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Here at Millbrook Primary, we provide a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment where children are treated as individuals without judgement or comparison. We have a passionate conviction that all our children can contribute and achieve no matter what they have experienced or done. We have a total commitment to their success at Millbrook Primary and beyond. Our behaviour principles are reflected in our values and ethos statements detailed below.

Our Values

• Belonging - connecting with and feeling a part our school community, being motivated to take ownership of our environment and our own learning and development.

• Inclusion – equalising opportunities for all community members and actively seeking to remove barriers to inclusion, participation and engagement. Finding creative, new and/or different ways to engage with the learning process and make progress.

• Respect – by looking after and being kind to yourself, others and the environment. Demonstrating respect and understanding for our own needs, views and beliefs and the needs, views and beliefs of others. Treating others with dignity and holding all community members with unconditional positive regard.

• Diversity – empowering people by respecting and appreciating what makes them different, in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, education, and national origin. Knowing that diversity is our strength and celebrating this.

• Safe – community members strive to build secure and trusting relationships and create environments that are safe, accessible and supportive. Building resilience that help us persevere through adversity and challenge.

Our Ethos

We recognise behaviour as a form of communication. Behaviour is the communication of an emotional need, whether this is conscious or unconscious, and should be responded to accordingly.

• Staff develop strong, positive relationships with children and their families that foster connection, inclusion, respect, and value for all members of the school community. • We put the relationships we have with children first – making sure that the actions we take and the decisions we make will not damage the relationship we have with a child and/or undermine our values.

These mantras describe our approach:

➢ ‘Engage, don’t Enrage’

➢ ‘Connection before Correction’.

➢ ‘The 3 R’s: Regulate, Relate, Reason’

• We start with the child: learning should fit around the child, not the child be made to fit a narrow or rigid model of learning. We demonstrate high expectations of every child, though high quality learning experiences based on a sound knowledge and understanding of each child’s needs.

• Children and young people who display ‘behavioural difficulties’ should be regarded as vulnerable, and we all have a duty to explore this vulnerability and provide appropriate support.

• Adults working with children and young people should take a non-judgemental, curious, and empathetic attitude towards behaviour.

• Adults in school should respond to behaviour in a way that focuses on the feelings and emotions that might drive certain behaviour, rather than the behaviour itself.

• We maintain clear boundaries and expectations around behaviour. To help children feel safe, their educational environment needs to be high in both nurture and structure. Children need predictable routines, clear expectations, and consistent responses to behaviour. These must be in place both inside and outside of the classroom and modelled appropriately, with the context of a safe and caring environment.

• We do not believe that punishment and reward is the most effective way to support behavioural change. Self-management and self-regulation of behaviour is a far more effective way to achieve pro-social behaviour.

• Natural rewards and consequences that can follow certain behaviours should be made explicit, without the need to enforce ‘sanctions’ that can shame and ostracise children from their peers, school community and family, leading to potentially more negative behaviour.

• Our aim is to be attentive to children when they are getting it right and support them when they get it wrong. We are opposed to the traditional notion of punishment and control.

• Staff understand that not all behaviours are a matter of choice and not all factors linked to the behaviour of children are within their control. Therefore, the language of choice (e.g. good choice/bad choice) is not always helpful.

• We believe that behaviour must always be viewed systematically and within the context of important relationships (i.e. a relational communication pattern rather than an internal problem).

• Parental/carer engagement and involvement is crucial when addressing and planning support for a child.

All at Millbrook Primary have courage in our belief that all our children can achieve, especially if they are held with unconditional positive regard by the adults that surround them. We are optimistic about success and accept no restriction on what is possible for all people in our care.

Crucially, being ‘fair’ is not about everyone getting the same (equality) but about everyone getting what they need (equity). This means that we may need to treat children differently to respond to their individual needs. For us, a consistent approach does not mean “one size fits all”. We consistently focus on meeting the needs of the individual child.