Singapore American School
Elementary School
Student Behavior and Discipline Guide
Our Goal
The elementary school at Singapore American School is committed to creating a physically and emotionally safe environment where all students can be productive, find belonging, and experience joy.
This environment requires the collaboration of students, teachers, parents, counselors, and administrators. The first step in building and maintaining a physically and emotionally safe environment is creating a caring community based on agreed-upon expectations. Teachers create positive classroom communities where students are invested in learning and are motivated to make expected choices.
School Rules and Core Values
Our elementary school rules of Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Responsible provide a common set of expectations. These rules apply across all elementary school settings both physically and digitally, are applied consistently, and are embedded in our language and culture. Our SAS core values of respect, responsibility, honesty, compassion and fairness also anchor our words and actions.
Understanding and Valuing Child Development
In elementary school years, students experience rapid growth and development physically, emotionally, socially, and academically. Just as students do not come to school knowing everything about reading, writing and math, the same is true for social-emotional skills. We support students through their development by explicitly teaching these skills. As students move through these stages, adults help them accept increasing responsibility and engage in decision-making that sets the stage for life success.
Approach to Discipline
It is inevitable that students will make missteps and test limits. Children's brains and bodies are in a constant state of development and growth. At SAS, we see missteps as opportunities to learn.
When students make missteps, our first priority is to listen. We want to ensure students have the opportunity to be heard and feel understood. Together we identify the behavior that occurred, understand the reason it happened, and think about whom it impacted. We guide students in taking responsibility for their actions and repairing any harm. Above all, our work is based on trusting relationships and respect.
Discipline comes from the Latin word disciplina, which means to teach. The elementary school approach to discipline is rooted in this concept. Children learn best through relationships that make them feel safe, secure, and cared for.
Behavior and Consequences: Prevention and Intervention
Effective discipline requires collaboration. Parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators are all invested in helping students learn skills and work through missteps. This collaboration may include teaching and modeling positive behaviors, holding parent meetings, and/or developing logical consequences designed to promote learning. Our approach is focused on both prevention and intervention.
Prevention
We start with prevention. Below are the preventive measures used to foster a positive and safe learning community:
- Responsive Classroom Approach
- Class Rules: Hopes and Dreams
- School Rules
- SAS Core Values
- Morning Meetings
- Counseling lessons based on the Collaborative for Academic, Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) Core Competencies (i.e. Second Step, Kelso's Choice, URSTRONG Friendology)
- Digital Citizenship lessons and agreements
- Bus rules and expectations
Intervention
When students misbehave despite our preventive measures, our next step is intervention. All student behavior infractions managed by the dean of student life or an administrator are logged into the Veracross data system. We believe that choices plus consequences teach responsibility. Consequences increase with the frequency and severity of the misbehavior. Below are some examples of consequences we use in the elementary school division:
- Problem-solving conversation / restorative approach
- Student reflection, Choice Think Sheet
- Logical Consequences
- Loss of privilege
- Temporary removal from class
Repeated Misbehavior
When student misbehavior is repeated, the following escalation of consequences can occur:
- Problem-solving conversation / restorative approach
- Logical consequence
- Parent communication
- Parent meeting
- Temporary removal from class
- Suspension
- Bus repeated misbehavior: parent communication, change of seating, fourth incident results in a bus suspension (1-5 days)
- COVID-19 health-related safety disciplinary procedures
Repeated misbehavior requires increased intervention and may result in requests for outside support (i.e., developmental pediatrician, occupational therapist, mental health/family counseling, psychologist or psychiatrist).
Significant Misbehavior
Significant misbehavior is behavior that threatens the physical and/or emotional safety of others. When such behavior escalates and becomes unsafe, parents may be required to pick their child up from school. This is followed by a re-entry meeting prior to the student's return to campus to discuss behavior expectations and interventions. Continued demonstration of behavior compromising the safety and learning of the individual and/or others could result in a pre-expulsion warning.
- Removal from class
- Parent meeting
- Suspension
- External support
- Re-entry meeting with parents, student, and school team
Behavior Support Team
In order to promote a physically and emotionally safe environment for all students, a behavior support team is in place to explicitly teach social and emotional skills and guide learning through discipline.
The elementary school behavior support team promotes inclusion, expected behavior, and healthy emotional well-being. Our team consists of administrators, deans, counselors, and school psychologists. We offer a wide range of intervention programs to support students, and we strive to be a strong, collaborative team. Below are listed the members of our behavior support team and their responsibilities:
Divisional Administration and Deans of Student Life
- provide direct support and problem-solving conversations at school
- provide follow-up to parents by email and telephone
- collaborate with team members to support students with behavioral needs
- track data based on behavioral incidents
Elementary School Counselors
- support all members of the school community both socially and emotionally
- facilitate Kid Chat meetings with teachers to advise and assist with support for students
- provide interventions for students, either individually, in small groups, or in class
- teach classroom counseling lessons based on the CASEL Core Competencies
- facilitate parent education workshops with a focus on positive parenting
School Psychologists
- provide consultative support to deans, administrators, and counselors regarding social-emotional, behavioral, or academic challenges
- assist the behavior support team by reviewing and refining current intervention efforts
- conduct Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA) for students with significant problem behaviors and facilitate intervention planning using this data
- provide referrals for external mental health support
We pride ourselves on a strong and comprehensive approach to promoting social and emotional well-being. We believe that the preventive measures we have put in place, as well as the responses to misbehavior, will set students up with the skills to be successful in school and in life beyond school.
Resources