Student Management

The Harvester Technical College learning community respects the rights of students and teachers to work and learn in a safe and comfortable environment. The rights of members of the Harvester community are central in supporting students to make choices consistent with the principles of productivity, safety and respect.

Students at HTC are responsible for their own learning. This means that the level of success any student experiences is due to the decisions they make about preparation and the use of class and workshop time.

Our rights as Students, Teachers and members of the HTC Community

Every workplace requires a common agreement about the best way to get as much done as possible while creating and maintaining an atmosphere that is welcoming, enriching and enjoyable. At HTC we do this by upholding each other’s rights and acknowledging the responsibilities that go with them.

The two governing rights at HTC are:

The right to do as much work as possible and

The right to feel safe and comfortable at all times

These rights apply in all aspects of college life; in workshops, classrooms, communal areas, camps and excursions.

 

The right to do as much work as possible:

What this means for teachers:

  • Teachers will protect the rights of students to be productive by planning and delivering the curriculum so that students have the best chance of success. Teachers will communicate clear and explicit directions that enhance productivity and let students know what is required of them. Teachers listen to student needs and work with them to find solutions to situations that may prevent students from achieving at their best.

What this means for students:

  • Students prepare and come to sessions committed to getting as much work done as possible. Students recognise the need to respect the rights of other members of the HTC community to promote positive communication and collaboration.

 

The right to feel safe and comfortable at all times:

What this means for teachers:

  • Teachers will protect the rights of students to be safe physically and emotionally. By working collaboratively with students to develop their understanding of occupational health and safety requirements, HTC can operate safely while students are exposed to the requirements of industry and the work place. The emotional health of students is at the heart of our focus on wellbeing and is central to measurements of success and achievement.

What this means for students:

  • Complying with systems of occupational health and safety requires students to be active participants in the safe systems of the college and any workplaces that they visit. This means that students are required to follow directions from teachers and complete work to reduce risk as far as possible. Students work collaboratively and respectfully and are mindful of the impact of their words as they communicate with teachers and each other in person, in the community and electronically. Students are committed to rights of everyone in the HTC community and work to promote this individually and communally.

 

Managing choices

All workplaces require a way of communicating with people when things are not going as planned. At HTC, if students make choices that impact on the rights of other students and teachers there is a system that is applied constantly and consistently. The aim of this system is to help people understand the results of their actions and allow people to take responsibility for themselves. Class groups collaborate to determine the best way to support each other’s rights to productivity and safety.

When students make choices that prevent other students and teachers from being productive and feeling safe and comfortable, the following actions are followed in order.

  1. Students and teacher will give general hints to encourage people to remain or resume their task focus.
  2. The teacher will approach the student directly explicitly describing the behaviour and directing the student to stop. The student is made aware about the next consequence if they continue to infringe on the rights of others.
  3. The student is directed to move seats. At this stage, the student’s choices are recorded on the school information database – Compass. This information is collected to present a picture of student behaviour, attendance and results to parents when required.
  4. The student can be asked to leave the room and directed to a specific location. When classroom activities allow, the teacher will go and talk to the student focusing on the student taking responsibility for choices that they have made. The student does not re-enter the class until they accept responsibility for behaviour and how it has infringed on other student’s and teacher’s rights to feel safe and work.
  5. If the student is unable to accept responsibility for their actions or in the event of behaviour that puts others at risk or damages school property, school management will be contacted immediately and the student will be removed.
  6. Behaviour that continues to stop others from working, makes people feel unsafe or damages property may result in a student being suspended from school activities.
  7. Before a student re-enters the classroom or workshop after a suspension, a meeting is arranged between the student, the teacher and a member of the student management team. In this meeting the conditions required for the student to go back to class are restated and the relationship can be reset. It can also be an opportunity to restate the conditions that lead to the exclusion initially.

It is important to note that this system is about supporting students to continue to make the most of their own rights, support other’s rights and to build strong relationships between all members of the HTC community based on empathy, understanding and respect.

 

Discipline Process – Harvester Technical College

If a student is exited from class and a Coordinator becomes involved or a serious breach of the code of conduct occurs the following discipline process is followed:

At all stages of this process, students will be able and encouraged to access support and welfare services available at Harvester Technical College.

Behaviour Management Meeting

Continuing issues that require further action are to be referred to the Student Coordinator. If the Student Coordinator is unavailable, the student is to wait in the exclusion area or they can be referred to the Campus Manager. If the issue can be resolved with the teacher via conference, the issue is recorded on the Student Management Tool and the student returns to class.

Issues that may require further action as detailed above include things such as:

  • Severe Disruption
  • Disrespect to staff or students
  • Bullying, harassment or intimidation
  • Fighting
  • Not bringing the required equipment to lessons
  • Misusing or damaging school property
  • Being late for lessons
  • Inappropriate behaviour on excursions
  • Issues relating to safety and OH&S policy
  • Being impolite or inconsiderate to others
  • Inappropriate or offensive language
  • Continually failing to wear the correct PPE or footwear
  • Truanting, fractional truancy
  • Leaving school grounds without permission
  • Being associated with drugs or alcohol at school or school activities
  • Smoking at school

Learning Agreement

After continued misbehaviour in the classroom or workshop, and if appropriate actions have already been taken by the classroom teacher to manage such behaviour, students may be again referred to the Student Coordinator. Students who show no improvement in the management of their behaviour will have their parents notified and at the discretion of the Campus Manager may be sent home and formally suspended.

These students along with parents/guardians will be required to attend a meeting with the Student Coordinator and the Campus Manager and will be placed on a Learning Agreement before they continue in classes.

Learning Contract

After continued breaches of a student’s Learning Agreement and continued attempts from classroom teachers to manage the behaviour issues, students may be again referred to the Student Coordinator. Again as with the Learning Agreement, students who show no improvement in the management of their behaviour will have their parents notified and at the discretion of the Campus Manager may be sent home and formally suspended.

These students along with parents/guardians will be required to attend a meeting with the Campus Manager and Principal and will be placed on a Learning Contract before they continue in classes. Further breaches of the Learning Contract will result in a student’s enrolment status being terminated at the discretion of the Campus Manager and the Principal.

Enrolment Status Meeting

If the student management process gets to this stage it will be the result of continued attempts by College staff to get the student to manage their own behaviour, but to no avail. Students, who after being placed on a Learning Contract still continue to behave inappropriately, will be referred to the Campus Manager. At this time the Campus Manager will notify parents, and the student will be asked to leave the College on formal suspension.

A time will be made for the student along with parents/guardians to attend a meeting with the Campus Manager and the Principal.

During this meeting, the student will be informed of their enrolment status.