offender and
  the community

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Classroom Meetings

• Teacher and students collaboratively set rules
  and address incidents before they become major
  problems
• Democratic, respectful, problem-solving
• Focus on logical/restorative consequences
• Develop self/social-esteem, self-confidence
• Foster responsible behaviour by building personal
  ownership over rules

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What is Classroom Conferencing?

• A key restorative justice strategy
• Involves a face-to-face meeting between the
  person creating harm the harmed, supports and the
  teacher
• Participants discuss the issue, the affects,
  feelings and decide how it can be repaired
• The person responsible for the harm completes
  reparation

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Key Benefits

• The harmed have a voice and an opportunity for
  repair/healing
• The consequences become more meaningful for the
  person responsiblehe/she learns a better way to
  behave
• Through reparation the person responsible has an
  opportunity to reintegrate into the classroom
  community
• The class build personal ownership of the rules

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Restorative Consequences

• There is not always time to meet and address
  every incident.
• Consistent restorative consequences remind
  students to consider how their behaviours affect
  others and that they are responsible for
  repairing harm
• Restorative consequences must be logical, healing
  and
• Related to the offence
• Reasonable
• Respectful
• Responsible

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Resources

• Class Meetings for Safe and Caring Schools
• Outlines sample meetings, process and topics
• Coming soon Restorative Justice in the School
• Outlines how to use restorative justice in the
  school and classroom
• Unit and Lesson Plans
• The Society has a variety of lesson plans for
  elementary and secondary classes
• Visit www.sacsc.ca/Restorative_Justice.htm

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Community Partnerships
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SACSC Community Programming

• To help all adults to model and reinforce safe
  and caring behaviour
• To affect children and youths attitudes and
  behaviours both in and out of school, a program
  consistent with the school program must be
  available to parents and other people in the
  community
• Consists of a series of dynamic workshops

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SACSC Community Programming

• Workshops follow the school topics and are
  designed to help all adults who work with
  children
• parents, guardians
• coaches, youth group leaders
• youth workers, social workers
• school support staff
• community agency staff and
• other interested community members working with
  youth

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Community Partnerships

• Communities often choose to work together,
  engaging individuals and community service groups
  in supporting the school programming
• The comprehensive approach utilizes all of the
  SACSC programs
• Each program compliments the activities of the
  others

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Implementing the SACSC Comprehensive Programming
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One Community Partnership Example

• Northland School Division Schools
• Mistassiniy
• Pelican Mountain
• St. Theresa
• Bigstone Cree Nation Education Authority
• Oski Pasikoniwew Kamik school
• The Society for Safe and Caring Schools and
  Communities (SACSC)

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Focus

• To Increase/Build
• Parental Involvement
• Student Engagement and Success
• Positive Character
• Respect for Diversity
• To Prevent
• bullying and violence, gang involvement, drug
  use, early school drop outs

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A Safe and Caring Wabasca

• The project includes a variety of school and
  community training and resources
• United the schools and community, guided by
  project steering committee
• school and community representatives, elders,
  school boards, parents and other community
  members
• Provides for capacity building at the school
  community level and builds program sustainability
  over the long term by ensuring that experts are
  available locally.

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Its Always about the people!!!
My heroineour SACSCs coordinator Tracy
Cardinal. She is the glue that bonds the public
and Band schools in the Wabasca Community and
Bigstone Cree Nation.
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Results

• The Evaluation of the three-year pilot project
• concluded that the Wabasca community
• experienced
• Improvement in general behaviour and self concept
  of children and youth
• Decrease in disciplinary incidents and increased
  reporting of bullying in the schools
• Overall Improvement of Academic Achievement and
  Attendance

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• Research
• SACSC. 2006. Summary of Model for Implementation
  Safe and Caring Schools and Communities
• Marzano, Robert J. 2003. What Works in Schools
• Spevak, Andrea. 2006. Bullying and Violence
• Olweus, D.1993. Bullying at School What we know
  and what we can do about it
• Walker, Colvin Ramsey, 1995. Antisocial
  Behavior in school Strategies and best practises
• Zuker, M.A 2004. A legal prospective on school
  violence
• Coghlan,R. 2000. The teaching of antiviolence
  strategies
• Bryk,A.and Schneider B. 2002. Trust in schools A
  core resource for improvement
• Alberta Education, 2005. Our Words, Our Ways
• Alberta Teachers Association, 2006. Education is
  Our Buffalo
• Libbey, H. Sept. 2004. Journal of School Health
• Centre for Adolescent Health Australia, Gatehouse
  Project
• Brendro and Long, 1996. National Crime Prevention
  Centre

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Thank You
www.sacsc.ca