Our behaviour policy reflects our Christian values of friendship, trust, compassion, forgiveness, community and respect. We have worked incredibly hard to ensure that expectations are explicit and modeled at all levels of leadership and by the whole school community.
When the new senior leadership team started in April 2017, it was very clear that there were huge inconsistencies and misunderstandings of the fundamental expectations set out in the policy. This was at no fault of previous leadership, but a high staff turnover, pupil mobility and low parental engagement meant it was difficult to obtain stability in expectations. Therefore, the behaviour policy was rewritten and step-by-step guidance was set out in staff meetings, to diminish any ambiguity.
The policy was sent out to parents along with a home-school agreement, with a request that it be shared with their children and a consent form signed, to support any decisions the school would make in regard to behaviour management. This clarified the school’s standpoint and ensured that all parties were clear on the steps we would take to maintain the school as a calm, purposeful and nice place to learn, for staff and pupils alike.
We currently use a very simple ‘traffic light’ system of red, amber and green, alongside hand signals as non-verbal cues to support all our pupils, including SEN pupils. Our expectations in behaviour are the same for all pupils, and those that need support are given the tools, resources or strategies to support this. It was important from the get-go that we would maintain high standards for all children, not lowering them for identified groups. This has served us well in ensuring that fairness and consistency is the norm.
We introduced a system called ‘FUEL’ in response to low-level disruption across classrooms and a lack of engagement and responses from children when asked questions. We chose this to fit in with the schools context and locality. This stands for:
F - Face the speaker
U - Understand
E - Engage and respond
L - Listen carefully
Our FUEL poster is visible across the school, in classrooms, hallways and meeting rooms. At the beginning of each of the six terms per year, the behaviour policy and the FUEL system are revisited to ensure that we are explicit in our expectations at all times. Additionally, staff carry the policy with them at these times, reminding children if needed. The children will be asked if they have their ‘Learning FUEL’ if they need a quick reminder of the expectations.
Higher level incidents are dealt with swiftly and in the same way every time. Parents are called in immediately for a meeting with a member of SLT, the family liaison officer and the class teacher. The pupils are placed in isolation with appropriate work to ensure that their learning is not affected.
This process has reduced the number of serious incidents hugely in a relatively short space of time. Year-on-year comparisons show that high-level incidents have decreased by 95% according to our safeguarding and behaviour reporting system. High level incidents are now rare.
Exclusions of any type are probably the hardest part of running a school. I’m yet to meet a leader who finds this decision easy to make. But working in a dual role of Head of School and SENCo, I have to make decisions based both on the individual pupil level and the effect on the school community as a whole.
Fixed-term exclusions are a last resort and we follow a really robust reintegration process, supported by the local authority’s Attendance and Inclusion Office.
Our main driver for school improvement with regard to behaviour is positivity and positive reinforcement. However, there was a tendency initially for staff to reward children every time they did what was expected.
Short-term, this had a good impact, but now the children are seeing the benefit of expected behaviour, it has become an intrinsic reward. The children know that there are long- and short-term benefits to good behaviour and we use lots of role modelling to reinforce this throughout the school.
Children need to be ‘consistently green’ in the traffic light system in order to join an end-of-term celebration with their classmates, and we use a weekly assembly to celebrate those short-term achievements with a certificate. This ensures that everyone has an opportunity to achieve success and this has been a catalyst for change.
Using a weekly meeting between the SLT and ‘always green’ children, has also been an opportunity to empower those children that are role models for attitude and behaviour. The children are invited to share a drink, their work and what they think is working well or could be improved across the school.
The overarching goals for the school are that we can go about our day in a calm, purposeful and positive way. Everyone benefits and everyone can now see the school is a very different place compared to two years ago.
Feedback from our recent staff well-being survey suggests that they are more confident that they can teach free from disruption, and pupil feedback suggests that the children feel safe and secure to learn.
We are very firm with our expectations and our pastoral team work incredibly hard to ensure that this is done in a warm, nurturing and inclusive way. Our wrap-around care for families has been vital in ensuring that the children come into school ready to learn. The family liaison officer works tirelessly with our harder-to-reach families and we will provide any support necessary to make school a safe and supportive place to come to.
The new behaviour system had a hugely positive impact on the majority of pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with SEN.
As a SENCo, I’ve had to really think about how we ensure our SEN pupils are supported in both strategies and interventions to reach their full potential. Previously, SEN students were taught outside of the classroom by untrained staff, with little-to-no interaction with their own class teacher. Not only was this upsetting, but also denied children access to quality-first teaching and went against the code of conduct for SEN pupils.
My Exec Head was been integral to the culture shift in regard to behaviour. I think I have been incredibly lucky that the SLT have had the same approach, moral outlook and a pupil-centred approach to the school improvement. There has been an amazing balance of allowing me to put structures and routines in place, and feel completely supported by those who have the final say and accountability.
The decision was made (pretty rapidly!) that no interventions would take place during core subjects and no children would be taught outside the classroom. The expectation on all our pupils is the same, regardless of need. All staff attend our pupil progress meetings and devise strategies and support to ensure that, while making reasonable adjustments, all pupils are free from distraction and capable of being taught in an inclusive environment. We also encourage our staff to choose their own appraisal targets, which means the CPD they receive is of interest to them and the most qualified person can deliver the most up to date interventions. We have an HLTA who is our ASD champion and we currently have one member of staff going through CPD to become a mental health champion. All our staff have had phonics training (From EYFS to Year 6) which has given everyone a really good idea of those vital early stages of reading and the ability to support our older children, if required.
The parents are now fully informed of the purpose behind our behaviour policy, the consistent strategies and consequences we use. They previously would not engage with the school staff or approach staff to talk through any enquiries or provide feedback, whether positive or negative.
When realigning our expectations we asked for parent feedback, making it clear that we were not asking for their voice as a box-ticking exercise, but genuinely wanted their views and feed this into our changing ethos. This was achieved by informal discussions, forming a Parents and Friends Association, and changing the way parents’ evenings were conducted. They now use the format of ‘collaborative conversations’, in which the parents are asked three questions:
• What are your child’s strengths?
• What are your child’s weaknesses?
• What would you like your child to achieve?
This gives us a really clear indication of parental aspirations and builds stronger relationships between the teacher and the family, which empowers us to have more robust conversations about behaviour, if needed, in the future.
Update
We recently updated our school rules and changed them to 'expectations,' partly to remove the negative connotations related to undesirable behaviours and focus shifts to positive aspects that the staff expect.
To respect yourselves, others and the environment
Using our school values of friendship and compassion - making sure you are looking after others and the school - keeping it tidy and helping each other to make good choices. Respecting themselves to make good choices and help each other to learn.
To champion an inclusive learning environment
Using the school values of community & respect - That everyone has a right to learn free from disruption - that we all learn differently and some people need more help than others, but we all learn together and help each other to do our best.
To listen, engage and follow instructions
Using the school values of Trust - We trust each other to have high expectations of each other, when working and playing.
FUEL
Face the speaker
Understand
Engage and respond
Listen carefully
To take pride in your own learning
Using our school value of forgiveness - we forgive ourselves when we want to give up, we forgive each other when we need encouragement to carry on.
Through hard work, NED Never give up, Encourage others, Do your best.
Taking pride in your books, in your learning and in what work you produce.
When we updated the Positive Behaviour Policy we again, attached the home-school agreement to a letter that we sent out to all families. A consent form where they needed to confirm that they had read, understood and shared the policy with their children. We ensured that everyone signed up – taking the time to chase up families who hadn’t got around to returning slips. The relentlessness of communication and setting out the expectations again and again has been really important in the pursuit of not only outstanding behaviour, but for the safety and welfare of all our pupils and staff. A warm/strict approach has been welcomed by our families. Through clear boundaries, support through transitions and excellent learning procedures, the children feel safe, secure and valued as part of the community.
By having a really clear behaviour policy (and a strategies guide for teachers alongside) it also makes it easy for staff to see when they are following it and when they are not – and as a result we now have less confusion and clearer accountability too.
As a result of the growing reputation of the school, we are in the happy position whereby children are now joining us all year around. This presents a challenge, as it is one thing starting the school year with assemblies, etc. to remind everyone of how we do things, but now we have new pupils regularly, and they need to be inducted into how we do things.
We’ve done two main things to address this. All classes get an in-depth reminder of everything at the start of every half term – which is never a bad thing anyway – but also, the families of all new starters in-between receive and are talked through the key documents so that parents and their children can start on day one knowing how we operate.
Onboarding our pupils so they can make a smooth transition into the school is so important for both them and their classmates and teachers. It really is making a difference – and not just for the new pupils. The children in the class they’re joining benefit as it makes for less disruption.
I knew that in order to make a success of the higher expectations of everyone I needed to be able to take families with me. And the timing of the change was key. I had to have built good enough relationships with the community, and given everyone enough time to absorb what we were going to do, that when we made the change they would support it.
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