St Joseph's School
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As required by the Education and Training Act 2020, St Joseph's School promotes a schoolwide culture of wellbeing to ensure the school is a physically and emotionally safe place for all students and staff. This includes understanding, recognising, and safely responding to student distress, and minimising the use of physical restraint.
The physical restraint rules set out in this policy comply with the Education (Physical Restraint) Rules 
and the framework for physical restraint set out by the Education and Training Act 2020 (s 101).
This physical restraint policy also aligns with Aramai He Tētēkura: A guide to understanding distress and minimising the use of physical restraint , which provides a practical approach for recognising and understanding student distress, providing acceptable physical contact, and minimising the use of physical restraint in schools. This includes eliminating unjustified physical restraint.
We follow Aramai He Tētēkura, which was developed in response to the disproportionate use of physical restraint on Māori, disabled, and younger students. The school complies with these guidelines to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in support of achieving equitable outcomes for all students. See Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
For information about how terms in te reo Māori within Aramai He Tētēkura relate to this policy, see this 
glossary.
This policy aligns with physical restraint rules and guidelines, but this information does not equate to the training required to safely use physical restraint. The only people who can use physical restraint at St Joseph's School are teachers and authorised staff (i.e. non-teaching staff that the school has authorised to use physical restraint) who have the relevant training. This training includes the mandatory online learning module and physical holds training.
How we define and use physical restraint at St Joseph's School
What is physical restraint?
Physical restraint, in the context of this policy, means to use physical force to prevent, restrict, or subdue the movement of a student (or any part of their body) against their will.
In line with Aramai He Tētēkura, teachers and authorised staff complete mandatory online modules to understand the physical restraint guidelines and take further approved training modules in identifying stress triggers, understanding unmet needs, and preventing, minimising, and responding to student distress.
St Joseph's School does not allow seclusion or unsafe physical restraint in response to student distress.
Seclusion
Seclusion is prohibited under the Education and Training Act 2020 (s 98) and is defined in Aramai He Tētēkura as putting a student alone in a room or space against their will, which they cannot (or think they cannot) leave.
Unsafe physical restraint
We do not use unsafe physical restraint techniques under any circumstances. Unsafe physical restraint techniques include:
When can physical restraint be used?
Teachers and authorised staff members may only use physical restraint if all three of these conditions are met, and only as a last resort.
imminent harm, including significant emotional distress to a student or another person.St Joseph's School staff take proactive steps to ensure student safety. This may include using physical restraint to prevent harm, for example to stop a student from running onto a road, or coming into contact with a hazardous item.
Physical restraint rules
St Joseph's School complies with the following requirements, as set out by the Education (Physical Restraint) Rules. References are provided for how each area relates to an associated rule.
Policy requirements and availability to the community
We fulfil the requirement to have policies on reducing student distress and the use of physical restraint, and a process for managing complaints (Rule 4). St Joseph's School manages all complaints, including those regarding physical restraint, through our concerns and complaints procedures. Where necessary, we follow up complaints with the Teaching Council, in accordance with their conduct and competence processes. See Concerns and Complaints Policy.
Our policies on reducing student distress and the use of physical restraint are available to the school community, and we are able to provide the names and positions of any staff members who are authorised to use physical restraint, if requested (Rule 6).
Authorisation of staff members
Under the Education and Training Act 2020, teachers, including relief teachers and people with a Limited Authority to Teach (LAT), are automatically authorised to use physical restraint. Other staff members, such as teacher aides, must be authorised by the board (Rule 5).
Process for authorisation
Individual support plans
We have support plans in place for specific students to prevent distress and de-escalate crisis situations. For information about creating individual support plans, see Reducing Student Distress.
We ensure we have support plans for students who meet any of the following criteria:
We do not include physical restraint in a support plan unless all other possible strategies have been explored. St Joseph's School requires informed consent from parents/caregivers and whānau if physical restraint is included in a support plan (Rule 8). We monitor the frequency of physical restraint with the intention to minimise and, where possible, eliminate its use. The school notifies the Ministry of Education if physical restraint is part of a support plan.
Notifying the use of physical restraint
After a situation involving physical restraint, we notify the following parties (Rule 9):
If the principal considers that use of physical restraint was unjustified, they are responsible for following up with the board and subsequent reporting to the Teaching Council.
Recording and monitoring physical restraint
St Joseph's School monitors our use of physical restraint, and complies with record keeping requirements. We keep written records of every instance of physical restraint of a student. We keep records for a minimum of 10 years from the date of last action (Rule 7).
We take reasonable steps to ensure that any student who has been physically restrained and any staff member who has used physical restraint has their physical and psychological wellbeing monitored, so that appropriate support can be provided if there are adverse effects from the use of physical restraint.
We check for trends by monitoring and analysing records, particularly the increased use of physical restraint. If the trend shows increased use, we consider how to minimise use of restraint (Rule 10).
Reporting physical restraint
Staff involved in an incident of physical restraint complete an incident report. The incident report and any other required information is submitted to the Ministry of Education through the online incident reporting system. We keep a copy of the physical restraint incident report in the student file, and provide a copy to parents/caregivers of the student (Rule 11).
Staff training and support
The board is responsible for ensuring (Rule 12):
The principal assures the board that all procedures relating to physical restraint have been followed, and that all requirements to notify, monitor, and report have been met. The principal confirms that any non-teaching staff have been authorised in writing, and that staff authorised to apply restraint have received appropriate training and support. See Review Schedule and Board Assurances.
Release history: Term 4 2025, Term 1 2025, Term 3 2023, Term 1 2023, Term 4 2022, Term 4 2020
