Being Explicit About What We Want. WHO Is The TIS STUDENT?

How do we identify the TIS Student? I am not talking about grades on the report card. Academics are highly crucial to a students success and that is why parents send their children to school right? Yes and No. Academics are important but what I wanted to emphasize here is all the rest. What I am talking about is what kind of human being and person is the TIS graduate? Are they caring of their fellow man, the community, the environment? Do they show respect and treat others well? Do they have developed empathy and understanding for their peers?

Self management, relationship building, social awareness, decision making and developing a role in the community are all critical skills that will make your child successful. Schools traditionally have let all this “stuff” to just happen but now educators realise that this takes explicit teaching just like Math or Science. At TIS, we identify that we not only must TEACH these skills but also provide models of these kinds of behaviours for students to see.

In preparing young people to go out into the world, we teach students the skills they require to be the best they can be. Often this means a lot of second chances, redo’s and retakes. We are all human, we all get it wrong sometimes but what is important is given the second chance that students take up the challenge to do it better next time.

Within our school, the concept of this restorative approach is apparent. We model respect for each other, students and parents. As educators we see that there is always a second chance to improve, get, make amends when things don’t go right. Education is about learning and giving students the chance to make critical mistakes, to review and to relaunch. Students require the opportunity to show change and we encourage and support this restorative process with all our students. Promoting healthy relationships across the school by implementing proactive and responsive programs rather than being reactive to student concerns, is a key component of our success at TIS.

Students have the benefit of being able to build and strengthen relationships with each other as taught explicitly within the Teacher Advisory program (TAP) on how to promote accountability and responsibility as individuals. If harm occurs, the TIS philosophy is to repair the harm using explicitly taught strategies such as feedback, self talk and restorative discussions. Some of the concepts that the school focus on is providing a safe and supportive class community where students can express opinion without judgement. Learn to be emotionally aware of others and their responsibility of how their behaviours can affect the wellbeing of others, use problem solving language to come to solutions when in conflict and ultimately know themselves.

Inevitably, the TIS STUDENT graduates as a well rounded, global minded, community orientated risk taker. And hopefully he or she is also a nice person and someone you are proud to be associated with.