TREDWORTH JUNIOR SCHOOL

Behavioural Policy

Purpose

The purpose of our behaviour policy is to illustrate that we have adopted a behaviour focussed curriculum. Our behaviour curriculum provides all stakeholders of Tredworth Junior School with an appropriate code of conduct, which encourages our school to internalise a set of key values. In response, our children become happy, successful and able to serve our community positively. 

This policy should be read in conjunction with our Safeguarding (Child Protection) Policy.

Aims and Values

Our main aim is to provide quality experiences in all aspects of school life.

We aim to create a warm and welcoming environment that cultivates a respect for the rights and needs of children and adults, irrespective of culture, race or gender.

We aim to be actively involved in the learning of our children. Therefore, we provide a range of broad, creative and balanced learning opportunities, which adhere to the National Curriculum. We use constructive feedback to signal when a child’s efforts are valued, which also avoids alienation and disaffection.

We aim to develop self-discipline and the ability to self-regulate the choices and decisions our children make.

We aim to maintain high aspirations and expectations of our children, in the anticipation of fostering independent, reflective and lifelong learners.

We aim to promote this through our whole school values:

• Honesty
• Respect
• Service
• Effort
• Punctuality
• Responsibility

Principles

• Every child has the right to learn, but no child has the right to disrupt the learning of others.
• Everyone has a right to be listened to, to be valued, to feel and be safe.  Everyone must be protected from disruption or abuse.
• The fundamental approach is a positive one, drawing attention to, rewarding good behaviour and mutual respect.
• It is expected that all adults (staff and volunteers) will provide excellent models of behaviour in all aspects of school life.
• We will seek to give every child a sense of personal responsibility for his/her own actions.
• We will communicate expectations of behaviour clearly.
• Where there are significant concerns over a pupil’s behaviour we will share the strategies we use with parents; working on an active partnership to promote good behaviour.
• Early support and intervention will be issued at the earliest opportunity;
• Strategies will be recorded where there is a high level of concern both on behaviour log/ concerns sheet or, a Pastoral Support Plan.
• We will seek advice and support from appropriate outside agencies.
• We will constantly seek to inform ourselves of good practice and strategies to further improve behaviour and attitudes.  This may be through periodicals and books, attendance on courses and advisory visits.  It will be a high priority to disseminate such ideas throughout the staff.
• There will be a corporate approach but with due regard for individual circumstances.

Encouraging Good Behaviour

Our efforts are centralised around creating opportunities to enhance positive behaviour, therefore it is essential that we show our appreciation of the children who display positive behaviour.

Key strategies for encouraging good behaviour:

•           A highly probable instruction

If we can predict when a behavioural error might occur, then we believe it is likely that we can prevent it. Therefore, we can give the individual/individuals involved a highly probable instruction. This instruction has a high probability that it will be acknowledged and followed through by the individual. For example a request to help hand out sheets, or a request to get a dictionary for the class teacher. The adult can then praise the individual/individuals for their efforts and displaying this behaviour  thus distracting the individual/individuals away from the negative behaviour they might have exhibited. 

•          Public verbal praise

Where possible staff should always praise and publicly verbalise the behaviour they want to see, rather than focusing on the negative behaviour we do not want to see. This will always create a positive environment, whereby the children who exhibit good behaviour are acknowledged, in the hope of encouraging others. Where possible, avoid focusing class attention on the misbehaviour of individuals as this may produce negative effects across the class.

Some children find direct praise hard to accept so we ensure our praise is as descriptive as possible and we can be sensitive to its impact. If applicable we allow the well behaved child to hear you telling someone else how well the well behaved child has been. We believe that children should always be allowed to hear positive feedback about them.

•           Maintain frequent contact

We make fairly frequent task-centred contact with all children.  This will communicate that attention is predominately given for behaving well and meeting the needs of the situation appropriately.  For children who have difficulty maintaining concentration on their work, we make very frequent contact with them.  This communicates that consistent good behaviour is rewarded with regular teacher contact.

•           Listen!

Listening is vitally important to a successful school, because we want our children to share and feel safe. We always listen to every child and make them feel significant. We will always acknowledge their feelings and follow up concerns in a timely manner.

•          Consistent application and references to our school values

Our school values are key to encouraging and promoting positive behaviour. They are reviewed termly in staff meetings and they are a key feature in whole school reviews.  Implementing these values into our Curriculum encourages our children to learn the importance of character, ethical discussion making skills and personal responsibility. Continuously, we find new tools and strategies to strengthen these values in our children. Relationships with our children demonstrate consideration in the highest regard; therefore behavioural developments can be achieved.

•          Use of celebrity of the week

We believe that every child should feel significant, so every week a different child in each class becomes the ‘celebrity of the week’. Essentially the ‘celebrity’ is entitled to an increased amount of interaction with adults and their peers. This is mostly achieved through the opportunity to ‘show and tell’ the class further information about themselves (such as their interests), which the children can discover through enjoyable enquiry based learning opportunities. The class will learn critical listening, observation and question skills. Whilst, the ‘celebrity’ is encouraged to become a more confident and valued member of the class, therefore enabling them to a gain a deeper insight into the positive behaviours we expect.

•          Application of a School House System

Every child is placed in one of the four School Houses:

Children will remain in their house for their entire Tredworth Junior School journey. Siblings are also placed in the same house, to encourage good team spirit amongst their families. Our children can gain house points when displaying good behaviour in relation to our school values. Each child’s house points are recorded individually and displayed in their classroom, so they can watch their achievements grow quantitatively. Once any child’s total reaches a multiple of ten, their name is read out in Monday’s assembly, so their achievements can be celebrated. , Through this system the children recognise the added bonus of contributing to an overall house total, which is counted on a weekly and termly basis. The counting of the house points is done by our House Captains (a group of elected year 6 children). The totals are then read out in a Friday assembly and a House Cup is award to the winning House. The winning House Captains are then able to decorate the cup with their coloured ribbon, which is displayed in the school hall for everyone to see. Also, school staff are assigned a House. They are impartial when they award House Points, but act as mentors to the children of the House they belong to.

Rewards and Recognition of good behaviour:

We consulted our pupils on the rewards they wanted. We now have rewards to motivate the individual, the group and the class. Many of these are instant and pupils can take them home.

• Individual
  • Stickers
  • Verbal praise to an individual
  • Child of the week – Certificate for one child per class. Each child is then entered into a draw at the end of the year for a special prize.
  • Written feedback on the children’s work
  • Sharing feedback with parents through conversations (on the playground, on the telephone, during structured conversations)
  • House points – bands of house points are used. Different levels of achievements entitle the children to different amounts of house points. The house points are linked directly to the school values. (Isolated achievements, group achievement, sustained achievement, special achievement and an out-right house points)
  • Opportunities for greater responsibilities – house captain, subject leaders, school council
  • Sharing good work, efforts and behaviour with members of a senior management team.
  • Displaying levels of effort around the school room and on displays
• Class
  • Verbal praise to a class
  • Verbal praise during Monday assemblies
• Group
  • Verbal praise to a group
  • House points to an entire House

Responses to Negative Behaviour

We believe that negative behaviours always signal a need for a positive response. This is because any negative behaviour is a problem in itself, not the child. Therefore, we aspire to turn a problem into a skill to be learned. In order to deal with any displays of negative behaviour we have adopted a questioning system, based on restorative justice. A restorative justice system ensures relationships are maintained, respect for the school values and for the members involved is preserved and negative behaviours are repaired and learnt from. We understand that an individual’s motive for causing a negative behaviour can be complex and multidimensional. Therefore, this is a functional assessment model to help determine the antecedent, the behavioural response and the consequence of their actions. Furthermore, this questioning system is there to help staff support the individual or individuals involved and ensures clarity and consistency in our approach. Also, we understand that this process can be timely; therefore we will continually monitor and evaluate the child’s progress and praise efforts where applicable.

Questions to ask:

1.         What happened?

2.         What happened before?

3.          Where did this happen?

4.          When did this happen?

5.         Who else was involved?

6.         Which rule/value was broken?

7.         What can you do to stop this happening again?

These questions are adapted to help establish the nature of the negative behaviour that has occurred. Once the responses have been gathered, a judgement is made. If an individual or a group require a sanction for their behaviour then the level of sanction is measured in accordance with the severity of their actions.

8.         Why have you behaved in this way?

9.         How were you feeling before you behaved in this way?

10.       How were you feeling during the altercation?

11.       How are you feeling now?

These questions are adapted to help them reflect upon the negative behaviour. We will help to establish the antecedent that caused the negative behaviour, whilst acknowledging their feelings during this sensitive time. Understanding the cause of their behaviour can ensure we can act upon it and put in place learning opportunities to reduce the likelihood of a negative behaviour occurring again. We will always aim to help the child and defuse any negative feelings before it manifests or becomes disruptive to others.

Any  significant negative behaviours are communicated with parents and carers

If necessary behaviour support plans are designed to alter patterns of negative behaviour. The process by which this done, however, involves change in the behaviour of family, teachers, staff or mangers in various settings. Plans of behaviour support define what we will do differently. It is the change in our behaviour that will result in improved behaviour.

Sanctions

All sanctions are detailed in a ladder of intervention. We expect all staff to implement a ladder of intervention. It details the negative behaviour and describes the sanctions that will take place as a consequence. The more severe the negative behaviour, the more severe the sanctions becomes.

The Role of the Head Teacher

It is the role of the Headteacher, under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, to implement the school Behaviour Policy consistently throughout the school,

and to report to Governors, when requested, on the effectiveness of the policy. It is also the responsibility of the Headteacher to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all the children in the school.

The Headteacher supports the staff by implementing the policy, by setting the standards of behaviour, and by supporting staff in the implementation of the policy.

The Headteacher has access to records of all reported incidents of misbehavior.

The Headteacher has the responsibility for giving fixed-term exclusions to individual children for serious breaches of behavior. For repeated or very serious acts of anti-social behaviour, the Headteacher may permanently exclude a child. Both these actions are only taken after the School Governors have been notified.

The head teacher must publicise the school behaviour policy, in writing, to staff, parents and pupils at least once a year.

The role of the Governing Body

Under Section 88(1) of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (EIA), governing bodies must ensure that policies designed to promote good behaviour and discipline on the part of its pupils are pursued at the school.

Section 88(2) of the EIA requires the governing body to:

• make, and from time to time review, a written statement of general principles to guide the head teacher in determining measures to promote good behaviour and discipline amongst pupils; and
• notify the head teacher and give him or her related guidance if the governing body wants the school’s behaviour policy to include particular measures or address particular issues.

Before making their statement of principles, the governing body must consult (in whatever manner they think appropriate) the head teacher, school staff, parents and pupils.

The governing body must provide clear advice and guidance to the head teacher on which he/she can base the school behaviour policy.

• Governing bodies will also wish to consider their duty under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 requiring them to make arrangements to ensure that their functions are carried out with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and their general duty to eliminate discrimination under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.

The governing body will in consultation with the Headteacher consider what the school’s response will be to:

• any bad behaviour when the child is:

• taking part in any school- or school-related activity or

• travelling to or from school or
• wearing school uniform or
• in some other way identifiable as a pupil at the school.

• or, misbehaviour at any time, whether or not the conditions above apply, that:

• could have repercussions for the orderly running of the school or
• poses a threat to another pupil or member of the public or
• could adversely affect the reputation of the school.