Positive Behaviour 4 Learning (PB4L)

“If a student does not know how to read, we teach. If a student does not know how to swim, we teach. If a student does not know how to multiply, we teach. If a student does not know how to behave, we teach.”


Havelock School is a proud Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) School. PB4L is all about teaching children the right behaviour, just like we teach any other subject at school. PB4L School-Wide looks at behaviour and learning from a whole-of-school as well as an individual child perspective. The framework is based on international evidence.

The Positive Behaviour for Learning School-Wide framework, otherwise known as PB4L School-Wide, is helping New Zealand schools build a culture where positive behaviour and learning is a way of life. The framework has been tailored to our school’s own environment and cultural needs.

It’s not about changing the students; it’s about changing the environment, systems and practices we have in place to support our students to make positive behaviour choices.

Havelock School Values and PB4L

Havelock School has three solid school values: Respect, Resilience and Responsibility. These values underpin everything we do at school. Each has its own special colour and these also relate to the ‘Tutohu’ tickets children receive as an acknowledgement for them displaying a school value, for example, if we see a child picking up rubbish, any staff member could give them a green Responsibility (tutohu) to reward them for displaying this value.

We encourage children to collect as many tutohu as they can and then ensure they get their tickets into their whānau kete before each assembly so they can be recognised as contributing to their whānau group! We believe in trying to acknowledge and reward the positive behaviours of individual children while at the same time, modelling to other children what our expectations are, in the hopes that this will help to reduce inappropriate behaviours and show we have high expectations for all.

PB4L Lessons are taught weekly across the school and align to our PB4L Values Matrix of expected behaviour within specific contexts.