Positive Behaviour and Discipline Policy

HERMITAGE PRIMARY SCHOOL

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR AND DISCIPLINE POLICY

Ratified by the Standards and Curriculum Committee: 12th December 2017

Date of next review: November 2019
Hermitage Primary School

Positive Behaviour and Discipline Policy

Preface

At Hermitage Primary School we believe that positive behaviour management is a priority when delivering the curriculum effectively. Positive Behaviour is a necessary part of the provisions we make at Hermitage Primary School to create and maintain an orderly working environment in which all members of the school community feel safe and secure. Our main intention is to maintain consistency and fairness to all in the school community. Our expectations must be communicated to pupils as routine to enrich lives and help the growth of caring, responsible people.

Aims of our Positive Behaviour Policy

·  To encourage a calm, purposeful and happy atmosphere within school.

·  To foster positive, caring attitudes towards everyone where achievements at all levels are valued.

·  To encourage increasing independence and self-discipline so that each child learns to accept responsibility for their own behaviour.

·  To have a consistent approach to behaviour throughout the school with parental co-operation and involvement.

·  To raise children’s self-esteem.

·  To provide clear boundaries for acceptable behaviour to ensure physical and emotional safety.

·  To help children, staff and parents have a sense of direction and a feeling of common purpose.

·  To contribute positively to the school and wider community

Teaching Positive Behaviour

At Hermitage Primary School we believe that positive behaviour in children stems from learning the core skills. We believe that all staff at school have a responsibility to actively help children develop these core skills. They can be taught throughout the school day by:-

·  Staff modelling the skills and abilities directly;

·  Setting appropriate boundaries for children’s behaviour;

·  Showing empathy and understanding of children;

·  Listening to children;

·  Showing respect and understanding to everyone in the school community;

·  Providing feedback in an informative way to children;

·  Using positive rewards to encourage the learning of appropriate behaviour;

·  Using sanctions to discourage the learning of inappropriate behaviour; and

·  Teaching the skills and abilities through assemblies, the PSHCE curriculum and SEAL (Social Emotional Aspects of learning) and PSED in Reception Class

Rules and Routines

The school’s Behaviour Policy will be reviewed annually. Whole school rules and routines should be negotiated and agreed by the school community. These should form the basis of classroom, school and playground ground positive behaviour expectations.

We will:-

·  Show care and respect for other people, their belongings and the environment.

·  Be polite and think of others.

·  Try our best to be the best.

Each class should work together to establish ground rules, which allow the classroom to operate effectively within a safe, happy and busy learning environment.

Playground rules must be established in the same way so that the playground is a safe, happy and a fair place to be. The School Council will work with their classes to develop a set of playground rules.

Responsibilities

Parents’ Responsibilities

·  To prepare children for the school day (Refer to Home School Agreement)

·  To support the staff and school in implementing the policy

·  To make children aware of appropriate behaviour.

·  To encourage independence and self-discipline.

·  To show an interest in all their child does in school.

·  To form a positive relationship with the staff

·  To be aware of the school rules

Children’s Responsibilities

Golden promise: We promise to:

v  Always listen to others

v  Be honest

v  Be kind and helpful

v  To respect others

v  To look after school equipment

Staff Responsibilities

·  To treat all children fairly and with respect

·  To help all children to develop their full potential

·  To provide a challenging, interesting and relevant curriculum

·  To create a safe and pleasant environment both physically and emotionally

·  To use positive and negative consequences clearly and consistently

·  To be a good role model

·  To form positive relationships with parents and children

·  To recognise and value the strengths of all children

·  To offer a framework for teaching the personal, social and emotional skills and abilities that underpin the school’s behaviour policy

Positive (Rewards)

At Hermitage Primary School we believe that children should be encouraged to behave well and work hard. We use a number of positive rewards to do so. Whilst our aim is that children should work and behave well for the pleasure of the task, we recognise that rewards are sometimes necessary and appropriate. We use the following positive rewards:

·  Non-verbal rewards such as a thumbs up sign or a smile

·  Verbal Praise

·  Showing work to another teacher and to senior management

·  Stickers

·  Certificates

·  House point certificates

·  Star of the week

·  Displaying work

·  Positive tone of voice

·  Celebration assembly

We believe it is essential that all children are able to receive positive encouragement and have a fair chance to enjoy the positive rewards Children’s success, both in their work and behaviour should be measured against their previous performance rather than against that of other children in their class.

Positive behaviour strategies should always heavily outweigh the use of consequences to create a positive, caring environment. For example: praise the pupils lining up as you expect them to rather than focus on the pupils who find it more of a challenge.

The House Point System was devised as a means of promoting ‘Good Citizenship’.

For example points are awarded for good behaviour, caring behaviour, showing initiative etc

25 House Points earns a bronze certificate, 50 House Points earns a silver certificate, and 75 House Points earns a gold certificate which would be given out in an Assembly.

House points will be added up weekly and the winning House announced in Celebration Assembly by the House Captains.

Sanctions

In order to discourage children from behaving badly we believe it is important to teach them positive behaviours. If a child misbehaves staff should ask them to stop the behaviour and should discuss the incident with all those involved at playtime/lunchtime accordingly. All staff including Lunchtime Controllers should encourage the children to try to resolve disputes themselves and to take responsibility for their own actions.

Procedures in place when there is concern about a child’s behaviour

·  Time out of the classroom to refocus them, use of a timer (if appropriate) so they know when they can re-join the group.

·  To reflect and discuss or write about what went wrong and to suggest ways in which the behaviour can be improved/avoided in future.

·  Should a child’s behaviour continue to give concern they may be referred to KS Team Leader or Deputy Head.

·  Parents will be informed if a child’s behaviour breaks the Golden promise in class or the playground by the class teacher.

·  At the next stage, children will be referred to the Infant Team Leader or Deputy Head Teacher who will contact the parents to discuss the problem.

·  Serious incidents may be referred directly to the Head Teacher who will contact the parents.

·  At each stage, the referral system allows the teacher to find out if there are any factors that may be contributing to the child’s behaviour.

Positive strategies for dealing with negative behaviour

§  Show respect for all parties.

§  Look for and verbalise the positive in a situation

§  Remain calm and deal with the situations quietly (in private if possible)

§  Avoid confrontation

§  Deal with incidents promptly (but consider requirement for “Cool Down” time for EBD/SEN pupils)

§  Investigate a situation to gain each party’s point of view to ensure fairness

§  Encourage verbal reasoning and help children accept responsibilities

§  Label the behaviour, not the child. Low self-image may be behind a child’s behaviour, so this may make the situation worse instead of better.

§  Recognise the importance of good communication and home/school partnerships working for the good of the child.

SEE BEHAVIOUR GUIDELINES 2017 – Appendix A

Lunchtime/Playtime behaviour

Hermitage Primary School has adopted and is enforcing a zero tolerance to fighting/goading and disrespectful behaviour to all adults and children in school. The whole school needs to adopt this zero tolerance.

The procedures set out below are for breaktime/lunchtime behaviour management.

Explanation of ‘behaviours’

Fighting/goading: fighting is self-explanatory; goading is the behaviour that will lead to a fight.

Neither behaviours is acceptable.

Disrespectful behaviour is any of the following:

·  Swearing

·  Grabbing

·  Crowding

·  Running away when an adult is trying to talk to you

·  Mocking an adult

·  Making fun of an adult

·  Ignoring an adult

What will happen in practice?

If a child fights/goads or is disrespectful the following actions will take place:

1. On the first occasion, the child will be removed from the playground and taken to a room (Owls) or Heads office. If a child refuses a senior member of staff must be called to remove the child. This action is necessary because the child has breached a school rule or is a danger to themselves and others.
2. When the child is indoors the incident will be recorded in the playground/lunchtime behaviour book by the member of staff.
3. If a Lunchtime Controller raises an issue with a member of staff, teachers will give an appropriate colour card to reflect the severity of the behaviour.
4. The second time a child is removed from the playground the parents/carer will be contacted explaining the behaviour and what will happen next time. There will be an offer made for the parents to come into school to discuss their child.
5. If the child is entered in the book for a third time they will receive a fixed term lunchtime exclusion.
6. The parents will be called in to meet the HT or DHT. As far as possible this will be the afternoon after the third incident has taken place. At this meeting a reintegration meeting will be agreed.
7. It may be that in some cases the sanction will be an exclusion straight away if the school deems this appropriate, taking previous information into account.

Evaluation

The effectiveness of this policy will be measured by:-

·  A reduction in the number of children referred indoors during lunchtime.

·  A reduction in the number of children being sent to the Head Teacher.

·  A positive increase in the number of children being praised and rewarded through assemblies, in class and involvement in school competitions.

·  Increase in rewards given to pupils by Lunchtime Controllers

SENCO involvement and other Agencies

Where concerning behaviour continues in spite of all of the above procedures the child will be referred to the Special Needs Co-ordinator who will work with the class teacher to develop an appropriate education plan which will be discussed with the child and the parents.

The plan will be reviewed regularly and updated appropriately. In very exceptional circumstances the procedures for suspension and expulsion will be initiated, following School guidelines.

Involving Parents

We encourage parents to take an active part in the life of the school. We believe this is essential to establishing trusting relationships which allow us to work together in partnership to teach all children positive behaviour.

Information about ways in which parents can help their children is provided through parent/teacher meetings and newsletters.

In-service Training Needs

In keeping with the school’s development plan, in–service training needs will be identified and addressed within the school’s financial constraints. In addition, we will endeavour to ensure that staff are aware of all relevant and available in- service training.

Exclusions

On occasion, as part of the school’s behaviour policy, it might be necessary to exclude some children. This is in a minority of cases and is used either in the case of extreme events or persistent misbehaviour when the child has not responded to other strategies we have employed. Such decisions will be made by the Head Teacher or Deputy Head in their absence.

In-School Exclusions

In-school exclusion means removing a child from their class and putting them into a different one for a period of time. This will usually be with a member of SMT’s class or a class deemed appropriate at the time. They will be sent with work to complete. This allows a child time to reflect upon their recent behaviour and sends a clear message to all concerned that we consider their conduct to be unacceptable. When the agreed time period is over, the child is re-introduced to their class with specific targets to improve.

Fixed-Term Exclusions

Fixed-term exclusion is when a child is asked to stay at home for an agreed period of time. It is a considerably more severe sanction than the in-school exclusion.

In the event of fixed-term exclusion, we will hold a ‘Return to School Interview’ with both the child and their family. The purpose of this is to draw a line under what has happened and build a plan together.

In order to help the child improve, specific targets will be set for the pupil, interventions put in place by the school and rewards/sanctions agreed with the family.

All exclusions are carried out in line with the Government booklet ‘Guidance on exclusion from schools and Pupil Referral Units ’

Physical intervention

In some circumstances staff may need to use physical restraint of pupils- refer to the Physical Intervention Policy 2015

Monitoring and review of policy

The effectiveness of this policy will be monitored by the Standards & Curriculum Committee and will be biennially reviewed by the committee.

Appendix A Behaviour guidelines.

Golden promise- all children have been involved in creating 5 promises that they will keep. These form the foundation of the positive behaviour policy.

Golden promise: We promise to:

v  Always listen to others

v  Be honest

v  Be kind and helpful

v  To respect others

v  To look after school equipment

Good to be green: inside every class there is a good to be green behaviour chart, this chart works as a positive behaviour reinforcement children will remain on green providing they keep the golden promise. If children do not keep the promise then they will be warned first verbally. If they persist then they will have a yellow card put against their names, this is the opportunity for children to think about their behaviour and the choices they are making. If they persist in this behaviour, then a red card will be awarded. At this point the child will be removed from class to another class. They will lose playtime. This incident will be reported to the Deputy Headteacher and their name and incident will be recorded in the behaviour book. A letter will be sent home to parents outlining the incident and which rule has been broken. If two red cards are given within a half term then parents will be asked to come in and see the Headteacher. A red card can be given straight away for particularly unacceptable incidents/issues.