Character Matters with Raceview State School

A period of staff turnover and an intensifying complexity of student demographics saw a degradation of the Raceview State School’s culture. Staff did not know how to properly support their students, particularly involving students from complex backgrounds and parent and student involvement in the school was limited.
The Character Matters project focussed on addressing culture, shifting beliefs and practices about student success, student behaviour and student and parent involvement in the school.
All staff were provided with professional development in Trauma Informed Practice. The school created a universal and evidence-based character strength language, linked to whole-school behaviour expectations, which fed into acknowledgement systems and corrective/restorative conversations.
Small, catchy videos have been used to engage staff, students, and the parent community. This language is then constantly reiterated in conversations throughout the day, at assemblies and in public performances.
The project has also sought to provide more opportunities for students and the parent community to be actively involved in the school, through the use of digital newsletters, apps and access to online parent support content.
Weekly Parent ‘catch-ups’ were started to encourage more parents to come into the school as well as active promotion of the P&C and the provision of various parent forums and information seminars. A student council, or PosEd team, was recently established to ensure students are also involved in the governance of the school.
Students have benefited from the introduction of the strategies. All teachers now regularly use a range of strategies like use morning circles and brain breaks, both of which support the development of student self-regulation. This also gives teachers an opportunity to ‘check in’ on students to ensure they are ready to learn. Furthermore, all students each have a ready-to-learn plan with individualised strategies they can use if or when they feel either over or under-stressed, helping them to get ready to learn.
Students have been introduced to an empirically measurable ‘character strength’ language, focussing on 8 key strengths that promote successful life outcomes.
Parents have been provided with webinars from experts in the fields of child psychology, behaviour management, paediatrics, child development and neuroscience. Access to these resources has given parents a glimpse into the best evidence-based practice that can help them at home and has supported the direction of the school’s culture.