Te ariā: A fictional narrative of alternative behaviour support practice

While pursuing postgraduate diplomas in specialist teaching at Massey University, pouwhirinaki | Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) Nick Shimasaki and Nick Bates explored the effect of stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions on student engagement.

Told through a fictional ariā (narrative), the two pouwhirinaki explore what high-level behaviour support could look like, grounded in the research and experiences of two schools in Ōtautahi | Christchurch. This is just one example, but Nick and Nick hope it serves as a useful tool to convey some of the observed alternatives to stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions.

Note: The process outlined below likely will take longer than expressed in the narrative, but for the purposes of this piece of work, the two pouwhirinaki have chosen to condense the timeline.

Gender-neutral language for tamariki and kaiako has been used in this ariā.

Jessie and their friends had heard Riley’s secret through whispers in the classroom – their mum and dad were no longer together and they were living with their grandfather until things settled down.

This gossip made its way to Riley’s ears and they couldn’t contain their anger. As they heard their secret murmured out loud, shame surged through Riley.

Riley glanced around, trying to figure out who was responsible for spreading this secret. Their eyes connected with Jessie’s. The shame and anger propelled Riley forward.

Riley shoved Jessie in the chest – right hand, then left. Jessie swung back at Riley as their feet left the ground and they fell hard onto their back. Riley, their world spinning and vision narrowing, felt their head get light.

Riley was sitting outside the principal’s office, sifting through fuzzy memories of the events that had taken place. What wasn’t fuzzy, was their expectation of the events that would now follow.

As Riley waited, they reflected on a similar event that had taken place not six months ago at their last school. The words of the North Cape principal rang through their ears: “At North Cape we have a zero-tolerance policy for physical violence! This is your third and final offence, and we no longer feel we can support your needs”.

Riley expected their current principal, Blake, to present the same ultimatum. They felt alone; their grandad, supporting them on a pension and part-time employment, didn’t have the time to deal with situations like this. Their mum and dad, well, they had their own challenges. It felt as though the world was against them.

Riley’s mind returned to the present as their eyes connected with Blake’s. “Here it is…” Riley thought.

A show of compassion

Instead of the look of anger and disappointment Riley was so used to, Blake looked up with eyes of compassion and understanding. Blake wandered over and knelt by Riley, getting on their level.

“Riley, I want you to know when I accepted you to be a student at Nightingale School, we wanted you to be here”. Blake continued, “What happened today was a setback, but we’ll work through it together.”

Riley stared back gingerly. Blake opened their mouth to talk, but then paused, smiled at Riley, and slowly walked over to the jug of water that they had on their desk. Blake poured a glass, then offered Riley a glass also. Riley gladly accepted.

Drawing from experience with Collaborative Problem Solving, Blake knew asking Riley how, when, where and with whom they’d prefer to discuss the incident would open up Riley’s perspective and be less confrontational.

Riley highlighted that they were comfortable sharing with Blake. When Riley began sharing their problem, Blake simply sat listening carefully and considerately, not yet suggesting answers, but showing a genuine care for Riley’s needs.

As the conversation came to its natural close, Blake asked where Riley would feel comfortable completing their learning for the day. Riley quickly but quietly responded, “the office please”.

All sides of the story

Jessie spoke clearly and explained their understanding of the situation well when called to the office. Their version left Riley completely at fault and culpable for all of the day’s events.

Due to the teacher Ainsley’s focus being on working with their instructional reading group, they had missed the escalation of this situation, and only noticed the physicality, so could not elaborate further.

Blake was not going to let time or existing reputations get in the way of finding out what happened. As Blake well knew, it was important to hear the perspectives of all parties.

The only piece missing now was how to address the situation. Blake knew keeping students out of school rarely helped, aware that research linked missed class time due to behavioural issues with increased academic struggles.

With this knowledge, Blake sat and reflected, clear that some form of repair needed to take place. Their school had recently begun implementing Restorative Practices and Blake had received training in restorative conferencing. Blake saw this as an ideal moment to put the training into practice. Realising that they needed to interview each of the participants involved carefully, and highlight any risks that may cause challenges, Blake proceeded to reflect on the explanation of events from each party.

Blake took the time to call Jessie’s and Riley’s families. While these conversations weren’t easy, Blake knew from previous experience that it was of huge importance to include the family as early as possible.

Blake was able to get through to both families and took this opportunity to invite both families to attend a (restorative) healing circle following the Restorative Practice Model. Both families were particularly receptive to the invitation to attend.

Wellbeing a top priority

Blake checked in with Riley as they strode out of the office. Blake prioritised Riley’s wellbeing, using the check-in as a chance to help Riley regulate their emotions.

As Blake knelt again to the same height as Riley, they asked, “How would you feel about ‘talking it out’ with Jessie, and all of us trying to understand what happened today?”

Riley gingerly responded, “I would like that… but I am a little worried about what Jessie will think about me now.”

Blake smiled at Riley and explained that “Jessie will understand.”

Blake wandered along the corridor leading to L-block. As they rounded the corner, their eyes connected with Jessie’s. Blake gave Jessie a warm look, hinting that this would be an opportunity for them to move forward.

With a warm smile, Blake gently asked Jessie, “How are you feeling?” Jessie hesitated, then said quietly, “I think I’m OK now.”

Blake continued, “Would you like the opportunity to ‘talk it out’ with Riley?”

Jessie nodded.

Blake responded, “OK, I will make sure that you are supported and safe; there is nothing to be worried about. OK?”

A smile began to enter Jessie’s expression. “OK…” they said.

Restorative circle

Jessie followed closely behind Blake as they both walked back towards the café. As Jessie entered the café they saw Riley, Riley’s grandfather, their family, and their teacher, Ainsley. No one else was present in the café – it was closed every day after school.

The furniture in the café had been moved to facilitate the creation of a restorative healing circle with the chairs in the middle of the room. Blake had intentionally seated the participants – one family and student offset to their left, the other directly in front, and Ainsley to the right.

Blake went over the guidelines and values of the restorative healing circle and that everyone agreed.

“Welcome. As you know, my name is Blake, and I will be facilitating this conference…”

As the students concluded their sharing, Leigh, Jessie’s mother, stood and walked across the circle. Blake watched on, not sure what was going to happen.

With tears in Leigh’s eyes, she embraced Jamie, Riley’s grandfather.

“I am so sorry…” Leigh continued. “I had no idea how tough things were for you or Riley at the moment.”

With her arms still tightly wrapped around him, she breathed deeply and turned towards Jessie.

“Mum, I didn’t know, how could I know? It’s never going to happen again,” exclaimed Jessie.

Jessie’s head then turned, locking eyes with Riley. Jessie continued, “I really didn’t know. I didn’t know. I’m sorry…” Riley also confided in those present. Looking toward Jessie, Riley exclaimed, “I’m really sorry too. I…I lost control.” Riley paused and took a deep breath, “I’m working on taking control of my emotions.”

Following the sharing of the others present, Blake led the conversation to its conclusion. Blake exclaimed, “I am very proud of these students for coming together and for sharing their perspectives and also, for accepting their responsibility in the events which occurred today.”

They continued summarising the agreements and decisions from the restorative healing circle. Riley had committed to grounding activities when they were frustrated, and Ainsley said they would enable this to happen within their regular classroom management.and Ainsley said they would enable this to happen within their regular classroom management

Jessie agreed, when they felt sharing something which might be contentious, they would take five breaths before sharing it, and if during those five seconds they realised that it would have a negative impact on someone, they would choose not to share it.

Blake committed also to having a positive check-in once a day with both Riley and Jessie at a time of their choosing to listen to how things were going.

As the summary concluded, everyone stood up from the circle, and a weight in the air lifted. It was clear that Jessie’s and Riley’s families were both satisfied with the outcome.

The mahi continues

Both students, while still emotional, left the hui with a new, shared understanding of how they would interact with one another successfully in the future.

As the families of each student left, Blake turned to Ainsley. “I know how tough your day has been, but let’s have a short meeting with Alex (the school SENCo) and plan some initial strategies to help both students have a better day tomorrow.”

Ainsley agreed. “I think that would be really worthwhile.”

As Blake and Ainsley sat and planned for the rest of the week, they reflected on the specific needs of Jessie and Riley, and how they could include strategies that would support them explicitly, but also implicitly support all the other students in the classroom.

They knew involving Jessie and Riley directly would be essential, recognising collaboration with students often achieved more than adult solutions alone.

Alternative approaches

Restorative

Restorative approaches are approaches that prioritise the building and maintaining of positive relationships. The focus of this approach is to focus on repairing harm rather than placing blame.

This approach gives all parties involved an important role in repairing the situation and provides an opportunity for learners to develop problem-solving skills which other approaches do not afford.

Neurosequential model

Utilising the ‘Neurosequential Model’ in a classroom context ensures that teachers are ‘biologically respectful’ of the neural development of the learners within their classes.

This approach places importance on the effect that trauma, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and neurodivergence can have on the way that learners interpret and interact with the world around them.

Collaborative proactive solutions

Contrary to behaviourist approaches that are so common still within classrooms, the ‘Collaborative Proactive Solutions’ approach, as the name suggests, is a collaborative alternative that proactively supports learners in overcoming challenges which they otherwise, individually, would have been unable to do.

It gives students the opportunity to collaborate on solving problems before being expected to solve the problems they come across independently.

About the authors

Nick Bates and Nick Shimasaki are Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) based within the East and South Christchurch cluster, Te Paeroa. Both RTLB have a strong passion for championing strengths-based, culturally grounded and trauma informed alternatives to stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions.

As part of their postgraduate research, Nick and Nick selected to interview a cross-section of the schools that Te Paeroa supports, and which have shown a deep commitment to providing alternatives to the use of stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions.

Through the commitment and success of these schools, they have been able to identify some key attitudes, approaches and paradigms which, adopted earnestly, can support schools to successfully improve stand-down, suspension and exclusion data drastically.

This commitment to positive behaviour approaches came to a head when they were presented with the Education Counts data for Canterbury for 2023/24. It was clear something needed to change and that they could be the drivers of this change.