Thurston Outdoor Education Centre: Guidelines for group leaders - acceptable group behaviour

Revised: January 2022

Visiting leaders should ensure that their group's behaviour is consistent with our behaviour policy. Young people should be familiar with our expectations in advance of their visit.

1. Use your visit as an opportunity to create positive relationships, building trust and understanding.
2. Uphold the behaviour policy at all times.
   You should be aware of the location of young people at all times and have a clear plan of supervision outside activity sessions.
3. Use praise and positive reinforcement.
   Highlighting achievements and praising positive behaviour has positive outcomes.
4. We normally require a visiting leader to accompany each group during activities. Visiting leaders have an important role during activities.
   The instructor's role is to deliver the activity safely. The role of visiting leaders is to ensure behaviour is appropriate.
5. Thurston wants to work with a diverse range of young people who will benefit from our activities. Therefore, we accept that some individuals and groups will have challenging behaviour. 
   We request that you bring appropriate numbers of visiting leaders so that you are able to manage your group.
   Please ensure that you have adequate arrangements to deal with unacceptable behaviour. Unsafe behaviour will exclude people from participating in an activity and may result in the need for additional supervision.
   In extreme circumstances you should be able to send a young person / persons home.