St Michael’s CE Aided School
Behaviour Policy
Policy to promote Positive Relationships and Good Behaviour
(formerly Good Behaviour Policy)
| Issue Date | Review Date | Document Owner(s) | Nominated Governor |
| March 2020 | March 2022 | School | Judith Arkwright |
Introduction
This policy has arisen from discussion amongst pupils, teaching staff and support staff about classroom and whole school organisation and the methods by which good behaviour can be promoted at St Michael’s CE Aided School. It is based on current practice and is designed to ensure consistency and continuity between classes.
Aims, expectations and principles
St Michael’s School aims to provide a happy, caring and secure environment, in which children feel valued, respected and enjoy learning. We aim to build confidence and a sense of responsibility in all our children, as well as nurturing the moral, ethical and spiritual values that will ensure they are able to make positive contributions both now and in later life. We want children to develop a positive attitude towards themselves and others, acknowledging children’s achievements in all areas. At St. Michael’s we aim to achieve this by creating a broad and rich learning experience, underpinned by Christian values.
The aim of this policy is to promote good choices and effective relationships so that everyone can enjoy a stimulating and happy learning environment. It aims to promote relationships, which are happy, safe and secure. The school rewards good behaviour, as it believes that this will develop an ethos of kindness and co-operation. The policy is designed to promote good behaviour, not merely deter anti-social behaviour.
Central within the policy is choice: we refer to good choices (which lead to good consequences) and choices, which are bad (which lead to negative consequences, usually based around our system of warnings).
Praise is key to nurturing motivated, engaged children who make good choices and consequently build positive relationships. Throughout school, all stakeholders (not just staff, but pupils, parents and visitors) should aim to ‘catch’ good behaviour. If we became complacent, many good choices could be taken for granted and many children who always make good choices could become ‘invisible’.
Refer to ‘Guidance for Safer Working Practice for Adults who work with Children and Young People in Education Settings’ for important safeguarding procedures to which we all adhere.
Roles, Rights and Responsibilities
Pupils
It is the responsibility of pupils to make good choices at all times and with all adults and pupils in school. This will lead to pupils behaving well, building up and maintaining good relationships. Pupils should follow three simple rules to avoid bad choices:
- follow instructions
- keep hands, feet and objects to themselves
- respect everyone and everything
Following instructions can include “Children – Stop – and look at me”; in our school, this means three things:
- silent voices
- empty hands
- eyes on the speaker
Teaching staff
All staff in our school have high expectations of the children in terms of their relationships, choices and behaviour. A key priority is to reward and praise good choices in order to reinforce good behaviour (including following school rules) and positive relationships – ‘catching’ pupils behaving well is vital, exclaiming about how well a pupil has behaved (and not becoming complacent).
With these principles in mind, specific responsibilities of the class teacher are to:
- praise children on individual / group basis (public praise is very powerful), making explicit why: what rule they have followed, or what choice they have made
- follow our warnings system, making explicit why: always state what rule they have broken, and always record the incidents
- display in the classroom the consequences of their choices (both positive and negative) – this can help when you explain why you are praising / warning
- be consistent with all consequences
- treat each child fairly and with respect and understanding
- apply these principles, roles and responsibilities with their own class and around school
- be a positive role model by demonstrating positive relationships with everyone in school
- keep a record and any relevant notes if a child misbehaves and / or receives a warning
- having followed regular procedures and consequences, seek help and advice from a colleague
- liaise with external agencies, as necessary, to support and guide the progress of each child e.g. discuss the needs of a child with the LA behaviour support service
- report to parents about the child’s social and emotional aspects of school life, including behaviour and relationships.
It is the responsibility of teaching assistants, office staff and all other adults in school to support the Headteacher and teachers in meeting the above objectives. As with teachers, a key priority is to reward and praise good choices in order to reinforce good behaviour (including following school rules) and positive relationships. All staff should be proactive in ‘catching’ pupils behaving well and exclaiming about how well a pupil has behaved.
Headteacher
In addition to the above, it is the responsibility of the Headteacher to:
- support the staff by implementing the policy, including the above objectives, and by setting the standards of behaviour
- implement this policy consistently throughout the school, and to report to governors, when requested, on its effectiveness (under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998)
- ensure the health, safety and welfare of all children in the school
- maintain record of all reported serious incidents of misbehavior
- issue fixed-term suspensions to individual children for serious acts of misbehavior and 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.
Parents
The school works collaboratively with parents so children receive consistent messages about how to behave. We aim to build a supportive dialogue between the home and the school. We inform parents immediately if we have concerns about their child’s welfare or behaviour – this includes if a child receives five warnings or if there is a pattern of regularly receiving warnings. We expect parents to:
- be aware that we have school rules (often communicated to parents) and to support them
- co-operate with the school
- support their child’s learning
- support the school’s decision when applying consequences to deal with any specific incident / issue
If parents have any concern about the way that their child has been treated, they should initially contact the class teacher. If the concern remains, they should contact the Headteacher, and if still unresolved, the school governors. If these discussions cannot resolve the problem, a formal grievance or appeal process can be implemented.
Governors
The governing body has the responsibility of setting down these general guidelines on standards of discipline and behaviour, and of reviewing their effectiveness. The governors support the Headteacher in carrying out these guidelines. The Headteacher has the day-to-day authority to implement the school behaviour and discipline policy,
It is the responsibility of the governing body to monitor the rate of suspensions and exclusions, and to ensure that the school policy is administered fairly and consistently.
Consequences
Positive consequences
Each teacher and their class develop their own systems of reward and praise, based on the overall school principles set out in this policy. This can include individual and class rewards. Some of the positive consequences for the good choices and good behaviour that children show are:
- regular verbal feedback to reinforce positive behaviour
- reference to good role models
- children are congratulated
- stickers or other small prizes
- certificates: given in Friday’s Learner of the Week Collective Worship
- Golden Time if a class has achieved a class target
- House Points are given to children for good choices, good relationships, politeness, co-operation or acts of kindness in school – the House with the most House Points are awarded the House Points Cup in Friday’s Learner of the Week Collective Worship.
Sweets are rarely used as rewards; as a healthy school, we prefer to reward in other ways.
Collective Worship, especially our Friday’s Learner of the Week Collective Worship, is an opportunity to celebrate publicly 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.
Negative consequences
Staff at St Michael’s employ consistently and clearly, a hierarchy of negative consequences (our ‘steps’) if a child breaks a school rule. This is to ensure a safe and effective learning environment in which positive, happy, healthy relationships flourish. We have just three school rules:
- follow instructions
- keep hands, feet and objects to themselves
- respect everyone and everything
We have a series of consequences if someone breaks a rule:
- A reminder about behaviour and choices
- Five minutes off break
- Time out of class and missed break
- Pupil sees Headteacher and parents are informed
Serious misbehavior (e.g. swearing, disrespect to staff, fight) is very rare at St Michaels. Such behaviour would mean warnings are automatically by-passed to a ‘step 4’. 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.
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 i.e. we aim to remove the personal judgement so children understand and accept the school rules.
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.
The safety of the children is paramount in all situations. If a child’s behaviour endangers the safety of others, the class teacher stops the activity and prevents the child from taking part for the rest of that session.
The class teacher discusses the school rules with each class, and displays the rules and the consequences 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.
The school does not tolerate bullying of any kind. If we discover that an act of bullying or intimidation has taken place, we act immediately to stop any further occurrences of such behaviour. (See Appendices.)
All members of staff are aware of the regulations regarding the use of force by teachers, as set out in DfEE Circular 10/98, relating to section 550A of the Education Act 1996: The Use of Force to Control or Restrain Pupils. Staff would only need to intervene physically to restrain children or to prevent injury to a child, or if a child is in danger of hurting him / herself. The actions that we take are in line with government guidelines on the restraint of children.
Monitoring
The Headteacher monitors the effectiveness of this policy on a regular basis. She also reports to the governing body on the effectiveness of the policy and, if necessary, makes recommendations for further improvements.
The school keeps a variety of records of incidents of misbehavior. The class teacher records incidents with reference to the warnings system; we also keep a record of serious incidents that occur at break or lunchtimes. The Headteacher keeps a record of any pupil who is suspended for a fixed-term, or who is permanently excluded. Racial incidents must be reported to the local authority; homophobic incidents are also recorded.
It is the responsibility of the governing body to monitor the rate of suspensions and exclusions, and to ensure that the school policy is administered fairly and consistently.
Equal opportunities
The school expects every member of the school community to behave in a considerate way towards others. We treat all children fairly and apply this policy without prejudice in a consistent, non-judgemental way.
