Our culture allows students to develop is steeped processes that proactively provides the extra social support our scholars need to thrive. We recognize that scholars are at different levels of development academically and in their social-emotional development. All Lighthouse Academies work to identify scholars who are struggling socially and provide additional support for these scholars. This support begins in the classroom and may also include additional personnel (e.g., Directors of School Culture, Culture Assistants, social workers) at the school level as needed.
Our teachers work with carefully selected members of a culture team to discuss and report on social-emotional development. Our approach to daily school culture differs from many schools in that rather than reactively responding to specific issues by disciplining or separating scholars from We teach scholars the skills they need to avoid punitive consequences such as separating them from their peers, or out-of-school suspension. While reactive support is occasionally necessary, culture team members spend 75% or more of their time working proactively with scholars individually and in groups on their social-emotional development to prevent negative behavioral reactions rather than reacting to specific behavior once it has occurred. This is a part of our vision to create “Restorative Circles,” based on our belief that belief that mistakes are an inevitable aspect of growth, and that all scholars need opportunities to understand the consequences of their mistakes, and our “What Happened?” framework allows us to identify solutions rather than focusing on blame. Restorative Circles help scholars understand others’ perspectives and give them opportunities to apologize when things go wrong