Creating the Conditions for Learning
Building Safe and Supportive Classrooms
Students thrive in safe, structured, and purposeful environments. When teachers establish clear routines, model positive behaviours, and create a sense of belonging, students feel secure, focused, and ready to learn.
Our First Principles
1. Rehearse Routines
Establish and practise clear routines for entering, exiting, and moving through lessons.
2. Communicate High Expectations
Express belief in all students' ability to succeed and set high standards for behaviour and effort.
3. Structure the Environment
Maintain a consistent classroom layout and use seating plans to support focus and inclusion
4. Maximise Attention
Use strategies that keep students attentive and focused on their learning tasks.
5. Positive Framing
Reinforce expectations with respectful language, modelling the interactions we expect from students.
Techniques
Aim High
Teachers set and maintain high standards for all students, fostering depth, precision, and sophistication in learning.
Attention Correction
Attention correction is a flexible and age-appropriate repertoire of techniques to gain and hold students’ attention, and to bring them back on task when their attention drifts.
Building Relationships
Relationship building is less about being a student’s friend and more about being the adult who believes in them, teaches them well, and helps them grow and succeed.
Entry & Exit Routines
Consistent entry and exit routines help students transition smoothly, stay safe, maintain focus, and be ready to learn while promoting independence and self-regulation.
Precise Praise
Teachers give specific, genuine, and actionable praise that reinforces the effort, thinking, and behaviour we want students to repeat.
Seating Plans for Learning
Effective seating arrangements are planned to match the nature of the learning task, supporting focused individual work, purposeful collaboration, and positive behaviour.
Sit Spot
Seating is a deliberate instructional decision that structures the classroom environment to maximise attention, inclusion, engagement, and learning.
Warm Calling
