Addressing escalating behaviour issues
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128, 25 August 2023, page no.13
Student, parent and community behaviours are often the source of the greatest hazards for QTU members. Consequently, the QTU has been working with members and lobbying the government and Department of Education (DoE) over the past two years to address escalating behaviours.
Actions included: making submissions to the review of Education General Provisions Act, the state budget and the vaping enquiry; consulting members on the issues they face and the responses needed from DoE, including support for student disciplinary absences (SDAs); issuing directives when necessary to ensure staff and student safety; and rejecting discipline audits (see the QTU website for the full list).
The QTU has also developed a strategy to focus on student behaviour, which goes beyond addressing behaviour issues as they occur to also focus on preventing behaviour problems. The strategy emphasises that the QTU has zero tolerance for aggression and violence in the workplace and is designed to ensure our members are safe at work. It also recognises that all students in a class and school have the right to an environment in which they can learn, and that the majority of students should not have their learning undermined by the actions of a few.
Any campaign relating to workplace health and safety in schools is highly complex. The QTU and its members balance the need to provide a safe and supportive working and learning environment within our schools while promoting and protecting public education. It is also difficult to celebrate the wins at different stages of the campaign – a win for some (e.g. a ban on mobile devices) is viewed differently by others. This is to be expected when we apply a workplace health and safety lens to behaviour – and to ensure members’ safety at work, this is what we must do.
A hazard is something that has the potential to harm you or others, while a risk is the likelihood of a hazard causing harm to you or others. In this circumstance, we know that parent, community and student behaviour is the hazard, but how likely is it that these behaviours will cause harm, i.e. what’s the risk?
Risk management requires us to identify the hazards, assess the risks, implement risk control measures, and continue to review and revise these control measures.
Using this lens and then applying the hierarchy of controls to behaviours is important. Ironically, teachers and school leaders do this every day – however it is not referred to as risk mitigation but rather behaviour management.
The hierarchy of controls ranges from elimination (where the hazard is physically removed, e.g. SDAs), substitution (where the hazard is replaced), engineering controls (where people are isolated from the hazard, e.g. alternate break times for students/year levels), administrative controls (e.g. essential skills of behaviour management), and protective personal equipment.
To develop a strategy for responding to behaviour issues in schools, the QTU has developed three tiers.
Support where it’s needed – this tier focuses on lower-level behaviours and the QTU’s call for resourcing and support to respond to behaviours that may not warrant an SDA but, if left unchecked, may escalate.
Members have identified that some of these behaviours were removed from the OneSchool behaviour wizard but were important if schools were to present the complexities of a student’s behaviour and direct resources to address it.
Local level action has included seeking additional support from the region in the form of AVTs, behaviour management, guidance officer support, and other interventions, e.g. administrative controls.
Minimise disruption to maximise learning – this tier focuses on mid-level behaviours that may warrant an SDA after interventions, e.g. students vaping – most schools have a strategy of warning and education prior to suspending students for vaping. Similarly, these behaviours may be those that warrant a detention or parent meeting.
School resources that may be used in these cases include AVT behaviour management, guidance officers, truancy officers, community liaison officers, school nurses, GPs, youth workers. In schools without access to these resources, regional responses may be necessary.
Members have been involved in local action calling for support from the DoE, including professional development and release time to implement programs and behaviour plans to assist these students in learning – e.g. engineering controls and substitution.
Zero tolerance for aggression or violence – this tier responds to the highest level of unacceptable behaviour and includes parent and community behaviour. These behaviours include all forms of violence – psychosocial and physical – and cannot be tolerated in any workplace. The response should be to eliminate the behaviour and ensure the safety of students, school leaders, teachers, and other staff across the school.
Where necessary, members have sought directives to withdraw instruction or cease engagement with parents/community members when their behaviours present an imminent risk to their health and safety, e.g. elimination, administrative controls.
Over the next few months, the QTU will continue to develop resources to support the implementation of this strategy and will continue supporting members in taking local level action where needed. In October, the QTU will be promoting Work Safe Queensland’s Workplace Health and Safety Month and providing more information and support on using a WHS lens when responding to behaviours. Resources will also be available to Union Reps on the QTU website.
