Summary of initiatives

For parents

Up to 12,000 parents will participate in these programmes by 2014

Expanding on the Incredible Years parenting programme, Positive Behaviour for Learning – Parents reduces challenging behaviours in children aged three to eight years, and increases their social and self-control skills. Parents are the key to the success of the programme.

Evidence shows that programmes such as this have turned around the behaviours of up to 80 percent of the children of participating parents. Positive Behaviour for Learning – Parents gives parents strategies to manage behaviours such as aggressiveness, ongoing tantrums, and acting out behaviour such as swearing, whining, yelling, hitting and kicking, answering back, and refusing to follow rules.

It is estimated that around five percent of children in New Zealand have severe behaviour difficulties (are on what is clinically called an ‘anti-social pathway’).

Through using a range of strategies, parents can help children regulate their emotions and improve their social skills so that they can get along better with peers and adults, and do better academically. It can also mean a more enjoyable family life.

Parents will be referred to this programme on the basis of an assessment of their child as part of the B4 School Checks or through agencies such as Child, Youth and Family. This programme will also support self referrals.

How it works

Parents meet as a group, with two trained facilitators and are given opportunities to collectively and individually develop new strategies for managing their children. The facilitators also work with parents and children in the home environment.

The course uses role plays, videos showing various behaviours and strategies, homework, setting personal goals, and feedback. Parents are given handouts, activities to practice at home, and reminder notes to put on their refrigerator.

Topics covered include:

• how to play/spend special time together
• social, emotion and persistence coaching
• setting limits
• preventing misbehaviour
• communicating positively
• praising and rewarding children
• dealing with non-compliance, selective use of ignore/distract, time out and other penalties
• helping children to problem-solve.

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For teachers

Training in this programme will be delivered to up to 5,000 teachers by 2014

Expanding on the Incredible Years teacher programme, this programme is for early childhood and classroom teachers of children aged from three to eight years. It focuses on:

• strengthening classroom management skills
• social, academic and emotional coaching with children
• developing positive relationships
• effective use of student and classroom strategies
• collaborating with parents
• teaching social skills, anger management and problem-solving in the classroom
• reducing classroom aggression, conflict and acting out behaviour by children.

The programme is delivered through a series of workshops over six months, with a follow-up refresher. The impact includes decreased levels of classroom aggression, increased teacher capability and confidence, a greater positive climate for learning in the classroom, improved management of difficult and challenging behaviour, improved overall behaviour, greater engagement in the classroom and improved learning.

It is hoped that teacher training providers will adopt this programme as a core element of initial teacher education.

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For schools

This programme is being targeted at 400 schools, with priority given secondary and intermediate schools in low decile communities who identify student behaviour as a major challenge

School-wide positive behaviour support aims to improve academic success by allowing more time for teaching because the frequency and intensity of discipline problems are reduced.

This initiative is based on a team approach for creating and sustaining safe and effective schools. It focuses on preventing problem behaviour, developing social skills, reinforcing desired behaviour, consistent management of inappropriate behaviour and using data-based assessment and problem solving to address concerns.

This is a three to five year process which includes training for school leadership and school team coaches. There is ongoing support. At the end of the programme teachers can:

• define specific inappropriate behaviours
• analyse the behaviour
• specify and support replacement behaviour.

Multiple studies of this approach have shown a sustained drop in disciplinary referrals and suspensions, increased instructional time, a positive increase in the learning climate, with corresponding improvements in literacy and numeracy.

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Behaviour crisis response

A Behaviour Crisis Response Service will be piloted and evaluated in 2010. Experienced and skilled specialists will be available to support schools to manage the most extreme behaviour incidents. This includes putting a plan in place immediately to support teachers and students.

Following an extreme event, the services will work to:

• stabilise the school
• make sure everyone is safe
• prevent further deterioration of the situation
• put an immediate plan in place which will link to an effective and sustained behaviour plan
• link to other resources and support. This includes the Interim Response Fund which was doubled in the 2009 Budget to $20 million over the five years of the plan, or referral of a student to a comprehensive intervention through the Severe Behaviour Service. The Severe Behaviour Service (operated through the Ministry of Education) currently supports between 4,000 and 5,000 students annually.

Intensive wrap-around service

In addition to these initiatives an Intensive Wrap-Around Service will be established to target the most complex and challenging students. Once fully operational it is expected that up to 100 students will be supported every year. The national service will be delivered by a team of skilled specialists. A pilot will be trialled in South Auckland and Waikato in 2010.

Evaluation framework

Each of the five actions within Positive Behaviour for Learning will be evaluated in terms of their immediate and medium term impacts in reducing problem behaviour and improving learning outcomes.