November 20th, 2017

This week is Bullying Prevention Week. We would like to draw your attention to Board policies around Bullying and also what we are doing to support your Children here at Lincoln Heights!!
Each school is required to have a Safe, Caring and Inclusive Schools Committee. This committee is made up of a Parent representative, a community member, staff members and students from the school.
This committee meets at least 4 times per year. If you have input that you would like to provide this committee, please let me know- or let our Parent rep- Simone Craig-know.
At Lincoln Heights our staff engage in a variety of activities to support our students in the quest to eliminate bullying. We use the “Tools for Life” problem solving methodology mainly in our primary grades. If you would like to know more about this, please let me know.
We have a Child and Youth Worker- Lynn Scott – who works with classes, small groups, and individuals on problem solving and conflict resolution.
Our classrooms hold class meetings regularly to bring forward and address any prevailing issues that are presented from the group.
We are taking on the new HERO GENERATION movement to teach positive skills as a preventative measure to prevent this kind of behaviour.
We have several extra-curricular groups that promote positive leadership within the school – Husky Athletic Council, GET – our Global Empowerment Team, WAYVE, and our HERO SQUAD – these students provide feedback and input into initiatives to promote a positive environment throughout the school.
We have Learning Buddies within our school to build community and a sense of responsibility within our student body.

As you can see most of our initiatives are designed to be proactive and build a positive School Climate in the hopes of eliminating bullying. The Board policies define a Positive School Climate as …
Positive School Climate
2.3.1 Positive school climate is the sum total of all the personal relationships within a
school. When these relationships are founded in mutual acceptance and
inclusion, and modeled by all, a culture of respect becomes the norm. A
promotion of a positive school climate means that all members of the school
community are inclusive and accepting of all, including persons of any race,
ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status
and disability.
2.3.2 The following are some characteristics of a positive school climate:
June 2017 Policy 6009 Page 3 of 7
• Students, staff members, and parents feel safe, and are safe, included, and
accepted.
• All members of the school community demonstrate respect, fairness, and
kindness in their interactions, building healthy relationships that are free from
discrimination and harassment.
• Students are encouraged and given support to be positive leaders and role
models in their school community.
• Open and ongoing dialogue takes place between the principal, staff
members, parents/guardians/caregivers, and students. All partners are
actively engaged.
• The learning environment, instructional materials, and teaching and
assessment strategies reflect the diversity of all learners.
• Every student is inspired and given support to succeed in an environment of
high expectations.
• Bullying prevention and awareness-raising strategies for students and staff
are reinforced through curriculum-linked programs.

If you have not yet checked out the Board policies around Bullying, please see the post regarding Bullying Prevention Week that just came out- all of the policies are attached.