At SS Peter and Paul, we want all children to achieve their full potential in the academic, artistic, social, spiritual and emotional aspects of their lives. Behaviour at all times, and by everyone in the school, needs to support learning and have a positive impact on pupil progress. We want children to show how they demonstrate the school values in their everyday behaviour.

We aim to develop a culture and climate that fosters connection, inclusion, respect and value for all members of the school community and do not accept prejudice in any form.

We know that being ‘fair’ is not about everyone getting the same (equality) but about everyone getting what they need (equity).

We recognise that understanding emotions and having a trauma-informed approach is a key aspect of understanding and managing behaviour. This leads to an understanding that behaviour is a form of communication and so we strive to ‘listen’ to what a child may be trying to tell us through their behaviour. This is done through taking the time to build good relationships between pupils and staff. Children need to feel their teachers care about them. We take a non-judgemental, curious and empathic attitude towards behaviour, encouraging all adults in the school to respond in a way that focuses on the feelings and emotions that might drive certain behaviour, rather than the behaviour itself. We have clear boundaries and expectations around behaviour to help our children feel safe. There are predictable routines, expectations and responses to behaviour.

Parents are vital partners in supporting their child’s behaviour and need to feel supported and listened to by the school. We understand that part of our role, in partnership with home, is to help pupils to understand what is right and wrong and so encourage reflective thinking and a restorative approach to dealing with incidents. Ultimately, we wish to give our children confidence about their capacity to think for themselves and to make sense of their own lives and experiences, hopefully beyond school and into the “real” world”.

The policy below is for all staff, pupils, parents and carers, governors, visitors and partner agencies working within the education setting. It provides guidelines and procedures as to how our educational setting supports and responds to different behaviours.