Wellbeing and supporting your children after the difficult time they have been through is central to our planning. With this in mind we have reviewed our reward system to include it as part of our overall ‘wellbeing’ development.
Mrs O’Callaghan has been working on this across the Summer Term and we are delighted to introduce our new system of rewards.
All children (except Reception who will be introduced to this very gradually) will be introduced to this today so please ask them about it when they get home.
The new school rewards will be introduced to everyone. This positive behaviour management approach called “GEMS” is a reward system which embeds four core learning behaviours. The four core behaviours, known as “GEMS” are:
How will it work?
- Children will be rewarded with “Gems” when they display any of the 4 core behaviours.
- The children have been placed into 4 teams across the whole school. Siblings are in the same team. The children work together to collect GEMS for their team.
- Each week the GEMS will be counted. The weekly winning team will be announced every Friday. The winning team will win the Whinfield GEM trophy for that week. There will be an end of term prize for the winning team who collects the most GEMS across the term.
- There will also be a special individual GEM certificate awarded every Friday to one child in each class. Alongside this, staff will be sending out “Marvellous Me” GEM badges throughout the week when your child has displayed one of the GEMS
What are the benefits of this whole school approach?
- Collegiate approach.
- Older children become nurturing/role models to the younger children.
- Pupil voice/ collective responsibility becomes more central to our practise.
- Element of competition and reward which is meaningful.
- Easy and simple 4 element approach which the whole school community can embrace.
- All can participate from Reception to Year 6.
- Building lifelong learners- securing 4 key elements, this will aid positive outcomes at all levels.
As with every reward system there does have to be consequences when individual behaviour impacts negatively on other children. We have therefore developed the ‘3 C’s.’
The ‘3 C’s’ will be used when there are, for example, incidents where a behaviour disturbs the learning of others or is affecting the wellbeing of others either in the classroom or outside – this can be at playtimes or lunchtimes. The procedures would then be:
1st Chance – The child is given a 1st chance. This is a warning that their behaviour is not acceptable and it needs to stop, giving them the opportunity to change their behaviour.
If the behaviour continues or another negative behaviour is being displayed they move to …
Last Chance – this is a final warning that this behaviour must stop and gives them another opportunity to change their behaviour.
Before a child reaches the last step which is ‘consequence’ the teacher/teaching assistant/playleader will have explained what the next step will be should their behaviour continue and how that will impact on their team.
If this behaviour continues or another negative behaviour is being displayed they move to…
Consequence – if a child does get to this point they will:
√ Lose a GEM for their team.
√ Phone call home
√ Miss a playtime
A child will go to consequence stage immediately if they…
√ Have been fighting
√ Display homophobic/racist language or behaviour
√ Bullying
This is a positive behaviour system so the ‘consequence’ step will be a rare occurrence and with your support we will be able to make this system successful, promoting the core values of problem solving, kindness, resilience and concentration!
We are looking forward to working together to promote our new rewards system. If you have any questions or queries about this new approach, please contact Mrs O’Callaghan.
