Supporting Positive Learning Behaviours

The school has recently been inspected and rated as ‘good’. Outcomes for children in key stage two are above the national, and we have closed the gap for the disadvantaged in reading.

We have sought to embed positive learning behaviours across the school to enable all children to learn and access the full curriculum.

• We have improved learning behaviour in the following ways:
• Our traffic light system uses clothes pegs, rather than stickers, which can be removed easily and caught onto teachers’ clothing to remind them to notice children doing something good.  They are by the door to remind the headteacher, and leadership team to acknowledge children doing something well when they enter the room;  
• Our reward system is displayed in ‘wheels’ on a large display in every classroom, and is consistent.  Children work for different rings within the wheel;
• Points are awarded from the wheel to the class as a whole, and displayed in the main hall, having been given out in assembly;
• Each class has a name, changed every year, and displays are prominent in the hall explaining the meaning and relevance of those class names;
• Music is played around the school and changed regularly.  Children are reminded when moving around the corridors to be quiet enough to hear the music!
• Displays are a large part of what this school does successfully. In the corridors there are lots of mobiles and interactive displays, with plants etc to make the environment inviting.  In some places there are mini-museums, and the conference room is often taken up by year six preparing a museum for the younger children;
• We have installed soundfields in our classrooms to better enable children with hearing difficulties to hear the teacher, and this has had a positive effect on all children’s reception to the instructions of the teacher. 

We have linked up with an outstanding Teaching School in London, regularly exchanging visits over the years. We do not receive anything like the same funding, but we have picked up lots of ideas over the years and adapted them to suit our environment; much of what you read here has been influenced by our contact with Tollgate.