We believe that everyone at South Park School has the right to feel both physical and emotional health and safety. To ensure this we have adopted the following code of conduct, which is aligned with the BC Human Rights Code:
At South Park Family School we commit to playing and working safely, respectfully and responsibly.
We support the children making positive choices through teaching empathy, conflict resolution and anger management. We teach them about their needs and create a set of beliefs as a community (parents, students, and staff) and bottom lines that protect those beliefs. In support of our school goal which is: ‘to increase student achievement in social responsibility’, we use a variety of programs including: Second Step, WITS, Zones of Regulation, Restitution programs, Spirit of Alliances, etc.
As staff, we model our code in our interactions with each other and with the children and parents of this community. When students make choices contrary to the code of conduct we help them to think through the following:
- What need was I trying to meet?
- Did I hurt someone else’s need?
- Do I know that it is okay to make mistakes while I am learning?
- Do I want to plan to fix it/do better? (retaliation prevention)
In order to ensure the safety of all children at South Park School, the adults have created bottom lines that protect our beliefs. There will be appropriate consequences for actions. This includes but not limited to the following:
Physical, verbal, cyber or emotional violence, including bullying, harassment, intimidation, inappropriate language, discrimination (which includes: race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation and age as per Sections 7 & 8 of the Human Rights Code).
- Significant direct defiance of a reasonable safety/respect request.
- Theft, destruction or defacing of property.
- Disrespecting privacy.
- Interference with the learning of others.
Notification: Conduct reports may be sent home by any staff member and a copy must be left with the principal or vice principal. A decision will be made regarding appropriate action (i.e. restitution plan, time out, call home, sent home, in school or home suspension). Parents will be invited to work in consultation with staff to build strategies for appropriate student behaviour. Our school personnel will advise other parties of serious breaches of the code of conduct.
For example:
- Parents of the students involved – in every instance
- School district officials – as required by school district policy
- Police and/or other agencies – as required by law
- All parents – when deemed to be important to reassure members of the school community that school officials are aware of a serious situation or incident and are taking appropriate action to address it