Davyhulme Primary School: Our Relational Approach to Behaviour Management: Information for Parents and Carers

Our vision and values:

Through fostering resilient, positive relationships, everyone is supported to feel that they belong and to reach their potential. We empower both adults and children with the skills to work together and resolve problems, creating a happy, safe and secure environment where everyone can thrive and learn.

The principles, theory and rationale behind our approach:

We believe that all behaviour is a form of communication and every interaction is an opportunity to make connections. We use relational strategies like ‘meet and greet’ and ‘connect before correct’ to support the development of social, emotional and communication skills; emotional regulatory skills; relationships and resilience.

We want everyone to behave well because they care about themselves and others, not because they want to earn a reward or avoid a sanction.

Our commitment is to ensure everyone in our community feels heard, respected, valued and welcomed.

Our rules – expectations for behaviour and how we provide a safe learning environment:

It is everyone’s responsibility to be ready, respectful and safe.

These are the 3 simple rules which we have in our school:

• Ready
• Respectful
• Safe

Leaders will support pupils, staff and families to create a culture of belonging where everyone feels safe and valued.

How do we face challenges together?

• We approach all inappropriate behaviour calmly and flexibly, adapting to the needs of the individual and supporting them to achieve our high standards.
• Incidents are managed calmly and empathetically, focusing always on ‘safety-first’.
• We will enable and support everyone to feel safe by giving them time, space and strategies to regulate their emotions and behaviours so they are ready to learn.
• We will use restorative conversations that are solution-focussed to help everyone to understand their behaviour, to regulate and reflect and to repair relationships:
• Can you tell me what happened?
• Who was affected by it?
• What can we do to put it right?

How do we use logical consequences?

Logical consequences are tailored to the context (and the individual) and they are used to repair relationships and to learn.

How do we engage everyone in understanding and supporting positive relationships?

We nurture and build connections within the whole school community to celebrate everyone’s individuality.

We promote everyone’s social and emotional skills and understanding of themselves and others.

A copy of the school’s updated Relationships and Behaviour Policy will be available on the school website. This is where parents and carers can read about our relational approach in further detail.