The Echo

School Climate Policy from Beaumont Elem. School in Berwyn, PA. Beaumont ranks 97 of the Top 100 Best Performing Public Schools in the U.S. at Neighborhoodscout.com.

From Beaumont Elementary School's webpage on School Climate

OLWEUS BULLYING PREVENTION PROGRAM

Beaumont is participating in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. The program helps children understand that bullying is intentional harm-doing that is repeated over time. It occurs in a relationship in which there is an imbalance of power. Bullying affects the victims, the bullies and the bystanders. The goals of the Olweus Program are: to reduce existing bully, victim, and bystander problems among school children; prevent the development of new bully, victim, and bystander problems; improve peer relations; improve school climate. The children are learning the rules for a bully-free school.

In Beaumont we will:

not bully others.
help students who are bullied.
include students who are easily left out.
tell an adult at home and at school when we know someone is being bullied.

http://www.tesd.k12.pa.us/beaumont/Olweus%20-parent%20powerpoint.ppt

PATHS

PATHS is a science based , social-emotional learning curriculum that promotes self-control, positive self-esteem, emotional awareness, and interpersonal problem-solving. There are three main units. The self-control unit uses a metaphorical story about a young turtle who learns to stop and calm down to effectively think. The Feelings and Relationship unit focuses on teaching different affective states in a developmental hierarchy beginning with basic emotions (e.g. happy, sad, angry) and proceeding to more complex emotional states (e.g. jealous, guilty, proud). Emotions are taught using feelings faces that depict essential emotional cues. The unit teaches that all feelings are OK to have and that some feel comfortable and some feel uncomfortable. Behaviors, on the other hand, can be OK or Not OK. The emphasis is to judge or evaluate behaviors, not feelings. Feelings are signals that communicate information and can be helpful in making decisions about what to do next. The Problem-solving unit builds on the self-control unit and elaborates stop, calm down and think into 11 steps: (1) Stopping and thinking, (2)Problem identification, (3) Feeling identification, (4) Deciding on a goal, (5) Generating alternative solutions, (6) Evaluating the possible consequences of these solutions, (7)Selectingthe best solution, (8) Planning the best solutions, (9) Trying the formulated plan, (10) Evaluating the outcome, and (11) Trying another solutions and /or plan, or alternatively reevaluating the goal, if an obstacle results in failure to reach intended goal (1994 Kusche, Greenberg, Developmental Research and Programs, Inc.)

The foundation of the PATHS Curriculum is the ABCD Model of devlopment that suggests that successful coping and adaptation (healthy personality development) is pacilitated when there is a developmental integration of feelings (and emotional language), behavior, and cognitive processes. (1994 Kusche, Greenberg, Developmental Research and Programs, Inc.)

Examples of the units in the primary division (K-2) include rules, compliments, feelings, the turtle technique, sharing manners, playing fair, teasing, and listening to others. In the the upper division (3-4) the units include rules, control signal, problem solving meetings, feelings dictionary, gossip, cooperative learning skills, identifying problems, feeling, goals, and solutions, and stereotypes and discrimination.