At Dunolly Primary School, we recognise that students often come to school with complex and varying needs, both academically, emotionally and socially. Many will have experienced varying forms of trauma in their home lives. As a result of this, we have taken steps to ensure that our practises are trauma informed by following the Berry St Education Model .
“The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) provides strategies for teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement of students with complex, unmet learning needs and to successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement.” (Berryst.org.au) We recognise and celebrate student strengths and separate the student from the behaviour.
We actively apply strategies to develop student capacity in BSEM’s five key domains: Body, Relationships, Stamina, Engagement and Character. Key strategies are: brain breaks, morning circles, present centred and grounded, mindfulness, self regulation and zones of regulation, positive primers, unconditional positive regard, golden statements, WWW (what went well) & EBI (Even better if) and de-escalation strategies. For more information on the Berry St Education Model, go to Berry Street.
