A Shropshire school says it has gone through a ‘paradigm shift’ in a bid to halt child shaming.
Textbooks, childhood experts, and even many parents will tell you that children need consequences for their actions, and that it’s only through these that they learn to distinguish right from wrong.
Consequences, they’ll tell us, help shape little minds to grow into well-rounded individuals, with a good dose of moral fibre.
Indeed, schools up and down the country still rely on consequence-based tools like behaviour charts. A beautiful mural of a rainbow lighting up a sunny sky may at first glance seem like a cheerful classroom image, but look more closely and you’ll see that beneath that splash of bright colour lies a much greyer and more sombre backdrop depicting storm clouds.
Imagine being that child whose marker has slipped down into those storm clouds, lurking sad and lonely in the murky depths of shame for everybody to see. It’s perhaps understandable then that some children develop a wholly inaccurate (but sadly sometimes deep-rooted) belief that they are somehow a ‘bad’ child. A belief that can become their ‘truth’ and can colour their attitude and approach across their entire school career.
Always keen to find new (and better) ways of doing things, St. George’s Primary School, based in Telford, Shropshire, recently turned their own behaviour policy on its head and made the bold decision to implement an innovative new approach, underpinned by positive psychology and collective rewards school-wide.
It’s a move which is already paying dividends according to Kath Watts, Deputy Head of St George’s School.
She explained: “We built the new policy on the foundations of our ongoing work around trauma-informed practice, and it has an unwavering focus on inclusivity; physical, cultural, and neurological diversity; and an absolute avoidance of shame.
“We knew that we were onto something special when a consulting educational psychologist who visited us recently referred to it as a ‘paradigm shift’ moment.
“A lot of groundwork went into the policy courtesy of our early years teacher Lindsey Garroway, our SENDCo Holly Evans and our Senior Middle Leader Clare Holt, and we spoke deeply and candidly with our children about how they felt when their name moved down the behavioural chart.
“We were given answers like ‘I felt naughty but sad’ and ‘It made me feel upset because normally I’m not bad that I know of, it made me feel like I was bad’.
“The more we explored, the more shame-inducing we realised the charts were and so we abolished them with immediate effect.
“Instead, we introduced a more collaborative approach with our Behaviour Stars System. Classes now work collaboratively to earn whole class rewards based on the number of stars they collect as a team. Stars are added to a behaviour app, and the children are also given stickers as an individual reward.
“Whole class rewards are discussed and chosen by the children in the class, and can include things like a movie afternoon or a class party. Once the children have worked together to earn 500 stars they achieve their whole class reward, the system then resets for that class and they work on choosing and earning their next reward, ideally one per half term.
“This system not only removes any shame-inducing element, but promotes teamwork – encouraging responsibility and accountability in a positive way.
“Initial feedback has been incredibly positive with teaching staff reporting that children love to see the stars being added to the app and their class total increasing. It has been praised as a great team motivator – encouraging the children to work together. Children were also able to clearly recall what they did to be awarded the behaviour stars, suggesting a positive pupil engagement with the system.
“Other classroom recognition we have put into place has had an equally positive impact. These include special awards such as a Values Award, Reader of the Week, and Postcards and/or texts sent home to parents to celebrate pupils’ success.
“A ‘Wanted – Praise on Sight’ poster makes it easy for other teaching staff and even a child’s peers to reinforce their positive behaviour, and the ‘We Can Do It’ board provides additional encouragement. There are also a number of public recognition awards presented in Assembly, such as Class Star of the Week, Certificates, and Special Mentions Certificates.
“The positive behaviour being encouraged is represented with visual prompts displayed on the classroom boards, along with reminders of values. At the start of sessions children are positively reminded of expectations, and non-verbal signals are used to help them stay on track.
“If and when a derailing does occur, children of course need consequences. But these have also undergone a revamp and teaching staff have been given fresh guidance on how to encourage pupils to consider how best to make ‘good choices’. Language is all from the positive and categorically avoids the use of shaming language.
“The approach often starts with a quiet word (with a friendly open face and body language), moving seats, or sitting a child with an adult who knows how to address the behaviour.
“Natural consequences occur if matters escalate, with time taken to practise skills, feedback to parents when deemed necessary, and a ‘Reflect and Reset’ written reflection task provides a purposeful learning opportunity (and is never used as an isolation exercise).
“For repeated or persistent examples of low-level inappropriate behaviour we have systems such as ‘Time In’ – instead of ‘Time Out’ – which offers time to reflect with a trusted adult outside of the classroom environment, to enable restorative conversations to occur in a safe and calm manner.
“Behaviour Support Plans can be put into place where necessary – written by all parties including the child, teacher, parents, inclusion team and/or SLT – and will be monitored by a senior member of staff, and an Early Help Plan may be considered.
“Where there is level two behaviour displayed – more serious incidents or continued persistent examples of inappropriate behaviour despite previous measures – SLT will be involved. A Team Pupil meeting will take place between SLT, the SENDCo and the Inclusion Lead, and planned school interventions and a Behaviour Support Advisory Teacher or EP involvement will be considered. Suspensions will be considered only where it is deemed absolutely necessary to provide a reparatory reset and thankfully are extremely rare.
“For level three behaviour – numerous, significant and persistent occasions of inappropriate behaviour, or incidents of physical aggression – there is of course further enhanced support which likely involves external agencies.
Textbooks, childhood experts, and even many parents will tell you that children need consequences for their actions, and that it’s only through these that they learn to distinguish right from wrong. Consequences, they’ll tell us, help shape little minds to grow into well-rounded individuals, with a good dose of moral fibre.
Indeed, schools up and down the country still rely on consequence-based tools like behaviour charts. And a beautiful mural of a rainbow lighting up a sunny sky may at first glance seem like a cheerful classroom image, but look more closely and you’ll see that beneath that splash of bright colour lies a much greyer and more sombre backdrop depicting storm clouds.
Imagine being that child whose marker has slipped down into those storm clouds, lurking sad and lonely in the murky depths of shame for everybody to see. It’s perhaps understandable then that some children develop a wholly inaccurate (but sadly sometimes deep-rooted) belief that they are somehow a ‘bad’ child. A belief that can become their ‘truth’ and can colour their attitude and approach across their entire school career.
Always keen to find new (and better) ways of doing things, St. George’s Primary School, based in Telford, Shropshire, recently turned their own behaviour policy on its head and made the bold decision to implement an innovative new approach, underpinned by positive psychology and collective rewards school-wide.
It’s a move which is already paying dividends according to Kath Watts, Deputy Head of St George’s School, as she explains: “We built the new policy on the foundations of our ongoing work around trauma-informed practice, and it has an unwavering focus on inclusivity; physical, cultural, and neurological diversity; and an absolute avoidance of shame. We knew that we were onto something special when a consulting educational psychologist who visited us recently referred to it as a ‘paradigm shift’ moment.”
“A lot of groundwork went into the policy courtesy of our early years teacher Lindsey Garroway, our SENDCo Holly Evans and our Senior Middle Leader Clare Holt, and we spoke deeply and candidly with our children about how they felt when their name moved down the behavioural chart. We were given answers like ‘I felt naughty but sad’ and ‘It made me feel upset because normally I’m not bad that I know of, it made me feel like I was bad’. The more we explored, the more shame-inducing we realised the charts were and so we abolished them with immediate effect.
“Instead, we introduced a more collaborative approach with our Behaviour Stars System. Classes now work collaboratively to earn whole class rewards based on the number of stars they collect as a team. Stars are added to a behaviour app, and the children are also given stickers as an individual reward.
“Whole class rewards are discussed and chosen by the children in the class, and can include things like a movie afternoon or a class party. Once the children have worked together to earn 500 stars they achieve their whole class reward, the system then resets for that class and they work on choosing and earning their next reward, ideally one per half term. This system not only removes any shame-inducing element, but promotes teamwork – encouraging responsibility and accountability in a positive way.
“Initial feedback has been incredibly positive with teaching staff reporting that children love to see the stars being added to the app and their class total increasing. It has been praised as a great team motivator – encouraging the children to work together. Children were also able to clearly recall what they did to be awarded the behaviour stars, suggesting a positive pupil engagement with the system.
“Other classroom recognition we have put into place has had an equally positive impact. These include special awards such as a Values Award, Reader of the Week, and Postcards and/or texts sent home to parents to celebrate pupils’ success. A ‘Wanted – Praise on Sight’ poster makes it easy for other teaching staff and even a child’s peers to reinforce their positive behaviour, and the ‘We Can Do It’ board provides additional encouragement. There are also a number of public recognition awards presented in Assembly, such as Class Star of the Week, Certificates, and Special Mentions Certificates.
“The positive behaviour being encouraged is represented with visual prompts displayed on the classroom boards, along with reminders of values. At the start of sessions children are positively reminded of expectations, and non-verbal signals are used to help them stay on track.
“If and when a de-railing does occur, children of course need consequences. But these have also undergone a revamp and teaching staff have been given fresh guidance on how to encourage pupils to consider how best to make ‘good choices’. Language is all from the positive and categorically avoids the use of shaming language. The approach often starts with a quiet word (with a friendly open face and body language), moving seats, or sitting a child with an adult who knows how to address the behaviour.
“Natural consequences occur if matters escalate, with time taken to practise skills, feedback to parents when deemed necessary, and a ‘Reflect and Reset’ written reflection task provides a purposeful learning opportunity (and is never used as an isolation exercise). For repeated or persistent examples of low-level inappropriate behaviour we have systems such as ‘Time In’ – instead of ‘Time Out’ – which offers time to reflect with a trusted adult outside of the classroom environment, to enable restorative conversations to occur in a safe and calm manner.
“Behaviour Support Plans can be put into place where necessary – written by all parties including the child, teacher, parents, inclusion team and/or SLT – and will be monitored by a senior member of staff, and an Early Help Plan may be considered.
“Where there is level two behaviour displayed – more serious incidents or continued persistent examples of inappropriate behaviour despite previous measures – SLT will be involved. A Team Pupil meeting will take place between SLT, the SENDCo and the Inclusion Lead, and planned school interventions and a Behaviour Support Advisory Teacher or EP involvement will be considered. Suspensions will be considered only where it is deemed absolutely necessary to provide a reparatory reset and thankfully are extremely rare.
“For level three behaviour – numerous, significant and persistent occasions of inappropriate behaviour, or incidents of physical aggression – there is of course further enhanced support which likely involves external agencies.
“What all levels of our behavioural policy have in common is that none of the measures contained within are shame-inducing or designed to guilt a child into behaving well. Their emphasis is on being supportive, unique to each child and the circumstances, and most importantly – positive. And they are delivered with clarity and consistency by involving everyone for a collective effort.
“A greater emphasis has been placed on positive level one support to prevent instances of escalated behaviour, and the incredible impact of this approach is that there are currently only two children requiring the level one Behaviour Support Plans – both chosen by the children themselves. This is in stark contrast to the nine children requiring this level of support in the previous summer term under the old behaviour policy. CPOMS incidents have also reduced.
“Teaching staff and SLT are passionately driving forward this approach as they are seeing first-hand how much the children love the behaviour stars and the rewards. St. George’s has been praised by Virtual School for moving in this direction, and we’d absolutely love to see more schools considering adopting this positive behavioural approach.”
