Promote Respect | Reams Elementary School

Promote Respect

Positive Behavior Intervention Support is an initiative implemented by the Virginia Department of Education and Chesterfield County Public Schools to promote and maximize academic achievement and a positive school culture. It is a school -wide framework for helping all students achieve important social and learning goals. We know that when good behavior and good teaching come together, our students will achieve their dreams of excellence.

Peaceful School Bus: We have successfully implemented the Peaceful School Bus Program at Reams. The purpose of the program to decrease inappropriate behavior and build relationships between the students. Each bus has a helper from our staff who gets on the bus each morning to greet the students and see if the students have had any problems. The school bus helper speaks to the children and help to find a solution. We reward our students ” at the end of the year with bracelets that said, “I am a Peaceful School Bus Rider.”

Bully Prevention: Believing that all students have a right to learn in a safe and supportive environment, Reams Elementary works to promote a positive school climate of mutual respect with clear behavioral expectations. Our “Rules against Bullying” are taught early in the school year and posted in every classroom. Lessons emphasizing what bystanders can do to help stop bullying are presented on every grade level.
Lisa St. Pierre, school counselor for more information

Promote Respect is a year-long program of universal intervention within our Positive Behavior Intervention Support framework. Our approach is proactive and utilizes positive interventions to teach expectations of respect, provides opportunities for students to practice those skills and make it a part of their daily routine. This work aligns with Goal 2 of our Imagine Tomorrow strategic plan: All students, staff, parents, and community members will exemplify a culture of safety, personal responsibility, and supportive relationships.

A Promote Respect Task Force was established in 2012 to address bullying behavior concerns and implement 2014 state mandate requirements, including:

Training staff in proactive ways to prevent and intervene in bullying situations;
Educating students about preventing and reporting bullying behavior; and
Establishing procedures to investigate incidents, maintaining data on outcomes and reviewing data to determine proactive action steps.

Research confirms that common language and consistency among schools within a division supported positive reporting practices. So the task force group

wrote a division definition of bullying behavior to increase school staff awareness.
developed consistent messaging about what respect looks like and sounds like, starting with the description of respect of self, respect of property and respect between peers and generations.
conducted division-wide professional development, asking schools to:
- identify a school committee to promote and sustain a positive learning culture;
- establish school-wide reporting procedures and systems; and
- offer presentation templates to stakeholders including evidence based practices and common language to support staff, students and parents. (The presentations are to cover preventing and reporting disrespectful behavior and providing resources and activities at all levels to sustain Promote Respect throughout the school year.)

Promote Respect is our school division’s means of educating parents, staff, and students about bullying prevention. It outlines procedures to report, investigate, and intervene when bullying behavior occurs. Promote Respect was developed using research-based practices and it fulfills the state mandate requiring each school board to implement policy and procedures to educate stakeholders about bullying in order to create a respectful school climate free of bullying.

Speak Up Promote Respect Incident Report