Establishing a Supportive Classroom Environment

It is important to establish a safe supportive classroom environment to ensure the emotional safety of students.

The atmosphere in the classroom should involve:

• A comfortable, informal physical environment
• Trust between students and teachers
• Effective communication
• A teacher skilled in interactive, student-centred learning techniques
• The modelling of behaviour that enables students to feel valued
• Openness and willingness to share experiences, with the teacher modelling this sharing appropriately
• The establishment of safety nets when sensitive issues are raised
• The use of a variety of methods to randomly group students so that they can experience learning with others.

Safety Guidelines

To ensure a safe emotional environment for students, the setting of safety guidelines is essential. Safety guidelines apply to both students and teachers and should be negotiated in partnership. It is important that this work is done carefully and thoroughly. Valuable learning can occur as the result of an in-depth and sustained discussion between the students and the teacher.

While it is important that students are able to share the content of the activities in this programme outside the classroom, it is essential that they understand what confidentiality means in relation to maintaining safety for themselves and others.

Students understand that they only need to share what they feel comfortable with. Therefore, confidentiality means that personal details of stories/experiences of students stay within the group.

If there is something a student does not really want to share, they do not need to. Encourage them to talk with someone who they identity as being safe to share with.

Safety Nets

For the more sensitive activities safety nets have been included. These safety nets are indicated with the symbol and are written in italics. Teachers implementing Hikoi ki te Hauora at the start of a school year will not know their students and some of the students may not know each other. It is important for teachers to have the skills to model appropriate sharing, to be able to provide support for their students, and to be clear about safety for students who are willing to engage in personal sharing and issues relating to confidentiality.