Transcript: Why do we need SWPBS?

1. Why do we need SWPBS? If you are considering adopting and implementing Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Support, or SWPBS, in your school, you will need to consider three factors:

2. First, why do we need SWPBS? It is important that the whole staff establishes the need for SWPBS and that support is led by the principal.

Second, how does SWPBS operate? What does it look like in a school, and how will it look in ours?

Finally, what do we need to do as a school to implement SWPBS? How do we access training and support to do this?

3. In this presentation we will consider why it is important to establish a need for SWPBS before applying for training.

4. School communities are constantly changing over time, but the need for schools to genuinely care for the welfare of their students, and for teachers to build positive relationships with their students remain the foundations of behaviour management.

5. Schools and teachers have a professional responsibility to build and sustain safe and supportive environments for learning. SWPBS creates a structure and provides tools and strategies for supporting student learning and behaviour teachers can use and want to use.

6. SWPBS is firmly based in teaching theory and practice.

SWPBS evolved through years of research and is supported by multiple, random controlled studies conducted in schools and classrooms.

SWPBS is not a program. It is based on organisational “blueprints” that are continually updated and adjusted in response to data that measure and evaluate change and innovation in schools and classrooms.

7. It is important to establish a need for SWPBS before adopting it into your school. These are some of the indicators that might cause school staff to either adopt an SWPBS approach or take steps to improve their current SWPBS framework.

Academic goals are not being achieved at the schoolwide, classroom and/or individual levels.

The school has high rates of problem behaviour and office referrals which consume valuable principal or administrator time.

Parents and community members are dissatisfied with the school climate or concerned about frequent public incidents.

The current school Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students is not adequate for consistently managing problem behaviour.

Teachers and other school staff are dissatisfied with the way problem behaviour is being managed.

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Staff satisfaction is low and teachers report problem behaviour is interfering with their ability to deliver effective instruction and with students’ ability to engage.

8. Many students who leave school early experience negative personal, social and economic consequences in their lives.

SWPBS systems implemented with integrity will reduce problem behaviour and also the factors related to early school leaving. Studies have identified the following risk factors in relation to early school leaving:

School attendance. Missing too many days and having difficulty catching up is one of the most reported reasons for early school leaving. Other behaviours that can signal academic disengagement include truancy, consistently not completing homework and coming to class unprepared.

Social engagement. Students with limited social skills and difficulty getting along with peers at school are more likely to leave school early.

Behavioural factors. Negative behaviour is a strong indicator that a student is disengaged from school.

School discipline policies. SWPBS assists schools to develop policies that better support students. Several studies and surveys have shown that the inability to deal with repeated minor behaviour is significantly correlated with teacher stress.

9. Research shows that implementing SWPBS with integrity can result in:

Maximising academic achievement. Instructional time is gained through teachers needing to spend less time on behaviour management; sending fewer students to the office results in more time spent in instruction.

Decreasing reactive management. Waiting until the problem behaviour has occurred and then responding to it is called reactive management. This approach is randomly disruptive to the flow of instruction and reduces the effectiveness of our response over time – we end up reacting to problem behaviour more often but somehow our consequences seem to lose their potency.

Increasing active prevention. Active prevention strategies reduce the need for and likelihood of problem behaviour, while building and maintaining awareness of positive student behaviour. Only talking to students about what we don’t want them to do is unhelpful and may give some students ideas they hadn’t thought of.

Improving classroom and school climate for all. Research shows that academic achievement improves in positive classroom climates and that school violence, victimisation, harassment and bullying decreases in positive school climates. Positive awareness of appropriate student behaviour improves general student-teacher and student-student relationships in schools and classrooms.

Improving support for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties. These students are often targeted for intervention without regard to the broader contexts in which their problem behaviour occurs. For example school and classroom

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climates that are safe and predictable can lower anxiety levels in these students, resulting in fewer reasons for them to “act out.”

10. In summary:

Positive relationships between teachers and students are the foundation of good behaviour management.

SWPBS gives schools and teachers the support they need in the form of a structure and tools they are able to use and will want to use.

SWPBS makes sense to teachers because it is grounded in teaching theory and practice.

SWPBS makes continuous adjustments to allow for changes in schools and classrooms.

It is important for schools to discuss, establish, and agree on the need for SWPBS before choosing to train and implement.

Reducing the need for students to misbehave also reduces the factors known to lead to early school-leaving.

11. More information about SWPBS and support materials can be found on:

Education Queensland’s SWPBS OnePortal intranet website. Education Queensland’s SWPBS web pages. The Positive Behavioural Interventions and Support (United States Department of

Education) main website.

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