AlfretonNursery School

Behaviour Policy

SENCO & BEHAVIOUR CO-ORDINATOR: ANGELA STANTON

PSED CO-ORDINATOR: AMANDA HUBBALL.

The ethos of our school is to understand individual children and their needs in terms of the social interactions they make around the school. All practitioners model high standards of personal and social behaviour; expectations are high and children are taught from entry about respect for themselves, for others and for the environment around them. Children are encouraged to spiritually empathise and feel compassion towards each other. Practitioners work to encourage children to understand that kind and unkind behaviour has consequences for others as well as for themselves. It is our firmly held belief that appropriate behaviour should and can be recognised and built upon through a positive approach.

Practise

  • There is a whole school approach and support system in place to meet the emotional needs of all individual children.
  • As part of our work on sustainable school’s/global citizenship we have embedded provision which raises awareness of issues around difference and diversity. This encourages all children to recognise and respect difference, to show compassion and care for the natural world and to show tolerance in a global society.
  • Once a term, we hold a ‘Rights Respecting’ Day which is designed to raise awareness of respectful behaviour and the rights and responsibilities of all children. This day is an added aspect to the Rights Respecting work that is done in school and which is embedded into all curriculum areas.
  • Practitioners have a role in demonstrating positive relationships between each other, the children and the parents and to therefore reinforce a positive ethos of high standards and positive interactions with all.
  • There is much emphasis placed on the development of trusting and supportive relationships between children and practitioners.
  • Attempts are made, where appropriate, to link directly with the emotional attachment to home e.g. sentimental objects / photographs in order to relieve separation anxiety.
  • As part of a Children’s Centre we integrate the needs of the whole family into our provision, drawing on the multi professional team that we work within. Parents are supported with the offer of lunch times and additional sessions in school and this in turn supports the children by offering a consistent and high quality environment and relationships. We also draw on different professionals, e.g. health visitor etc into our school to offer a committed support system to the families we work with.
  • We offer a drop-in session on Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons. This is an opportunity for prospective families to come and spend time in our school. In turn this enables the school practitioners, children and family adults to share in the school expectations and philosophies.
  • Practitioners will work on the positive aspects of children’s behaviour, praising and encouraging when recognising positive practise. Emphasis will be placed on the language of respect, rights and responsibilities to support children’s interactions.
  • Practitioners establish well-defined parameters of acceptable behaviour, thus providing a framework of support and security for all children.
  • It is expected that children will care for each other and will treat each other and their surrounding environment with respect.
  • Practitioners adopt specific teaching strategies consistently in dealing with difficult or challenging behaviour.
  • The strategies used by practitioners when dealing with challenging behaviour are linked with up to date knowledge related to the individual ‘s personal circumstances and the latest research into emotional development, e.g. current emotional, academic or physical needs due to illness, home related issues, SEN identified such as dyslexia, autistic spectrum disorders, AMA etc.
  • Where appropriate children are offered the opportunity to take ‘time out’ from group activities or the lively nature of areas of the nursery particularly if behaviour needs calming and careful control.
  • As a school we are constantly aware of the importance of emotional well-being and we address this directly through our rights respecting work. We link our practice closely with the work of Unicef and the rights of every child. The PSED coordinator (Amanda Hubball) constantly evaluates and addresses any aspects of emotional well-being provision in school which needs to be modified.
  • Opportunities are provided daily to ensure that the way we teach incorporates the different learning styles of all children: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. This minimises frustration and enables equality of access to the curriculum. All practitioners use some sign language as often as possible and whilst this is minimal, it has nevertheless become an integral part of nursery provision. Children are taught signing skills too and this encourages all children to feel heard and understood. It also encourages empathic understanding for those children who find communication more difficult than others.
  • Children are taught strategies in order to support them when dealing with other people’s different types of behaviour.
  • When staff are significantly concerned with the behaviour displayed by an individual, in consultation with parents and according to the Specials Needs Code of Practice, the Special Needs Coordinator will engage the help of outside agencies in order to develop support strategies and update practitioner knowledge.
  • Schemes of work, which operate within the story sessions and other small groups, further develop children’s emotional intelligence and link directly to the school’s primary focus of respecting children’s rights.

Where appropriate, the Co-ordinator will use the Multi-Element Plan (MEPs) assessment framework to support a child and family experiencing challenging behaviours.

We create a high profile for positive behaviour through:

  • Achievement Certificates – Children are awarded with certificates, written to acknowledge academic achievement or positive behaviour. These certificates are a valuable link with parents when taken home.
  • The use of a puppet called Respectful Rachael. This puppet raises the awareness of children to the need for respectful and kind behaviour. Respectful Rachael is used n conjunction with a whole fantasy family. This family is designed to inspire and stimulate all children’s natural desire to engage and develop within the whole school curriculum.
  • We have a magic friendship tree. When children behave in a kind way, they can be awarded a love heartleaf for the tree. This celebrates their behaviour in a very positive and public way.
  • As a school we have completed an Emotional Well-being project, which is linked to the educational psychologists – who are regular visitors in school.
  • As a result of the Emotional Well-being project, there is a strong focus on personalised learning in school. Children frequently evaluate the school environment and constructively apply modifications through the use of the Wish Fairy.
  • Emotional Literacy – Planned sessions are aimed at developing emotional intelligence and building skills in emotional literacy. Specific resources are used and children are taught to examine behaviour in order to determine the emotional motivation underpinning it. They learn about the language of emotion, thus empowering them in different emotional states. During the Advanced Story Session, Aspiration Group and other planned input, children are taught about emotional intelligence and work through a programme of activities designed specifically to empower and support. Our work as a RRS underpins all work on emotional wellbeing.
  • As a school we work to address environmental issues and encourage an awareness and conscience within all children, about the natural world. We maintain a strong focus on environmental issues and believe strongly that if children develop a respect for their environment and the role that they play, they can also develop a greater sense of self worth and purpose.
  • We have kindness clouds in school which encourage children to behave positively towards the Planet and thus develop increased awareness of the consequence for actions.
  • An equal opportunities cycle of teaching addresses stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes. This input aims to nurture mutual respect for difference and diversity, acknowledging the rights and responsibilities that we all share.
  • We recognise and celebrate the different ways in which children learn and make clear and conscious provision for children with a range of learning abilities. This provision incorporates a strong school focus on academically more able provision and Multiple Intelligence awareness.
  • There are certain behaviour rules during different times of the nursery session. All practitioners encourage the children to understand the PSE intentions behind the rules and the impact the rules have on their peers.
  • The Love Heart group: Twice a week a specific cohort of children, who have been identified as having specific emotional needs are given sensitive input. The Love heart group provides a safe and sensory space for children to work through a cycle of activities designed to support their emotional development. This group has a soft pink frog called Frank and a large fluffy pink flamingo called Florence, who provide a visual and child friendly symbol for the children to interact with.
  • As part of our work to support those children who are presently in care or in receipt of pupil premium and are thus at additional risk of having additional emotional needs, we provide different resources and strategies that can be used by different families, professionals etc. Some of these resources include a bedtime case, healthy eating bag, cuddle case and homes bag. A group which operates around this aspect of emotional wellbeing is the ‘Maslow Group’. Children are encouraged to consider their basic rights (RRS)/needs and have access to a breakfast club, home-school library and small group work.
  • ‘Ask me why I am so clever’ badges.- When children achieve highly through academic success or through the demonstration of positive behaviour they can be awarded one of these badges, which by their very nature encourages feedback from children and practitioners throughout the session. They are replaced by a sticker when the child goes home. The moment a child achieves something positive, even if this is rare, a practitioner will seize the opportunity to quickly reward the behaviour and thus encourage the repetition and development of this behaviour.

In order to meet the emotional needs of all children we feel that it is necessary to, at times, positively discriminate between boys and girls;

Meeting the emotional needs of boys:

  • Develop emotional literacy e.g. ‘feeling’ words and expression of emotional states
  • A physically active curriculum is provided daily, using the outdoor environment as a fundamental aspect to our provision.
  • Teaching strategies adapted appropriately to meet boys emotional needs e.g. self-competition
  • Conscious decision to discourage gun play, whilst channelling boys towards constructive role play e.g. fire fighters etc.

Assessment

  • The personal, social and emotional development of all children is monitored and assessed through the school assessment system, which is linked to the Development Matters document.
  • We track the progress of all children every term in all aspects of PSED.
  • As a whole school staff, we make professional evaluations of all children’s progress in their personal, social and emotional development. This feeds forward into the planning and target setting process.
  • The Ferre Laevers assessment tool enables all practitioners to monitor the emotional well-being of all children during their time in school.
  • Children are assessed in terms of their awareness of issues related to community cohesion/global citizenship, in their first and fifth term. This assessment system has been designed alongside the Oxfam Education resources and links to our RRS work and our international school work.

As a school which places the rights of children at the centre of everything it does, we spend a great deal of time respecting the needs of every individual child in school – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Each curriculum area is taught with the needs of every child at its core and all practitioners in school acknowledge the responsibility they have to provide a curriculum that is creative and stimulating. This curriculum nurtures all children and allows them to be successful and proud of all their achievements.

Updated November 2015

Amanda Hubball

Approved by:

Date: