Are You Ready?

This program runs for the first two weeks of the school year, aiming to build a positive and supportive
classroom culture where students feel safe and have a sense of belonging, identity, independence and
mastery. All teachers, including Specialist and classroom support people, are involved in the program.
There will be opportunities in the first two staff meetings to share the positives that have come from the
program and challenges you came across to assist in improving the program in the future.

Research has shown that student achievement can be directly related to the teachers ability and willingness
to:
Invest time in developing positive relationships with students and parents/caregivers
Invest time in establishing a positive and supportive classroom culture
Establish a clear purpose within the classroom
Establish and articulate classroom expectations, values, routines and ways of behaving
Develop students responsibility for their own learning and behaviour
Promote cooperative relationships
Establish forums to raise issues
Value students identity and provide opportunities for students to reflect on:
Their goals for learning
The strategies they use to learn
How they feel about their learning
The outcomes of their learning

Social and Emotional learning Play Is The Way

In 2015 the Staff at TGS voted to select Play Is The Way (PITW) as the Whole School Social and Emotional
Program we will run throughout every class in the school.

The Play Is The Way methodology develops the skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness
and social management. In so doing, it successfully embeds the domain of Personal and Social Capability in
the Australian Curriculum.

Key elements of the PITW program that are expected to be delivered in every class across the school are:

Life Raft : Key Concepts

Treat others the way you would like to be treated (Golden Rule , Orange Poster)
Be Brave Participate to progress (green poster)
Pursue your personal best no matter who you work with (red poster)
Have reasons for the things you say and do (Blue poster)
 It takes great strength to be sensible (Yellow poster)

Each concept is unpacked using activities and scenarios that encourage reflection, critical thinking and
discussion. All activities can be found in the Life Raft chapter in the Play Is The Way Volume 1 programme or in
Staff Share- PITW-Life Raft Activities.

After the initial classwork to embed the 5 concepts its important to maintain an exploration of each. Daily
school life offers many opportunities to acknowledge the concepts in action and to question the reasons for
their absence.

6 Key Virtues
Our aim is to deeply entrench the 6 Key Virtues that comprise the ultimate virtue of Empathy over our
students primary school journey.

Students in Reception end Year 3 will focus on 3 Virtues:

Good Manners, Friendliness and Courage

Students from year 4 7 are asked to add three more virtues to their list for daily practise

Persistence/ Resilience , Compassion, Tolerance/Acceptance

Good Manners Friendliness Courage

Listen with quiet hands, feet and Not deliberately hurting others Try our personal best in everything
mouths bodies or feelings we do
Look at the person speaking Taking care of property and the Not run away from problems or
Listen from start to finish environment things we find hard to do
Listen beyond what is said to how Be friendly even to those who Seek the truth
it is said arent our friends Take responsibility for our own
Using please and thank you actions
Persistence Tolerance Compassion

Keep trying even when we make
mistakes or fail
Trust our teacher and give things a
go even if we dont like those
things or find them hard
Have really good reasons for not
giving something a go
Look inside ourselves for the
bravery we need
Know our feelings and take charge
of them
Respect the rights and traditions of
others
Not say nasty things about people
or spread rumours
Listen beyond what is said to how
it is said
Use our words and actions to help
people and not hurt them
Help people in difficulty
Tell a teacher if we see or hear
something that might be
dangerous to us or others
Using other Virtues that children know?

Teachers often ask if it is alright to describe and detail student behaviour using virtues other than those in the
PITW methodology.

There is no problem in doing so but the trick is to link those virtues back to the Virtues of the PITW
Methodology.

Eg loyalty can be linked to courage

Determination can be linked to courage and tolerance to deal with difficulty
Cooperation can be linked to friendliness and good manners

Acknowledging Key Concepts and Virtuous behaviours

By describing and detailing their own actions a student defines the virtue and see it as something done, not
merely understood.

Its important that students are pursuing virtuous behaviour not solely as a means to be rewarded or
to please their teacher, but because they see personal and community benefits in doing so. To this end
, teachers should be frugal in their use of superlatives and nurture the belief that the right thing to do
should be done simply because its the right thing to do (Yellow poster) Wilson McCaskil General
Acknowledgements , pg 15 UCRM.
Using the word because
A good way to train yourself out of the habit of using reflexive praise and into a skills of
acknowledgment is to use the word because:
Fantastic John because you had the last piece of yellow paper and you kindly gave it to Mary whom
you could see was getting upset. Do you think you did a good thing?

Games
Every class is expected to play 3 x 20 minute game during Are You Ready?

Games are used to initiate a process of self-awareness. They create a shared body of experience that is used
to build relationships within the group and to develop the group. They are an engaging way to reflect on
behaviour of themselves and of others and provide a great opportunity to reflect back on Key Concepts and
Virtues in open discussion time.

The table below highlights a few games and the Key Concept they best relate to get you started. Those in bold
are games Wilson will run through on our whole staff training on Friday.

Key Concept 1:
Golden Rule: Treat Others As You Would Like Them To Treat You

Crossing the square (All ages)

Islands (All ages)
Piccadilly Circus (All ages)
Touch and go (All ages)
Big Mouth (All ages)
Balloon games (Variety) (All ages)
 Key Concept 2:
Be brave- Participate to progress

Islands (All ages)

Left, Right, Elbow , Flick (All ages)
Dead Ants (All ages)
Timeball (All ages)
Cat and Mouse (All ages)
Big Mouth -See Ruth (All ages)
Balloon Games (All ages)
Gift Ball (R-2)
Categories (3-7)

Key Concept 3:
Pursue Your Personal Best No Matter Who You Work With

Snake (All ages)

Timeball (All ages)
Rhythm Games (All ages)
Dead Ants (All ages)
Piccadilly Circus (All ages)
Touch and Go (All ages)
Gift Ball (R-2)
Categories (3-7)

Key Concept 4:
Have Reasons For The Things You Say and Do

Pegasaurus (All ages)

Running Raiders (All ages)
Bulls Eye(All ages)
Rhythm Games (All ages)
Knotted Arms (All ages)
Amoeba Hula (All ages)

Key Concept 5:
It takes great strength to be sensible
Running Raiders (All ages) Amoeba Hula (All ages)
Islands (All ages) Snakes and Ladders (All ages)
Team Brandy (All ages) Gift Ball (R-2)
Robots (All ages) Around the Community (R-2)
Dead Ants (All ages) Back to Front (R-2)
Knotted Arms (All ages) Peg Chasey(R-2)
Zig Zag Ball (All ages) Crazy walks(R-2)
Snake (All ages) Crazy balls (R-2)
Rhythm Games (All ages) Tap Tap (3-7)
Catch the Tail (All ages) Alphabet (3-7)
Pegasaurus (All ages) All or Nothing(3-7)
Ball Countdown (3-7)
One for All (3-7)
Self Regulation developing an understanding using the following 2 strategies

Stepping into the unknown.

The following two strategies help students to view learning in a way that helps to face its many challenges and
difficulties. A great starting point for understanding the behaviour of themselves and others and what skills
they will need to have a successful year in your class. The strategies remove the prevalent belief that learning
is best done by those who are the brightest, and that without the gift of being smart, school doesnt work
well. The strategies empower students by helping them to see that the things required to learn well, are
within their control. Teachers can tweak both strategies if needed to better inform students. Both strategies
can be linked to the principles displayed on the Life Raft Posters

Strategy 1: Welcome to the unknown Be Brave

Make a sign saying, Welcome to the unknown Be Brave and place it in a position that allows
students to see it before they enter the classroom

(See handout 1 for more information )

Strategy 2: Are You Ready?

This Play is the Way strategy has a clear focus on teaching students the importance of code switching and
setting clear goals.

1. Students set a personal goal for the day.

2. Discuss goal with the class

Student: Im ready to .(states goal).

3. Students know that when they enter the classroom there is an expectation that they are ready to pursue
their goal, to switch onto learning.
4. Throughout the day the teacher will ask students to restate their goals.
5. The class respond if the student is working to achieve the goal.
Code switching
The ability to quickly change from one way of behaving or code of behaving to another way of behaving.

Within the school environment different modes of behaviour are permissible.eg the way you behave in class
would be different to the yard.

Children will switch code for assembly and code switch again for sport. Encourage children to see code
switching as a skill that is mastered by training and self-monitoring.

Using the consistent language code switch before leaving of entering a new place/ situation can remind
students to self-regulate and what is expected in a quick and direct manner.

For more information and/or examples of the conversations you can have about this topic with students
please see Good Manners and Code Switching reading

No program- no matter how sound it is can have impact if its essential elements are not used.

Yap, K, Aldersebaes, I Railsback, J Shaughnessy, J & Speth, T

(2000)

School Values
Respect, Responsibility, Learning

Respect Responsibility Learning

Respectful relationships Responsibility for actions To self-manage and learn from
experiences
Active Listening Staying on task
Eye contact Being on time Giving tasks a go
Good Manners Trustworthy Doing your best
Treating others as they would like Following instructions Resilience, not giving up
to be treated Modelling Taking risks
Collaborating with others
 Whole School Expectations for Are You Ready?

Social Emotional Learning- Behaviour Education

Students are introduced to the Play Is The Way Virtues: JP classes do first 3 only: Good Manners,
Courage, Friendliness, Persistence/Resilience , Tolerance/Acceptance, Compassion
Students are reminded of all the PITW Key Concepts and are involved in activities and discussion to
develop deeper understanding of each.
Students are reminded/ introduced to the Term Code Switching and this term is used when
transitioning students from one room to another, activity to another, coming in after recess and lunch
etc.
Students are explicitly taught Golden Rule and are given opportunities to map out what this Rule
means for the class.
Teachers are expected to play at least 3 games per week to reinforce the Key Concepts & Virtues.
Students can identify soothing thoughts and come up with their own they can use to calm themselves.
They know the steps they can take in the classroom when they need to calm down ie cool down
corner.
Teachers are expected to ask students to reflect on their behaviour as a class and individually and
discuss which concept they worked well in and what concept challenged them in the lesson/
throughout the day and why. (for ideas see Active Engagement with the Key Concept posters reading
Vol 1 Life Raft pg1-5)
Teachers to use the language of Play Is The Way to describe behaviour Key Concepts, Self Mastery
Checklist , Virtues.
Students have participated in discussions about friendships and the skills needed to make a friend and
maintain the friendship. (See Kidmatter Appendix) Link with Virtue friendliness. Some useful lessons
in Whats the Buzz?

Developing a Safe Community

School values, Key Concepts, Virtues and Self-Mastery Checklist are clearly displayed in the classroom
and referred to.
Using School values , Behaviour Code and Golden Rule class Expectations (rules) , Rights-
Responsibilities- and Routines- have been collaboratively developed and clearly displayed in the
classroom. Enthusiastic collective discussion and debate , to determine the content and form of these
four pillas will lead to deeper sense of attachment to the classroom community
Yard Expectations have been explicitly taught- including expectations in library and different play areas
Expectations regarding hot and wet weather policy clearly explained including appropriate activities
students can do while indoors.
Students are aware of in and out of bounds areas.
Students understand expectations about moving throughout the school during lesson time (code
shifting)
Students are explicitly taught strategies to deal with bullying whether youre a victim or bystander and
are familiar with the School Grievance Procedure flow chart) which is displayed
Students understand class meeting and circle time procedures and these are conducted weekly in every
class.
Students elect a boy and a girl SRC Rep by TBA.
 Teachers implement positive greetings and farewells daily to be continued every day of the year (Vol
1 Professional learning pg 11)
Timetable in weekly class meetings. ( SRC meetings will be on fortnightly even week Fridays at
12:20pm)
Dress code explained
Students can identify what makes a safe classroom environment

These maxims may help when considering a Safe Classroom, you may want to share one with the students:

1. Put simply, the safe classroom is one which no child needs to be defensive.
2. Schools are the hubs of communities and can, through educating the children in their care, change and
shape communities for the better.
3. Encourage children to question everything. The truth is not passed on. It is continuously rediscovered
and survives rigorous examination.
4. Never say or do things to belong to a group that makes it hard to be alone with yourself.
5. Encourage children to come to school to better themselves by being able to work with others. And the
more others they work with the better people they will become.

Displays by the end of week 2

All 5 PITW Key Concept posters

1x Self Mastery Checklist
1x School Values poster
Class Expectations are visible and clearly outlined (no more than 4 is recommended) Written in
positive -what to do walk instead of what not to do dont run. Please send a copy to the front
office for TRT folders.
Class timetable visually displayed
Current Virtue is displayed
Student Grievance Policy flow chart

Goal Setting -SMART framework

Teachers need to explicitly teach goal setting to students using the SMART goal setting technique.

All students will develop 3 goals per term. They are 2 academic goals and 1 personal goal. The personal goal
must be linked with the Key Concept that it relates to. This involves developing goals that are specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and achieved within the timeline allocated. At the end of each term the goals
are reviewed and each student reflect on why they achieved their goals or why they did not. All the goal
setting needs to be recorded in a written way. It is useful to share these goals with parents at 3 way
interviews.

Students should be able to

learn to make my own goals.

learn to budget my time to accomplish my goals.
learn to keep track of my progress and know when I reach my goal.
 learn what behaviours help me achieve my goals.
learn to know when my activities disturb others.

Whole School Sharing and Celebration

There will be opportunities in staff meeting to share ideas and activities you have tried
Celebration preparation in Assembly Week 2- TBA

Resources to support:

Are you ready? Support readings : All of these can be found in 3 separate places
1. The Play Is The Way program books Volume 1 had all the readings required. All Action Team
members have a copy and well have another 7 copies available as of Week 1.
2. 5 x Hard copy folders in the Resource Centre
3. Staff Share Folder Are You Ready?
Life Raft Activities can be found in
1. The Play Is The Way program books last chapter Volume 1
2. Staff Share Folder- Are You Ready?
Virtues activities and information
1. The Virtues Project Educators Guide (Teachers Resources- Library)
2. 5 x Hard copy folders in the Resource Centre
3. Shared Drive Are You Ready?
Highlighted Games
1. Shared Drive Play Is The Way
2. The Play Is The Way program books last chapter Volume 2
Kids Matter website
Bullying Resources
Bully Zero http://bzaf.org.au/
National Centre Against Bullying http://www.ncab.org.au/schools/managingincidents/
Bullying No Way http://www.bullyingnoway.gov.au/
Ken Rigby http://www.kenrigby.net/
Restorative practices Steps to taking responsibility
http://www.kidsskills.org/english/responsibility/
Goal setting social skills
http://www.kidsskills.org/english/kidsskillsflash.htm

Kids Matter appendix

https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/primary/mental-health-information/making-friends/helping-children-
learn-positive-friendship-skills

How friendships develop and change

Friendships require give and take. By sharing toys, time, games, experiences and feelings, children learn that
they can have their social needs met and can meet the needs of others. Since friendships develop through this
kind of mutual exchange, close friendships are usually based on well-matched needs.
Childrens friendship needs and skills change as they grow. Similarly, childrens ideas about friendship change
as they develop. This is reected in the different kinds of activities that children like to spend time doing with
their friends at different ages. The table below indicates the ways children tend to describe close friends and
the kinds of skills that support positive friendships as they develop.
Approximate A friend is someone who Friendship skills include...
age

looking, smiling, touching,

Up to 1 yr
imitating

12 yrs plays with you identifying friend by name

has good toys
can do fun things

35 yrs does something that pleases you playing well in a twosome

you know better than other people approaching others to join in

57 yrs helps and looks after you taking others feelings into
you help account
seeing others viewpoint

810 yrs plays fair follows the rules talking and listening to each other
talks and shares interests forming groups with similar
interests

1012 yrs trusts you and is trustworthy sharing confidences

negotiating
respecting one another

1218 yrs understands you and who you talking about personal and social
understand issues
you can talk to about feelings or supporting one another
problems