Discipline Approach

Our School Precepts/Essential Agreements and Code of Conduct are designed to help children make skillful choices that will contribute towards their own well-being and the development of a happy, safe community. 

Karma (Kamma) is the idea that all actions (no matter how big or small) have consequences. In Buddhist principles, it is believed that there are skillful/wholesome and unskillful/ unwholesome actions. A skillful action is one that produces happiness or wholesome, desirable outcomes, whereas an unskillful action is one that produces undesirable or unwholesome results. All actions have consequences, and there is always the opportunity and responsibility to learn and grow from those consequences. 

To support our children in learning about skillful actions, we follow proactive measures such as collaboratively developing classroom and schoolwide essential agreements, or precepts. Our School Precepts are:

The social emotional learning aspects of our curriculum help children understand skillful choices such as conflict resolution skills, skillful communication, and strategies for processing their own emotions. Our work is guided by the UN’s Rights of the Child, and other research-based approaches which include Responsive Classroom and Dr. Becky Bailey's Conscious Discipline.

When children have “unskillful actions,” our aim is both to uphold their dignity and to support them in learning how to make more skillful choices; therefore, we do not have a predetermined set of strict consequences or punishments. To support learning and growth, we will work with the individual child to understand the root cause of the misstep, and determine how to best support them in correcting their actions. 

Outlined in the Code of Conduct, (see appendix) some serious offences may result in the consequence of time away from the classroom. We may also develop a Sati Guide or Behaviour Intervention Contract as a holistic approach towards supporting the child. 

As part of our collaborative effort to raise happy children who are skilled in making wise choices, we ask that parents refrain from using methods of rewards and punishment at home. It is especially important that children do not experience emotional violence or corporal punishment, as these means do not support a child in learning and they are not aligned with the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child. They also make it more difficult for a child to adjust to peaceful interventions at school. 

To help parents align with our approach, they may wish to follow the work of Dr. Shefali’s Conscious Parenting; Dr. Beckie Bailey’s Conscious Discipline; and Dr. Becky from Good Inside. We also encourage parents to attend the Mindfulness and Loving Kindness Intervention sessions within the parenting education series.   

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