CARES

We give significant attention to helping children grow in their capacity to be responsible for their behavior and the quality of their relationships. This approach reflects our work with and continuing examination of the ideas of the Northeast Foundation and the Responsive Classroom. You have seen evidence of the work of the Responsive Classroom type activities in the Wishes and Dreams conferences that you have had with your child's teacher before the start of school and in the things you have heard from your child about Morning Meeting.

We intend to continue to evolve into a Responsive Classroom School and a school that makes extensive use of School Wide Discipline.

  • Teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals will be coaching students on the practice of carrying out an "apology of action". This would be a response in which a child makes up for some harmful word or deed by apologizing, promising not to repeat the word or deed and then designing some action to make it up to the person that was harmed or offended. We recommend this as a useful approach to helping children deal responsibly with their brothers and sisters and neighborhood friends.
  • In other instances, e.g., a failure to follow procedures in the lunchroom or on the playground, improper behavior may call for a loss of privilege.
  • It's not our practice to involve parents in discussions about a child's first or minor infractions or lapses in behavior. We are confident that children want to do the right thing and will make that choice with proper coaching and modeling to guide them. We seek to facilitate wise, independent decision-making on the part of our students.
  • A key component of the new disciplinary approach addresses the behavior of a child who is disruptive in class. The goal is having the child recover the ability to manage his/her own behavior and quickly rejoin the class as a contributing participant.

Behavior Away from school

Our students give us, (their parents and their teachers) many reasons to be proud of them, none more so than the reputation they enjoy for responsible, respectful, sportsmanlike behavior when away from school. We expect to see the children of Brunswick Acres School behaving well on busses, at bus stops, in malls and at parks and other venues in the community. They shouldn't need close adult supervision to ensure that they behave properly.

In instances where you see one of our students behaving poorly, you will be serving that child, and the community as a whole, by letting a school administrator or teacher know about what you have seen. Our response will be to provide corrective coaching and to assist the child in planning to correct his or her behavior.