Action Protocol
In Fole school on Gotland we try to switch focus from conflict solving to preventing conflicts. Along with dealing with conflicts that has happened in lessons and/or breaks we are aiming on planning every day so that conflicts are reduced.
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We are trying to give every student all that is necessary to be successful in school and to make the right choices in meeting with other students and adults. We are trying to make everyone that works in school understand that every student wants to be successful in whatever he/she does. And a student that can behave will behave. If a student does not behave he/she simply doesn't know what to do or how to react to something that he/she is being exposed to. This way of thinking about preventing conflicts or understanding students and children in general comes from Bo Hejlskov, http://eng.hejlskov.se/.
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On Gotland and in many parts of Sweden the schools also try to work preventively by making the schools more inclusive. Instead of making students that have difficulties leave the classroom for a "special needs" group we want to make the classroom the best place to be for every student by using inclusive strategies. For instance, if a student has trouble reading a text in maths we simply give him/her a tool that can read it to them (iPad, computer or an assistant). If you don’t have these things or persons in your classroom the teacher can read the text out loud for everybody to listen.
Another preventing way of dealing with conflicts is how I as a teacher react when a student starts to be noisy or acts out on other students. Bo Hejlskov talks about "Low Arousal Approach". By talking and acting calm, you help the student to get away from the conflict that could be. Show them understanding in the moment, and then talk about the situation at a later point, when the student has had a chance to get some perspective.
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Every other week we have a meeting with a team named "students' health team" This is a meeting where all the teachers can discuss thoughts and ideas about students and how to make everybody successful. We also have collegial learning meetings 6 times/term. This is the place for every teacher to learn more about these ideas and discuss more about it. Before every meeting everybody has to read an article and/or watch a movie about the subject of the day.
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This is the way we work trying to prevent conflicts in Fole school. Despite these efforts of course we have conflicts that we can't prevent. If there is a conflict we directly talk to every student involved in the conflict. The teacher that observes the conflict always is the one that needs to solve it together with all involved. If it is necessary the teacher will contact the parents of the students involved. In some cases, the school sends a report to the director of the school. This report does not include names of the students involved. The purpose of the report is showing that the school is working with the conflict that has appeared, and to make sure it's being followed up.