Safe and Caring Schools

At Thorncliffe School, we believe that a positive, safe, caring environment is integral to learning. Three overarching principles guide our day-to-day interactions with curricular content, with each other, and with the world:

• We Respect Ourselves
• We Respect Each Other
• We Respect This Place

We also believe that maintaining the dignity of each person, in all situations, is crucial to positive, relationships. When challenging circumstances arise, they are to be viewed as opportunities for meaningful learning and understanding to take place.

The role of our staff is to support students by:

• Clearly defining acceptable and unacceptable behaviours with students:
• Acceptable Behaviours are those that comply with the code of conduct and contribute to a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment
• Unacceptable Behaviours are those that interfere with the safety and well being of staff and students
• Taking time to debrief with students in order to fully understand the situation and ensure that all viewpoints are heard and respected
• Teaching skills and strategies such as reflective listening, hearing another person’s point of view, clearly and respectfully communicating personal desires, compromise, sacrifice, negotiation and forgiveness
• Reflecting on the situation and considering what led to the situation and which strategies could be applied in the future positive choices could be made in the future
• Documenting behaviours and communicating with parents in a timely fashion when patterns of behaviour are identified so that they may take an active role in student success
• Creating a plan with the student and parent to improve the behaviour. The plan will account for the student’s age, maturity and individual circumstances