Another challenge that students commonly identify is that of rules and behavioural expectations at secondary school. What if I forget rules and break them without intending to? What if I get detention all the time? Someone that my friend’s cousin knows got expelled! This learning activity is about preparing teachers to break through the playground myths, explore with students what the rules and regulations actually are at secondary school, and help students determine what they themselves consider to be appropriate behaviour for the school context.

A useful place to start is with the rules and regulations themselves. Again, it is useful if you can gain a copy of your students’ destination schools’ behaviour policies – often these are on the school website, and many schools in Australia make their policies publicly available. So far in this module, there are several things that can be requested from the teacher contact or transition coordinator at the destination schools: this now includes some Year 7 student work, some assessment rubrics, and the student behaviour policy.

As behaviour policies are generally written for an adult audience, it is likely a guided exploration of the policy will be most helpful for students. For example, what are the secondary school’s:

1. General expectations around behaviour?
2. Suspension and expulsion policies?
3. Procedures for when students are late?
4. Consequences for rule breaking?

When students investigate the formal rules and regulations of a secondary school, this can help alleviate anxiety around how the behaviour system operates. Students often find that secondary schools operate similar to primary schools in that there are a series of behaviour warnings before stricter consequences are applied. Have a look at the full list of discussion points in the complementary Classroom activity – Behaviour expectations.