MONDAY was the official start of the new school year for Oberon High School students.
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This aligns all year groups with the compressed curriculum structure of senior college and students started the week by moving to the next year group – that is, last week’s Year 8 student is now in Year 9 and will finish Year 9 in November 2019.
In line with the rollover to the new school year, OHS has been undergoing some changes within the school’s discipline, wellbeing and positive behaviour for learning (PBL) structures.
The PBL team, led by Miss Shannon Marshall, reviewed a lot of the past systems in the school and have decided to re-vamp them in one way or another.
Monday saw the relaunch of PBL.
Students were divided into their house groups - Abercrombie, Tuglow and Werong – where house captains were elected. Traditionally these house captains were vital on school carnival days, however, the PBL team have decided to give these students more of a leadership role.
Strengthen school spirit and encourage students to engage in the school expectations.
- Benny the Bull
Fortnightly, our house captains will lead sub-house groups in wellbeing activities acting as a support role, guiding students on how to handle situations, teaching them the PBL focus of the week and engaging students in positive psychology workshops.
This is a great opportunity for our students to grow their leadership skills, and our student body to engage in programs with their peers.
Part of our relaunch day was the introduction of the new school mascot, Benny the Bull.
Benny was kindly donated to OHS by the local roller derby and will appear throughout school events. He is designed to strengthen school spirit and encourage students to engage in the school expectations.
With Benny, a new rewards system introduced is Benny’s Bucks that will be handed out by OHS staff when they see a student following one of our four school expectations: respectful, responsible, right to be safe and resilient.
A big part of PBL that has been embraced by the staff at OHS is the restorative practice and method of teaching a student how to improve behavioural choices.
Staff and students at OHS have started the 2019 school year off with a bang and look forward to all the positive changes that are occurring.