In the annual survey of parents / carers, someone requested more information about what happens with a warning. Since then, we’ve displayed more notices around school to explain – you’ll be able to read one on the Parents’ Noticeboard.
Summarised from our Relationships Management Policy, here’s some more information about warnings – and rewards, too!
Warnings
We have just three school rules:
- We keep hands, feet and objects to ourselves.
- We follow instructions.
- We respect everyone and everything.
Staff at Moortown Primary employ consistently and clearly a hierarchy of negative consequences (our ‘warnings’) if a child breaks a school rule. This is to ensure a safe and effective learning environment in which positive, happy, healthy relationships flourish. Warnings are recorded and monitored. (These whole-school consequences vary slightly at lunchtimes to allow lunchtime staff to operate independently, although lunchtime consequences are communicated to class teachers.)
Low-level, on-going disruptive or unco-operative behaviour (eg not following instructions straight away, talking in class, interrupting) are small issues but over time may stop a child and others from learning or feeling settled. We aim to keep this to a minimum and aim to spot patterns when warnings occur. The following stages are followed to reduce such behaviour:
- a letter to parents to inform of high number of warnings caused by low-level disruptive / unco-operative behaviour incidents
- a letter to parents to advise this has continued and therefore we need to see an improvement within a fixed period of time; a behaviour chart at school to track incidents will be used (in addition to any other support)
- a meeting between parent, pupil, learning mentor and teacher
For children who regularly have to stay in at lunchtimes and who don’t seem to be making progress towards improved learning behaviour, we may set them additional English / Maths at playtimes to make up for the missed learning in a class.
Serious misbehaviour (eg disrespect to staff, property or cultures, swearing, fighting) is very rare at Moortown. Such behaviour would mean warnings are automatically by-passed to four or usually five warnings. Similarly, any pattern in warnings or consistent warnings means parents are contacted. We contact parents to keep them in the picture and to discuss ways to respond and gain a consistent message between home and school. A serious incident report is completed in such cases.
We do recognise that there are occasionally overriding factors or circumstances, but these are rare and so variation from the warnings system is rare. This is to maintain their effect and impersonal nature ie we aim to remove the personal judgement so children understand and accept the school rules. We allow for differentiation of sanctions where appropriate. This is to reflect different levels of culpability (or fault) while maintaining consistency and fairness of the treatment of pupils. We expect children to try their best in all activities. If they do not do so, we may ask them to redo or complete a task. We expect children to make good choices and older children to set a good example to younger ones. We expect children to not support the misbehaviour of their peers. We expect and encourage children to tell an adult of misbehaviour.
The class teacher discusses the school rules with each class, and also creates a Classroom Charter as part of their New Beginnings SEAL work. This is agreed by the children and displayed on the wall of the classroom. In this way, every child in the school knows the standard of behaviour that we expect in our school.
Rewards
Each teacher and their class develops their own systems of reward and praise, based on the overall school principles set out in this policy. This will include at least individual and class rewards and typically, especially with older children, group rewards to promote inter-personal relationships.
Some of the positive consequences for the good learning, good choices and good behaviour that children show are:
- regular verbal feedback to reinforce positive behaviour
- children are congratulated
- stickers or other small prizes / treats
- certificates: usually at least one based on learning and at least one based on a Social and Emotional Aspect of Learning
- postcard mailed from the headteacher to a pupil at their home address
- Golden Time if a class has achieved a class target
Cool Class Tokens are given to children for good choices, good relationships, politeness, co-operation or acts of kindness in school – the class with the most Cool Class Tokens are awarded the Cool Class Cup in Friday Assemblies.
Assemblies, especially our Friday Assemblies, are an opportunity to publicly celebrate the good choices children have made in school and to share some of the good work they have been producing. Also important is to celebrate achievements out of school in order to promote a wider range of interests and a broad outlook.
Attendance is also rewarded. We give termly certificates for good attendance and at the end of the year there is a raffle for all children who have attained outstanding attendance.
Sweets are rarely used as rewards; as a healthy school, we prefer to reward in other ways. Where they are used, it would be by an external party and would meet standards set out here.