Principals in Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) schools actively participate with the PBL school leadership team to ensure whole-school behaviour support is included in school improvement planning. Principals also facilitate access to professional learning opportunities for all staff to enhance their skills to support student behaviour.
Effective school staff are critical to developing safe and inclusive classrooms, where students are supported and engaged in learning. A whole-school approach to curriculum provision, using a continuum of support, caters for the learning needs of all students including those with diverse needs.
PBL schools establish a PBL leadership team representative of the school community. Teams meet regularly and develop and monitor an action plan for PBL implementation. Parents, students and other community members are encouraged to provide input on PBL implementation or to be on the team. Each team also nominates a PBL coach to guide implementation and to liaise with regional support services.
Training and support
Each state school region has a PBL principal advisor who provides professional development and coaching support to PBL schools. Queensland state schools should contact their
regional office for information about accessing these supports.
PBL principal advisors provide a range of professional development to schools according to phase of implementation. Available training includes:
- PBL new team module training
- PBL coach training
- Tier 2 foundations
- practical functional behaviour assessment
- classroom PBL
- setting up Tier 3 processes
- leading PBL (in collaboration with
QELi).
Getting started with PBL
Schools wanting to receive initial PBL training should submit an expression of interest to their PBL principal advisor by the end of term 4 in the year before they wish to begin training. Acceptance will be considered by the region using the following criteria:
- capacity of regional services to meet demand
- capacity to identify a suitable PBL coach from the school
- principal has attended an initial regional PBL information session
- principal has gained at least 80% of staff support to implement PBL
- Assistant Regional Director supports application.
Submission of an EOI for PBL training indicates a commitment to:
- establish a representative PBL leadership team that includes the active involvement of the principal
- leadership team attendance at PBL module training throughout the preparation year
- use of data to measure progress each year of implementation
- ongoing professional development as identified by data and phase of implementation.
PBL verification
Schools using the PBL framework commit to ongoing monitoring and evaluation of implementation. Each school participates in an
annual verification process to ensure that PBL baseline implementation standards are in place. Schools use data to identify goals and to monitor progress.
In the beginning stages of implementation, schools place emphasis on building effective systems for behaviour support and identifying practices which will help to achieve improvements in student outcomes. Once systems are established, the emphasis moves to sustainability of implementation and continuous review and regeneration. Schools typically move through three levels of implementation:
Phase 1: start-up level
At start-up level, schools undergo initial PBL training and work on establishing PBL systems.
Phase 2: emerging level
At the emerging level, schools will have some aspects of the PBL framework in place but need to continue work to ensure that all features are working effectively.
Phase 3: implementing level
When schools reach the implementing level, they will have data showing that all the
essential features of PBL (PDF, 186KB) are in place. However, they may still be working towards establishing effective Tier 2 and Tier 3 systems.
PBL schools regularly evaluate their implementation of PBL to ensure that the entire school community understands and is committed to implementation and that foundations remain strong and consistent. Research shows that student outcomes will only improve when PBL is implemented as intended.