Busselton Senior High School opened its doors to parents on May 28 and 30 to discuss the school’s strategy to improve student outcomes through positive behaviour management.
Around 50 parents attended the two Community Parent Forums, which also detailed Education Department policy and the day-in-the-life of a student.
Principal Dainon Couzic, who hosted the forums, said educating children was a partnership between the school and the parents.
“Our parents are very supportive and very important to us here at Busselton Senior High School,” he said.
“It was important that I could reach out to them and have an honest conversation, and to receive some feedback from them on how we could improve and do things better to help our students achieve success.
“Creating some more solid connection with parents, getting them involved in the direction that we are going – creating ownership amongst the community – is very important to the success of any changes we make.”
Busselton Senior High School received national media attention in March when a student assault was recorded and went viral.
A 15 year-old boy was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm over the attack.
In May, Busselton Police charged a Geographe teenager with assault of a public officer and trespass following another violent incident at the school.
A deputy principal was taken to hospital for medical treatment after the assault.
In a separate incident on the same day, a different student attempted to physically hurt another staff member.
Mr Couzic said the violence issues related to a very small minority of students.
“While a lot of people have seen those confronting videos – what they haven’t seen is the amazing work happening every day at our school,” he said.
“We’re a positive behaviour support school so we have a lot of programs and interventions in place to match the kids’ needs.
“We also teach the kids explicitly the expectations and the values that we expect – such as respect and empathy; we went through that at the meetings and spoke to parents about what we do have in place to support students to behave well.
“There’s been a calmness about the school at the moment – the majority, the 99 per cent of kids are bright, energetic and willing to learn and are very proud of our school.”
Mr Couzic said the forum included an open discussion on ‘where to next’ and how the school could continue to improve.
He said he was looking into new ideas, including how to best manage school breaks, resiliency programs for students, and new ways to work with the minority of students who needed more intense support.
“We’ve already got some wonderful programs – so we’re looking into how can we take those, and make them better,” he said.
