At Hedgewood school most of our pupils are autistic and this shapes our positive approach to managing behaviour and empowering our children to learn to use strategies to self-regulate at school, at home and in the community to have positive outcomes, stay safe and achieve high levels of well- being.

Hedgewood School belongs to every member of the school community. We are all entitled to feel safe, valued respected. We have the responsibility to manage our own behaviour.  For our pupils with autistic spectrum condition, this often means a journey to understanding over time. For staff this means we model positive and acceptable behaviour at all times and work hard to improve our own capacity to understand and respond positively to challenging behaviour.

At Hedgewood we have a non-aversive approach to behaviour management and where undesirable behaviour is preventing learning or is a substitute for effective, we use functional analysis to establish positive patterns of behaviour.

THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY

AIMS and Positive behaviour Support

• To foster a caring and supportive community built on trust and respect for all
• To ensure that everyone is able to learn and grow
• To provide a safe and secure working environment for everyone
• To maintain the necessary structure where positive behaviour can be promoted and celebrated
• To ensure pupils access community visits safely and positively
• To support families to grow their understanding of autistic spectrum condition.
• To encourage an excitement and passion for learning
• To respond to incidents of behaviour using a low arousal and non- aversive approach – Studio 3 principles

We support and encourage children to develop awareness of both their own behaviour and that of others.  We know that the social communication/interaction and sensory needs of a majority of our children, including those with autism impact directly on their behaviour. We identify those needs and create a working context that reduces anxiety and enables pupils to feel safe, calm and be open to sharing and interacting positively.