PARENT FORUM MEETING (Behaviour Policy)
PIXIES HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL
PARENT FORUM MEETING (Behaviour Policy)
Thursday 25th June 5.30 p.m.
Present: Martin Smith (Head), Kaye Cartwright (Chair of Govs), Mrs Deane, Mrs Baker, Mrs Lee, Mrs Walker, Miss Walker
Summarised Discussion Points1 / Minutes of last meeting
MS reviewed the minutes of the last meeting and asked for any amendments or clarifications. MS also gave out an early release of the new homework policy which will be published in the autumn term.
2 / MS Overview on Current Behaviour Policy
The current policy was born out of a need to have clear protocols of what to do when a child receives a reward or a sanction. This is often a key source of frustration for other schools where MS has worked. However, in ensuring a clear and workable policy, the tone of the document reads negatively, regimentally and doesn’t paint the true picture of how we apply the behaviour policy. Prospective parents might therefore assume an austere environment. MS said he had been unhappy with the wording for some time and that this needs to be a priority to address in the new policy.
3 / General Discussion
Discussion on changing the language of the policy and how this would improve the tone, particularly in the wording of the ‘sanctions’ section. It was felt that a sentence or paragraph should be included to ensure there is more flexibility in the policy, for example, a child behaving in such a way that is rare or uncharacteristic should be given more grace that children who repeatedly break school rules. A new policy could be easier to read and there needs to be a balance between depth and length of policy vs a easily understood policy. Making use of layout features might help in this respect.
Some parents expressed concern over isolated incidents of parents poor behaviour in the playground. MS felt this shouldn’t go into a behaviour policy and can be tackled via home-school agreements where necessary.
4 / Autistic Children
There was a lengthy discussion on autistic children in the school and how their behaviour can appear at times unchallenged. MS explained that there is always a consequence to poor behaviour but in the case of autistic children, it is often best to let a child cool down as challenging the behaviour immediately can make the situation worse. In the eyes of autistic children, often bad language or physical acts are a result of fear, confusion or anxiety and most children wouldn’t react in this way. Nevertheless, the school has a mantra that autism is a reason not an excuse and MS did explain that there had been scenarios in the past where the behaviour was unacceptable. Sanctions are given but not always seen. MS gave the example of a child who was aggressive and verbally abusing MS in the playground one morning. MS chose to ignore this as responding would’ve made the situation worse but sanctions were given later in the day. MS is very aware that some parents witnessing this may have inaccurate perceptions. Some children are no longer at the school. Hertfordshire has a policy of inclusion which MS feels is a good thing and we welcome the diversity in the school. The law also states that reasonable adjustments must be made and that children with autism must be given more leeway on behaviour otherwise the school will fall foul of the Disability and Discrimination Act.
5 / Positive Rewards
It was suggested that positive rewards be boxed up in a similar way to the ‘sanctions’ section so that reward becomes more visible in the policy. MS will add ‘letter from the HT’ as a top award and has done this in the past regardless of the policy. There was a discussion on ‘beefing up’ class rewards and some of the rewards that already exist are not in the current policy. MS will talk to SB who has more ideas about this aspect prior to writing the new policy
Next steps
Policy will be written in the autumn term, looked at by the governors and staff, re-edited where required and published. The timeframe for this will hopefully mean the school has a new behaviour policy by the end of the autumn term.
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