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Choosing strategies

How did schools identify issues of concern?
Where to start?
What to do?
What strategies did schools adopt?

How did schools identify issues of concern?

It is a normal part of schools' daily and long-term planning to develop social and learning environments that promote emotional well-being at all levels. Therefore, Gatehouse Project schools were already undertaking activities and creating environments that promote security and trust, communication and social connectedness, and positive regard through valued participation. These activities operate at the level of the classroom, the whole school and in links with the community.

The Gatehouse Project asked schools to look anew at what they were already doing at all these levels and consider if there were areas to strengthen, build on or establish. The aim was to identify key priorities using the Gatehouse Project frameworks, co-ordinate responses across a range of priority areas, keep the big picture in mind and monitor progress of the various programs, policies and practices. The first challenge was to identify feasible starting points.

Where to start?

In the Gatehouse Project, schools started at many different places and although the journeys took different routes, the same stops were often covered along the way. To help schools identify issues of concern, priorities and feasible starting places, the Gatehouse Project provided each school with:

team guidelines to develop an action plan. These guidelines include instruments and processes with to audit current practice and identify gaps under each of the three theme areas
school profiles compiled from student responses to questions in the Gatehouse Project Adolescent Health Survey, which asked about students' perceptions of the school environment.

The areas that schools identified through this process tended to fall into three main categories:

relationships of students with their peers
relationships of students with their teachers
relationships of students with learning itself.

What to do?

Schools, with the assistance of their Gatehouse Project critical friend, looked for strategies to address these areas and the programs that they wanted to work on. The aim was to locate policies, programs and practices that had been proven to be successful elsewhere and adapt these to the school's particular context.

The following table outlines some of the strategies that schools implemented to address the issues they had identified from their auditing and student surveys. Further discussion about specific strategies can be found on the Security, Communication and Positive Regard pages. Illustrations of the ways individual schools worked through the process of establishing a team, identifying priorities, developing and implementing strategies, can be found on the Schools' Stories pages.

What strategies did schools adopt?

Classroom

Security

Communication

Positive Regard

Collaborative development of classroom agreements or rules

Establishment of procedures to make the classroom a place where privacy and confidentiality are respected

Development of strategies for preventing and dealing with teasing and put downs

Seating arrangements to avoid exclusion

Students in work teams/table groups

Decrease in numbers of teachers working with each class

Application of bullying policy in classrooms

Revision of curriculum - teaching and learning strategies to foster positive interactions:

discussion groups
collaborative work
speaking and listening
questioning
listening to differing points of view
justifying a position.

Use of journals and drama

Focus on teacher/tutor relationship with students

Use of proactive classroom management techniques to maintain student interest, create a good working environment and positive relationships

Ensuring that the physical environment facilitates communication and interaction

Looking for opportunities for integrated curriculum delivery where appropriate

Reviewing nature of assessment and feedback on student work

Positive and constructive assessment processes, involving students and parents wherever possible

Regular verbal recognition of student contributions and achievements

Peer education

Displays of student work

Creating opportunities for different forms of contribution and achievement

Developing knowledge of decision-making processes and creating leadership opportunities

Inviting student input in planning activities

Emphasis on process as well as outcome

Whole School

Security

Communication

Positive Regard

Establishing confidentiality procedures

Development and implementation of anti-bullying policy by staff, students and parents

Teacher professional development in preventing and dealing with incidents of bullying

Mapping areas of school where students feel unsafe

Supervision of risk or unsafe areas during lunch and recess

Peer mediation/peer support programs

Reviewing and enhancing transition programs at various transition points

Strengthening counselling and support structures

Development of teacher teams working with student groups

Establish or enhance pastoral care/home group structures

Develop/maintain support for all teachers in pastoral role

Teachers sharing strategies for communication

Introduction of teacher as mentor program

Enhance role of student support staff

Induction programs for teachers focussing on working with young people, including referral procedures for those students experiencing difficulties

Strengthening peer support programs

Student forms, parent and community forums

Review of diary use as a means of communicating with parents

Social skills programs

House programs

Increasing the opportunities for students participation in decision making bodies

Training student leadership teams

Students involved in reviewing and rewriting policies

Staff in-service on enhancing classroom relationships

Extending the range of activities that receive public acknowledgement

Reviewing school assessment and reporting policy and practice

Reviewing school discipline policies

Cross-age tutoring/mentoring/buddy systems

Student Action teams

Co-curricular activities

Student councils and committees

Links between School and Community

Security

Communication

Positive Regard

Involving wider community in development of anti-bullying policy

Parent information forums on policies relating to bullying and developing a positive environment

After school safety programs

Creating links between primary and secondary students

Creating welcoming atmosphere for parents and visitors to the school

Clear and regular communication with parents

School newsletter

Parent surveys

Joint planning with primary schools

Strengthening communication with relevant community agencies via the adolescent health team

Community service programs

Foster the participation of parents in school activities, including decision-making and involvement in curriculum

Creating and maintaining an welcoming atmosphere for visitors

Use of local media to publicise school and student achievements

Integrated studies involving work in community

Review and extension of involvement in community-based programs

Joint initiatives with community organisations