A Department of Education funded project on positive school behaviour was recently launched by the NBSS, the body given responsibility to improve discipline in our schools. Only seven schools in the country have been chosen to take part in this project, and Ballinrobe Community School is the only one in Connacht to have been selected.
The NBSS initially became involved with Ballinrobe Community School in May 2007, along with 50 other schools, in a nationwide project to deal with widespread concerns about discipline in schools.
In September 2007 Ballinrobe Community School introduced a completely new approach to in-school discipline. This structured and integrated disciplinary system proved to be immediately successful. Due to the success of this novel approach, the school was chosen to pilot this new project. A staff member has been appointed as positive behaviour liaison teacher to support the new structures introduced into the school.
The objective of the project is to cultivate positive behaviour and fundamentally change the approach to school discipline. It is aimed at building on the success already achieved by Ballinrobe Community School which is now being held up as the model which the NBSS hopes to see introduced into more secondary schools.
Dr Brendan Lydon, deputy national director of the NBSS, has been hugely impressed by what he has seen achieved in Ballinrobe Community School. “The very dramatic improvement in behaviour in the school is borne out not only by observation, but also by statistical analysis. The analysis of a number of questionnaires carried out in the school over the past year has shown a startling improvement in behaviour. The improvement has been way beyond our expectations, and it is our hope in the NBSS to build on the Ballinrobe approach to school discipline and have it adopted by more schools. Ballinrobe’s success has been the result of taking a completely new approach to discipline, and to having a staff totally committed to its implementation,” he said.
