Friday, 27 January 2017

PB4L PD - Active Supervision

Linda from PB4L came in today to talk to use about our programme. We are currently a Tier 1 school. I loved how she explained that PB4L is somewhat based on the Whare Nui. She talked about how in each Whare Nui, the tukutuku patterns are reflective of the local peoples and their history. In such a way, each school should make PB4L reflect their own people (students) and its own history. It is not a cut and paste programme, it should be moulded and made your own.

Part of PB4L is the triangle model.
Image result for pb4l triangle 80%

Tier 1 (green) - 80% of school population - Most of the school population responds to the standard initiatives implemented across the school. 
Tier 2 (yellow) 10-15% of school population - these students need extra focus as they are not responding to what the 80% responded to, possibly because they are on behaviour programmes, learning support etc etc.
Tier 3 (red) - 1-5% of school population - These students are then referred to agencies because they don't respond or can't fit within the school system anymore.

The first thing we did was look at a map of our school, and use post its to reflect on 'problem' areas - where incidents happen, what happens there, who is typically involved, why we think this might be happening etc.

Active Supervision
Pre-correction - front loading expected behaviour before students they even go outside. Encouraging desired behaviour. This only works when done often and consistently - yes, those children who fit into tier 3 might need 1:1 discussion about this, but everyone needs to be on the same page.

Active supervision is moving, scanning and interacting.

Movement should be constant, unpredictable, planned/purposeful, targeted, designed to increase contact opportunities.

Scanning techniques
- target both appropriate and inappropriate behaviours
- target known problems areas, activities, groups and individuals
-uses both visual and aural cues
-extends ability to supervise large areas
-increases opportunities for positive contact

- positive greetings should be non specific in contact e.g. "hi everyone, its good to see you" rather than "gidday guys, what are you making there?" (these get you stuck with that group, hindering your ability to move and scan)

After that, Ottilie and Sally talked to us about how PB4L relates to our school values, and what expected behaviour we have for our students related to those values. Here are two values -

Overall it was a great session and I definitely learnt a lot. Thanks Ottilie for sharing your knowledge about PB4L! 


  1. Thanks for sharing this Ashley, I did not have a sound understanding of how PB4L worked so this was an awesome summary. All the best for week one, am sure you will nail it!


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