General Conduct Expectations of Community
WSRF is both a school and a close-knit community. As a community, we all bear responsibility for treating each other with civility, respect and consideration. To support this we ask that all our community members abide by the following general expectations.
We expect students and adults to be respectful to, and considerate of all members of the school community, visitors, and to the general public.
We expect students and adults to respect the differences and rights of others which include feelings, perspectives, ideas, experiences and opinions.
We expect students and adults to not in any way endanger or harm others, whether physically, psychologically or emotionally.
We expect students and adults to respect other people’s belongings, the school property and our neighboring areas.
We expect students and adults to respect and contribute to the learning environment of our school, and to bring any issues forward which obstruct the learning environment in an appropriate manner.
Our School’s Restorative Approach
When a student falls short of a behavioral expectation, we believe the correct response is to help them learn and grow from the incident. For this reason, we embrace a restorative approach to student discipline.
The restorative approach (a) teaches students about the impact of their behavior on others (b) helps them to understand the thinking before the misconduct occurred (c) enables them to take personal responsibility for any harm through repair and (d) reinforces their value as an important and contributing member of the school community.
Our restorative approach is grounded in the logic of Core Competency Building (CASEL, 2008).
Self-Awareness: the ability to recognize one’s thoughts and emotions and their influence on behavior.
Self-Management: the ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts and behaviors effectively in different situations.
Social-Awareness: the ability to take the perspective of, and empathize with others, understand social and ethical norms for behavior.
Relationship-Skills: the ability to establish and maintain healthy relationships which involves communicating clearly, active listening, cooperation, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed.
Responsible Decision-Making: the ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well-being of self and others.
Restorative Practices, Whole School Approach
WSRF strives to create an exceptionally positive social environment where every student feels safe, welcome, and celebrated for their innate spirit, unique abilities, interests and talents. It is our goal to foster a climate conducive to learning, exploration, expression, harmony and beauty.
While it is the collective responsibility of all members of our community to foster this positive social climate, it is our singular and official responsibility as a school to establish behavioral expectations and disciplinary responses when expectations are not met. The purpose of this policy is to set forth those behavioral expectations and establish appropriate disciplinary responses.