“Miss! A girl just took her phone into the washroom to talk to her friends”. There goes a ball over the wall into the streets and then a challenge ensues to see who can do it again. Couple of students sneak in a quick video game in class oblivious to the teacher who was helping some other students. An ordinary day at school.
Why ordinary? Let's look at it this way- For 10 years or so, children have been told to follow rules. Once they become teens , they start wondering if these rules made by adults are arbitrary and can be stretched if not broken without extreme circumstances. It's the age of experimentation with boundaries both at school and home. Now, it doesn’t mean their moral compasses are all wrong. Research indicates that our teenagers understand that when their actions directly affect others in a negative way, it's wrong. Like hitting someone or stealing something. However, it's when their actions might have an indirect effect on others like spreading rumors or excluding peers from games or not following school rules, that is when we can’t expect them to adhere to societal rules.
Growing up as a teen myself, I firmly remember what my dad used to tell me, “making mistakes is ok, but don’t make the same mistakes again”. When I was at school we were punished. Standing outside the classroom with hands up for hours or kneeling outside the principal's office was quite a common sight. Definitely not ideal.
At BCB, we believe that students should get the opportunity to understand why they made an error in judgment and didn’t follow the guidelines, for example, not using technology appropriately at school. Perhaps they made a poor choice that hurt another student. Or decided to make tweaks to the uniform policy to stay trendy and look cool even at school. We encourage good behavior through a mixture of high expectations, clear policy and an ethos which fosters discipline and mutual respect between students, and between staff and students.
The behavioral policy makes sure that all our students understand that decisions and choices have consequences just like in the real world. We need to follow guidelines that are created to ensure students are safe, feel included and can focus on building positive relationships and achieving success in academics. It's crucial that all students, teachers and parents understand the policy so that knowledge, consistency and timely communication can make our middle schoolers responsible for their actions by reflecting and then making affirming changes in their young lives.
The self reflection form to help students understand and learn from their mistakes.
As parents, we can continue to ensure our children understand why good behavior is important both at school and home and sometimes one might need to follow certain rules. Encouraging our children to be in uniform for school, on time, fully prepared with all their resources and home learning tasks for each lesson will help them in focusing on positive aspects of school. If they are struggling with behaviors of peers at school, do contact their form tutors so, concerns may be addressed promptly and all our students can enjoy the best years of their school life safely and happily.
