Creating Safe and Supportive Classrooms
A Primer for Elementary Teachers
Hands-on tools to help pre-empt violence before it surfaces in classrooms and to de-escalate aggression.
All school community members deserve to work free from violence and its impacts. This primer focuses on immediate strategies teachers and support staff can use to respond to aggression and help pre-empt violence while attending to their own well-being, safety and dignity, as well as that of their students.
A trauma-informed, practical approach
The primer recognizes that past experiences of violence in and out of school can affect students’ present-day behaviour. Its goal is to support safety, trust and a sense of agency while giving educators concrete language and strategies for prevention and de-escalation.
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Safe, supported and thriving
Individually and collectively, there is hope in creating and sustaining classroom environments in which everyone is safe, supported and thriving. The primer brings together values, language and strategies intended to foster compassion, accountability, agency and positive change.
Read the conclusionOntario Teachers’ Federation
The Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) is the professional association that represents Ontario’s 160,000+ teachers who are employed in the publicly funded school system. OTF is comprised of four affiliated groups: l’Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO).
OTF’s responsibilities include promoting and advancing the cause of public education, raising the status of the teaching profession as well as promoting and advancing the interests of teachers.
With thanks
OTF extends its deepest gratitude to the teachers who shared their stories, wisdom of experience and research expertise on violence prevention and intervention.
Our heartfelt appreciation also goes to OTF’s Affiliates: AEFO, ETFO, OECTA and OSSTF/FEESO.
The resource was written by Mohini Athia, Randa Meshki and Kathryn Penwill.