Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Thursday last week I visited Windale Public School for the official launch of the school's Positive Behaviour for Learning framework program. The school has chosen three key indicators or target areas that they want to work towards—respectful, safe and responsible—and Lucky Lizard is their emblem for this program. The program operates across the state and there are 150 schools in the Hunter that are involved in it. Windale is part of a cluster of schools, which includes Wiripaang, Mount Hutton, Lakeside School and Hunter Sports High School. The program covers preschool to year 12, and it is about developing positive outcomes. It is a framework or a structure and it runs across all areas, from the playground to lessons, and the coordinator for the Hunter, Nicole Mulhearn, is coordinating what is happening across all of the schools.

In the area where Windale school is part of that cluster, all of the schools liaise and work together. It was great to see the principals from all of the schools there giving support to Windale Public School on the day. We heard from students and we heard from teachers; the whole of the school danced together and invited all of the official guests and parents to join in and do the dance with them.

There are visual reinforcements used at each of the schools. And while Windale Public School has Lucky Lizard as its emblem, in Wiripaang it is Wiri the Eagle and in Mount Hutton it is Dunkley the Kookaburra. Each emblem relates to an aspect of that school—Dunkley was the land where Mount Hutton was born; Wiripaang means 'eagle'. When you go to these schools, visual reinforcements are used such as 'Wiri please enter here' at the gate and 'Dunkley, line up here'. This is a great program that is having really positive outcomes. It is a framework or a structure that goes across the whole of the school. It is something that the school communities in all of these schools have embraced and it is welcomed by parents, students and the whole of that community.