"Schools in NSW share with families and the community the responsibility for teaching values. While values are learnt predominantly in the home and modified through relationships and life experiences, parents and the community have high expectations about commonly held values also being taught in schools." schools.nsw.edu.au/studentsupport/studentwellbeing/values/index.php
During March 2010, Gail Ormond and Belinda Cluff joined Principals and teachers from across the State in Sydney to gain an understanding of Values Education and its place within the school curriculum.
The "Plateau to the Sea" Community of Schools, incorporating Wollongbar, Alstonville and Teven Tintenbar Public School saw a need to direct our schools focus to pinpoint resilience. Recognising and building upon the ability to ‘bounce back' when things go wrong.
Wollongbar teachers worked together to choose two values that would be clearly taught throughout all classes this year, Respect and Responsibility.
Working with Wollongbar Public School's Restorative Justice Practices, Values Education offers our kids the opportunity to practice and build the skills needed to understand the affects that actions can have on themselves and others around them. It's about giving everyone the opportunity to think about how their words and actions affect others.
Values Education is done WITH the students not AT them. Offering a chance to model situations where respect and responsibility can be incorporated into their actions. This allows the students to feel/hear and see what it means to be respectful and responsible. It's about embedding the language and actions into all that we do so it becomes second nature.
Values Education promotes discussion and reflection to understand consequences of behaviours and actions. It offers the opportunity for students to self manage their behaviour, and develop skills to work collaboratively.
Here are some of the activities the classes have completed:
