Wellness and Safeguarding Initiative
A values-led framework for culture, conduct, and child protection at Morna International College — developed by the PTA Wellness and Safeguarding Team and presented to the school's leadership, staff, and governors for review and adoption.
What Values-Based Education Is
Values-Based Education (VbE) is an evidence-backed approach in which a school builds its culture, conduct expectations, and daily operations around a set of explicitly agreed, actionable values. These are not words on a wall — they are communal commitments developed together by staff, pupils, and parents that give everyone a shared language for how to treat each other.
Research across more than two decades consistently shows that schools implementing VbE see improvements in behaviour, attendance, relational trust, and academic engagement. Critically, VbE only works when it involves the whole community — particularly parents. A parent who helped define what the school stands for has a fundamentally different relationship to its rules than one who was handed a rulebook.
The ask, and how this was built
The ask is direction, not documents. Do we, as a community, want Morna to take a values-based approach to education? Not approval of specific wording. The materials in this hub are detailed to demonstrate how quickly the community can move once a direction is agreed, not to prescribe every answer: every document here can be adapted to whatever values the community ultimately agrees, and the PTA can lead the rollout. The framework is not the point. The direction is.
The core argument
A school has a culture whether by design or by default. This initiative is a proposal to choose design — to build Morna's culture deliberately, from first principles, with the whole school community involved.
Document set
Every document below is available to download from the Documents tab.
| Document | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Values Working Paper | Vision, purpose, five values, workshop proposal, measurement, evidence annex. The foundational document. | ACTIVE |
| Values Presentation | 13-slide deck walking the values argument. PTA-led. | PPTX |
| Anti-Bullying Presentation | 6 recommendations, 3 phases, conflict vs. bullying distinction. | PPTX |
| Anti-Bullying Policy | Child and family-facing. Prevention programme plus five-step response, slotted into the Behaviour Framework. | DRAFT |
| Behaviour & Accountability Framework | School-facing. All pupil conduct: seven domains, twin sanction and support ladders, due process, child-on-child track. | DRAFT |
| Parental Code of Conduct | Legally binding enrolment annex. The contract layer binding the Behaviour Framework into enrolment. | DRAFT |
| CoC Enforceability Note | Legal basis for the Code of Conduct. For school confidence. | REFERENCE |
| What We Stand For (Pupil Doc) | Five values in plain language. Written for pupils. Head pupil rollout guide included. | NEW |
| VbE Adoption Pathway | Two-phase pathway: adopt and launch in ten school days, embed and confirm across the first year. | NEW |
Context: Understanding the Community
Before any values can be agreed, there has to be an honest account of what kind of community this is. That account exists, in PTA meetings, in private conversations, and in the school's own acknowledgements. What has been missing is a constructive, structured process designed to address it together. That is what this initiative is.
The island context
Ibiza is transient at every level. Families come and go. Staff turn over. Children lose peer continuity. The school has the opportunity to be an anchor for those children, but only if it consciously chooses to be.
The family dynamic
Morna serves a wide range of families with different circumstances and priorities. What is specific to a subset, and what the school itself has raised as a concern, is a pattern where some children are frequently without adequate parental presence or oversight. This is not a judgement of lifestyle choices. It is an observation about a structural reality with two documented consequences.
Two documented consequences
First: children who spend significant time without parental oversight are more exposed to outside influences, which the school has identified as a contributing factor in age-inappropriate conduct that can then enter the school environment and affect the experience of other children.
Second: when parental engagement with the school community is low or inconsistent, the standards the school seeks to maintain can be undermined by conduct, including that of parents themselves, that falls short of what the community requires. The proposed Parental Code of Conduct is a direct structural response to this second pattern.
Six recurring patterns
Six recurring patterns observed in this community, each directly addressed by the proposed values:
| Pattern | What it looks like | Addressed by |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Coordinated group conduct | Harm carried out by groups with a less-visible ringleader. The group structure creates plausible deniability for individual participants and makes attribution difficult for staff. | Values 1 & 3 |
| 02 Sophisticated social exclusion | Deliberate and targeted, but difficult to identify without specific training. Operates through signals, silences, and social micro-behaviours rather than visible acts. | Values 1 & 2 |
| 03 Status-based targeting | Wealth and possessions used as vectors for harm: both a source of cruelty and a signal of something the perpetrator themselves lacks. Security, identity, belonging. | Value 2 |
| 04 Age-inappropriate conduct | Reflecting content and behaviours children are exposed to outside school. Requires a shared community framework children can use to calibrate what is and is not acceptable here. | Value 4 |
| 05 Bystander passivity | Children who witness harm and say nothing. Passivity sustains every other pattern on this list. It is not a character flaw: it is the result of a community that has never explicitly named standing up as an expectation. | Value 1 |
| 06 Isolation in a transient community | Children arrive knowing no one and lose friends when families leave. Isolation is a precondition for targeting: a community that actively includes its newest and most vulnerable members removes the conditions that make harm possible. The same value answers a second dynamic: when things go wrong, blame circulates instead of improvement. A community that grows together, united, fixes problems together. | Values 5 & 3 |
Conflict vs bullying: why the distinction matters
Many situations are mistakenly treated as bullying, while some bullying is minimised as conflict. They require completely different responses. Conflict involves equal power and mutual participation; bullying involves a power imbalance and is one-directional. Applying mediation to a bullying situation re-victimises the targeted child. The full distinction table and response framework are in the Behaviour & Accountability Framework and the Anti-Bullying Policy on the Documents tab.
Vision, Purpose and Values
The foundation everything else builds from. The vision defines what Morna is for. The purpose defines the environment it commits to being. The values define how the community behaves to make both real.
What a value is — and what it isn't
A common misconception is that a value is a word — Respect, Excellence, Community. Those are aspirations. A value is an actionable belief: something you can do, something you can be held to, something a child can understand and apply on any given day. "We stand up for each other" is a value. "Respect" is not. Values stated as actionable beliefs change behaviour in ways that words on a wall never do.
Vision and Purpose
The values sit within a larger frame. Before defining what the community believes, it is worth being clear about what the school is for and what it aspires to be.
Watching is a choice. If you see someone being targeted and say nothing, you have chosen not to stand up for them. Bystander passivity is not neutrality — it is participation in the harm. This applies to adults as much as children.
The most damaging patterns at Morna are coordinated and social. They depend on bystanders staying silent. This value directly addresses the mechanism by which harm is sustained and spread.
A child who says something when a peer is being excluded. A child who doesn't laugh when someone is mocked. A child who tells an adult even when it is socially costly to do so.
Money, clothes, possessions — none of these is what we measure people by here. Status based on wealth, possessions, or appearance is not what we recognise or reward.
Children who target others based on wealth or possessions are often doing so because of something they themselves lack — security, identity, a sense of belonging. The behaviour is a signal, not just a problem to manage.
A shared commitment among staff to model the value. Explicit conversations in PSE and bystander education about why we do not rate people by what they own.
Every child in this community belongs. That commitment doesn't waver — not for the child who is struggling, not for the child who has caused harm, not for anyone.
Without a framework around it, this instinct can create a perception that the commitment comes at the expense of others. Reframing makes clear the commitment applies equally — consequence is part of support, not its opposite.
A child involved in bullying who goes through a structured process — restorative conversation, parental involvement, support assessment — not just a warning that disappears.
Honesty is protected here — including honesty about who you are. Be yourself. Respect that the person next to you is different from you, and that difference is not a threat. A child who reports what they saw will not be punished. A child who is simply being who they are will not be mocked for it. A parent who raises a concern will receive a real answer.
In a community where status and performance can dominate, children need explicit permission to be themselves. Without that permission, children perform a version of themselves to fit in rather than developing the self-knowledge the vision demands. Clear reporting pathways and authentic self-expression are two sides of the same value — both require the community to be a genuinely safe place.
A school where children do not have to perform a version of themselves to fit in. Where being different — quiet or loud, creative or analytical, unusual or unconventional — is equally valid and respected. A reporting pathway children trust because they have seen it work.
Nobody here is finished. Every child is on a journey — learning who they are, what they can do, and how they can contribute. Growth means being curious, open to being wrong, and believing that what you do here matters beyond these walls. We grow individually, and we grow as a community. And it applies to all of us: pupils, staff, parents, and the school itself. A community that grows together improves together.
The vision demands young people who can navigate a fast-moving world and contribute meaningfully to it. That cannot happen if the culture rewards only performance and conformity. Children need to feel safe to try, to fail, to change their minds, and to discover what they are genuinely capable of. The same safety applies to the adults: a united community where staff and parents can name problems without blame is a community that actually improves.
A child who tries something new without fear of being laughed at. A school community that celebrates progress, not just achievement. Asking for help as a sign of strength. Pupils who take responsibility for each other’s learning and wellbeing — not just their own. Shortfalls met with improvement, not blame: questions get answered, processes get better, and nobody has to be the villain of the story.
Values in practice
| Value | What it requires | What it rules out |
|---|---|---|
| We stand up for each other | Active bystander intervention; reporting even when socially costly; peer accountability | Watching and saying nothing; laughing along; group silence when someone is targeted |
| It's what's inside that counts | No status-based mockery; inclusive norms regardless of wealth; neutral language about possessions | Targeting based on money, appearance, or family situation; using exclusion as social currency |
| We don't leave anyone behind | Support for all children including those who have breached the rules; consequences structured and followed through | Consequences applied differently depending on who is applying pressure; support for one child at the expense of others |
| We keep it real | Honest communication; protected reporting pathways; respect for individual differences; space to be yourself without pressure to perform or conform | Managed or deflecting communication; children afraid to speak; pressure to conform; mockery of difference or individuality |
| We grow together | Curiosity; openness to learning from mistakes; celebrating others’ progress; asking for and offering help; taking responsibility for the community, not just yourself; meeting shortfalls with improvement, together | Mocking failure or effort; treating learning as a competition; celebrating others’ setbacks; a blame culture that hunts for fault instead of fixing the problem |
Document Architecture
How the documents in the Wellness and Safeguarding set connect — from the values foundation through the policy layer to the workshop outcome.
The logic
Values come first because everything else — the Code of Conduct, the Accountability Framework, the Anti-Bullying Policy — only makes sense if the community has agreed what it stands for. Without values, the documents are just rules.
Policy documents
Three draft documents offered as starting points for the school and parent community to review and adapt.
Six Practical Recommendations
The PTA's primary ask is that Morna formally adopts a values-based approach to education. These six recommendations are additional, specific asks that sit alongside it. Each one is now fully built out in the policy documents on the Documents tab.
A designated response team
A small group of trained staff responsible for responding to reports consistently, rather than leaving individual teachers to manage incidents independently. Members identifiable on campus during break and lunch. When children know who handles these situations and trust the process, they come forward.
Clear definitions: conflict vs bullying
Written definitions and procedures so staff identify and respond to each appropriately. Applying conflict resolution, mediation and compromise, to a bullying situation actively re-victimises the targeted child.
Mandatory follow-up after incidents
The most common concern from families: issues considered resolved after a single meeting while the impact continues. The structure: initial intervention, one-week check (has it stopped, any retaliation, does the child feel safe), one-month review, ongoing until positive change is confirmed.
Bystander education programme
Children who witness harm and say nothing sustain every pattern in the Context tab. Teaching that bystander passivity is a choice, and that standing up is expected, directly addresses the mechanism that makes coordinated and social harm possible. The research evidence is strong (Research tab).
A reporting system children trust
Children do not report because they do not trust the outcome: they fear retaliation and assume nothing will change. Trust requires a clear identity of who receives reports, a defined process, consistent follow-up, and visible evidence that reporting leads to action.
Parental code of conduct
The standards expected of the parent community need to be explicit, agreed, and enforced. Conduct that undermines the school's culture, including among parents, needs a clear framework with a legal foundation the school can rely on.
Document Set
All documents produced by the PTA Wellness and Safeguarding Team — latest versions, all available to download. Every document carries a draft disclaimer and is offered as a starting point for review and adaptation.
Foundation documents
Values Working Paper
The full values argument. Vision, purpose, community context, five values with three-section format, behaviours table, workshop proposal, measurement section, and an evidence annex citing every empirical claim. The foundational document for the whole initiative.
Values Presentation
13 slides. Partnership framing, why values come first, community diagnosis, five values, behaviours table, workshop ask. PTA-led presentation.
New documents
What We Stand For
Five values in plain language for every pupil at Morna, with an early years page (ages 3 to 7) for circle time, a child-readable answer to "what happens if someone breaks these", and the rollout guide for House Captains and School Council.
VbE Adoption Pathway
One timeline, two phases. Phase 1, adopt and launch in ten school days: students shape the values in a PTA-facilitated workshop with staff observing, the PTA reviews and endorses on behalf of families, the ratified values are presented to the school, which adopts its policy set nested within them and communicates in its own voice. Phase 2, embed and confirm across the first full year: training, enforcement onset, termly data reviews, and the whole community’s annual review.
Policy documents
Anti-Bullying Policy
Child and family-facing. Leads with a six-strand prevention programme (taught bystander skills, staff training, pupil leadership, parent partnership), names all forms including prejudice-based and online bullying, and slots its five-step response into the Behaviour Framework with support for every child involved.
Behaviour & Accountability Framework
School-facing, now covering the full conduct spectrum. Seven conduct domains, two-tier classification, twin sanction and support ladders, age banding, SEND safeguards, due process guarantees, and a protected, LOPIVI-aligned child-on-child track. Commencement and transition provisions: the framework operates from adoption, independent of the values’ wording or adoption status.
Parental Code of Conduct
Legally binding enrolment annex, kept deliberately to the contract layer. Mutual commitments: parental obligations across all conduct, the school's due-process promises to families, and a graduated parental-misconduct response. Points into the Behaviour Framework rather than duplicating it.
Supporting documents
CoC Enforceability Note
The legal basis for the Code of Conduct and the Behaviour Framework under the two-layer architecture: verified statutory references, the incorporation-by-reference transparency mechanics, and a seven-item checklist, covering commencement and transition, built to make independent legal review fast.
Anti-Bullying Presentation
Six recommendations, three implementation phases (Agree and Commit, September Launch, Review and Improve) and What Success Looks Like. Prepared by Patrizia with PTA additions.
Research Foundation
The approach in the Values Working Paper is grounded in established research. These studies support the specific claims behind each value, and are shared openly with the school as part of this hub.