Behaviour and Rewards
Promoting positive behaviour
Good behaviour in schools is central to a good education. Across the GLA, we understand that our schools and staff need to manage behaviour well so they can provide calm, safe and supportive environments which children want to attend and where children can learn and thrive.
The school's behaviour handbook sets out the expectations for good behaviour and provides all staff, pupils and parents with clarity on how we support pupils to achieve outstanding outcomes.
Our systems, rules, structures, routines and healthy social norms have been designed to enable all pupils to succeed beyond the classroom and become outstanding citizens.
Acknowledging good behaviour encourages repetition and communicates the school community’s expectations and values to all pupils. Using positive recognition and rewards provides an opportunity for all staff to reinforce the school’s culture and ethos. Positive reinforcements and rewards will be applied clearly and fairly to reinforce the routines, expectations, and norms of the school’s behaviour culture:
- Providing 1:1 feedback
- Verbal praise
- Moving names up the Attitude and Behaviour Chart (see ‘System and Social Norms’ for details in the handbook link above)
- Giving positions of responsibility
- Issuing house points
- Speaking with parents/carers
- Utilising opportunities in award assemblies
WOW vouchers
You can also celebrate your child's achievements at home by sending in WOW vouchers. More information can be found on the WOW voucher letter sent home in September:
wow voucher slip for parents.pdf
The 4D awards - Dream, Drive, Duty and Dazzle - are given out each week in assembly. See some of our proud winners below.
The 'PINK' Step
Your child might come home with a 'pink step' certificate and sticker...
We recognise that children deserve motivation and rewards from all staff in school, as well as the Head Teacher. As such, we have the Pink Step (to the behaviour chart) which is situated on the Head Teacher’s door.
When directed, children will be instructed and supported to move onto this step and receive 1:1 feedback, rewards and celebrations from the Head Teacher.
When a child moves onto the Pink step, they are celebrated as being ‘the most dazzling in the school’ at that moment.
As the Pink Step is the highest reward a child can receive in school, it is used rarely, for very special occasions and is celebrated in the highest individual manner possible.
Celebrations at home are crucial in making the Pink Step a valued celebration.
Houses and House Points
Our Houses help to create a sense of community within school as children from different year groups come together to earn house points (by moving up the Attitude and Behaviour Chart or showing their 4Ds in and around school) and compete in house events or competitions (like sports day, dance competitions or poetry slams).
The Houses are named after local hills and the children are each allocated to a house when they join us in the EYFS. Siblings are allocated to the same house as their brother/s or sister/s.
- Cleeve (Blue)
- Painswick (Yellow)
- Birdlip (Green)
- Leckhampton (Red)
House T-shirts can be purchased from Monkhouse Uniform Store.
Managing negative behaviour
We very much recognise that all behaviours are a form of communication and we seek to understand and support a child when they behave negatively. However, there are occasions where consequences might need to be issued to support a child in reflecting upon their behaviour and making the positive changes needed:
Flash Behaviours
Inappropriate behaviour(s) can take many different forms and therefore can have many different degrees of seriousness. On occasions of one-off, unacceptable behaviour, a Yellow Card or Red Card might be issued. The children are fully aware of the Yellow Card or Red Card behaviours that are not accepted in school.
- A YELLOW CARD detention will warrant a break time or lunchtime
detention. - A RED CARD will see the child working out of class for either a morning / afternoon or being issued with an after-school detention.
Removal from the classroom setting is considered a serious sanction. Section 5 of the Education Act 1997, provides the school with the legal backing to detain pupils after school, on disciplinary grounds, without the consent of the parent. However, we will always contact a parent to make them aware and work together for the good of the child. A member of the Senior Management Team will fully investigate the situation and will inform parents. We endeavour to complete the consequence on the same day.
Restorative Practices & Positive Relationships
When we feel it is appropriate to do so, we use Restorative Practice (RP) in school. RP is a social science that studies how to improve and repair relationships between people and communities. The purpose is to build healthy communities, increase social capital, decrease crime and antisocial behaviour, repair harm and restore relationships. One tool within Restorative Practices is Restorative Justice (RJ).
The underlying principle of RJ is that good relationships need to be at the heart of everything a school does if effective teaching and learning are to take place. This includes valuing others, mutual respect, honesty, openness and emotional literacy.
Children need to learn a variety of skills to be able to manage relationships which include: active listening, emotional articulacy, empathy, conflict management the ability to be non-judgemental. Much of this is addressed through ‘Peer Mediation’ lessons.
Restorative Justice is a response to unacceptable behaviour that has caused harm. It provides reparation for the harm caused and hopefully, a resolution of the conflict.
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- Typically those who have caused the harm and those who have been harmed will be brought together to listen and talk in a safe, neutral and managed environment with two identified adults.
- The child who has been harmed has an opportunity to talk about what has happened, how they feel and what they would like to happen now
- The child who has caused harmed has an opportunity to accept responsibility for their actions, understand and acknowledge the impact of what they have done and take action to ‘put it right’
- The children conclude themselves and agree upon appropriate actions
- This agreement is recorded
- The adult supporters monitor the progress of the situation
We call this a Mend It Meeting (MIM). A MIM starts by investigating the incident using a set series of questions (these can be found in the handbook). The decision is then made if a MIM is a reasonable response for the incident and if there is any relationship that could be supported to repair.