Holy Family Junior School is an Incredible Years school where we try to ‘catch children being good’ and promote a positive behaviour management approach which is used by everyone in our school.
The Incredible Years Programme is a set of three training programmes for parents, teachers, and children which were developed by Webster-Stratton (1990) to promote children’s social, emotional and academic competence. All of the staff of Holy Family Junior School have received training in the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Programme, because we recognise that developing positive relationships with our pupils built on trust, understanding and caring will increase pupils’ co-operation and motivation and improve their learning and achievement in school.
The Incredible Years Programme is deeply rooted in the notion that a positive start to school life is essential. Here at Holy Family Junior School, we promote our children’s personal, social and emotional competencies, and in turn their academic skills.
For example, pupils practise “Show Me Five” from Junior Infants. This encourages pupils to make a good choice in school – eyes and ears on teacher, hands to oneself, quiet hand up to speak, use an inside voice. This ensures that pupils are engaged and ready to learn.
In addition, we chose to marry the IY Teacher Classroom Management philosophies with the Classroom Dina Curriculum, and link the Classroom Dina Curriculum with the current SPHE school policy. When you encourage a child, you give them the courage to try, and when you praise a child, you encourage them to repeat the good behaviour. Holy Family Junior School is deeply committed to promoting positive behaviour, ensuring that our school is a happy and safe place for all of our pupils.