Respectful Relationships
Karingal Heights Primary School actively teaches and promotes The Respectful Relationships Program, which came about as a result of the Victorian Inquiry into Family Violence.
The Respectful Relationships Program is a whole school approach to how everyone in our school community interacts with others and involves students, parents, families and staff.
KHPS teachers follow a set program and students take part in learning the focusses of each of the following eight topics:
- Emotional Literacy
- Personal Strengths
- Positive Coping
- Problem Solving
- Stress Management
- Help Seeking
- Gender and identity
- Positive Gender Relationships
Teachers are provided with the resources required to deliver the lessons and all staff have been upskilled in their knowledge around the program.
Here are copies of the program that the school has been provided with by The Department of Education:
It is our aim that each student leaves KHPS with a solid understanding of what a respectful relationship looks and feels like. We also aim for students to understand their rights and responsibilities, have recognition and acceptance that everyone is unique and identify the personal strengths that they possess. In addition, it is expected, that as part of this program, students will develop strategies they can implement, to help cope with difficult situations and to know what support is available shoud it be required.
Respectful Relationships supports schools and early childhood settings to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. At Katandra we have on ongoing commitment to ensure our students and school community are taught all components of the Respectful Relationships program. We have found it teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.
Program background
The Royal Commission into Family Violence identified the critical role that schools and early childhood education have in creating a culture of respect to change the story of family violence for future generations.
In 2016, respectful relationships education became a core component of the Victorian Curriculum from Foundation to year 12, and is being taught in all government and Catholic schools and many independent schools.
Everyone in our community deserves to be respected, valued and treated equally. We know that changes in attitudes and behaviours can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours and equality are embedded in our education settings.
Respectful Relationships is about embedding a culture of respect and equality across our entire community, from our classrooms to staffrooms, sporting fields, fetes and social events. This approach leads to positive impacts on student’s academic outcomes, their mental health, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students.
Together, we can lead the way in saying yes to respect and equality, and creating genuine and lasting change so that every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
More information regarding the Department of Education and Trainings commitment to Respectful Relationships for all Government schools can be found here.
The Zones of Regulation
At Karingal Heights Primary School we use Zones of Regulation as a cognitive behaviour approach across our school. Zones of Regulation is designed to help students recognize when they are in different emotional states called “zones”. The Zones are used to help students visually and verbally self-identify how they are functioning in a given moment.
The zones are designed to help the students:
- Tune into their bodies and recognise when they are in different zones
- Learn how to self-regulate (i.e. use strategies to change the zone they are in)
- Increase/introduce children’s emotional vocabulary
- Introduce skills in reading other people’s expressions/body language
- Learn about how others see and react to their behaviour
- Gain some insight into triggers for their behaviour