Behaviour Policy

Statement of Intent

The intention of this policy is to guide teachers, pupils and parents on our restorative and relationship focused approach to behaviour management. This will allow our children at Whitefield to enjoy a calm, nurturing and caring environment which will support every child both emotionally and educationally. We strive to give our children the best possible chance to thrive and succeed.

At Whitefield, we are committed to creating an environment where exemplary behaviour is at the heart of productive learning. Everyone is expected to maintain the highest standards of personal conduct, to accept responsibility for their behaviour and encourage others to do the same. Our behaviour policy is designed to promote strong relationships and excellent behaviour rather than merely deter unwanted behaviour. It echoes our core values with a strong emphasis on respectful behaviour and a partnership approach to managing poor conduct. A calm, clear and consistent approach from adults underpins our practice.

Aims and Values

At Whitefield, we have high expectations with regards to the behaviour of everyone at our school and we strive to be a safe, happy and successful community where individuals are welcomed, accepted and equally valued. Excellent behaviour is explicitly taught and modelled through our three school rules of ‘Ready, Respect, Safe’. These are simple, clear and easy to understand. They are the basis of our relationship based approach which uses nurturing principles and restorative practices. We seek to promote visible consistency and visible kindness as a means to underpin behaviour and actions.

Aims of the policy:

To foster, nurture and value strong and healthy relationships in recognition of the importance of this as a lifelong skill.
To promote excellent behaviour.
To give pupils confidence in themselves and a pride in their achievements and school.
To help children learn from the consequences of their behaviour, develop self-discipline, responsibility and accountability.
To provide a safe, secure environment where learning opportunities are maximised so the children can develop both socially and academically.
To outline simple, clear procedures that are understood by staff and pupils.
To apply our procedures consistently and fairly.
To ensure parents and carers are aware of our expectations and are able to fulfil their parental duty by supporting school in implementing these.

Recognition and rewards for effort

At Whitefield, we have high expectations of all our pupils. We follow our motto of ‘Healthy Hearts, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds’ in everything we do and demonstrate our very best at all times by being ‘Ready, Respectful and Safe’.

We recognise that feeling proud and good about yourself is a significant reward in itself. Our goal is to intrinsically motivate children to succeed and conduct themselves in a considerate and respectful manner.

The use of praise in developing a positive atmosphere in the classroom cannot be underestimated. It is the key to building positive relationships. Our staff understand that a quiet word of personal praise can be as effective as a larger, more public reward.

We believe in the importance of using positive language and meaningful praise to build our children’s self-esteem and encourage them to be the best authentic version of themselves.

In addition to this, we recognise and reward learners who go ‘over and above’ our standards.

“If you consistently reward minimum standards then children will strive for minimum standards. If you reward children for going over and above then there is no limit to their excellent behaviour". Paul Dix

The following positive strategies are designed to make children feel like valued members of our learning community and motivated to always try their best.

House points - our four Whitefield house teams are: Ribble, Douglas, Hodder and Wyre. The purpose of these is to reinforce the importance of teamwork. The house with the most points at the end of each half-term will be rewarded with a ‘dress down day.’
Positive notes home – this is a high-level recognition for children who have gone ‘over and above’. This enables adults to mark the moment with the child and frame their best behaviour or most determined effort etc.
Merit Awards – teachers will select one or more children who have demonstrated ‘over and above’ behaviour that week. This may be for their exemplary attitude to learning, a great show of resilience or for an exceptional act of kindness etc. There is no set amount of certificates awarded each week as they must be sincere to keep their value.
Achievement Assemblies – we meet as a school once a week to celebrate our wonderful school community and shine a light on those ‘over and above’ behaviours.

Roles and responsibilities:

As staff we will:

Meet and greet every child at the beginning of the day.
Use a calm approach and give ‘take up time’ following the steps in the behaviour plan (see appendix 1).

Ensure expectations of behaviour are clear, explicitly taught, modelled and consistently implemented.
Build positive relationships grounded in kindness, respect and courtesy.
Recognise each child is an individual, be aware of their individual needs and adapt accordingly.
Model excellent behaviour and high standards of personal conduct.
Consistently refer to ‘Ready, Respect, Safe’ in all conversations about behaviour.
Plan lessons that engage, challenge and meet the needs of all learners.
Explicitly teach and model emotional regulation strategies and how to build/manage healthy relationships. This will be supported by our PSHE programme, ‘My Happy Mind’ (see appendix 4).
Recognise those learners whose efforts go above and beyond our expectations.
Record incidents of poor behaviour and more serious restorative conversations using CPOMS.
Inform parents of ‘over and above’ behaviour and when a more serious restorative conversation has taken place.

Senior Leaders will:

Take time to welcome children and families at the beginning of the day
Be a visible presence around school to encourage high standards of personal conduct by referring to ‘ready, respect, safe’.
Regularly celebrate staff and learners whose efforts go above and beyond expectations.
Support staff in managing learners with more complex behavioural needs.
Ensure staff training needs are identified and targeted.
Use behaviour data to target and assess school wide behaviour policy and practice.
Review provision for learners who fall beyond the range of written policies.

Parents will:

Be aware of our school’s expectations for behaviour and conduct.
Support staff in implementing our policy.
Foster good relationships with the school.
Work in respectful partnership with school to ensure consistency and fairness for our children.

Restorative Approach

“Punishment doesn’t teach better behaviour, restorative conversations do.”

Paul Dix

Every adult in our school is important and has the skills to deal with behavioural incidents. If an incident takes place on the playground, this will usually be responded to by support staff who will use the same strategies as our teaching staff. This allows an intervention to take place immediately and may involve a restorative conversation. Teaching staff will be informed of the restorative conversation however it will not need to be revisited by the class teacher or senior leaders unless further action is required. More serious incidents of violence, threatening behaviour etc. will be referred to teachers and/or senior leaders.

Restorative conversations/meetings

At Whitefield, we believe that nurturing and restorative practice, as well as high expectations are key to building positive relationships. Restorative conversations aim to help the child realise how their behaviour impacts others, teach what appropriate behaviour looks like and equip the child with strategies they can use to avoid a similar incident occurring in the future.

Restorative questions (see appendix 3)

These restorative questions will be used to structure and support restorative meetings and/or conversations. For younger children, staff may decide it is more appropriate to start with one or two and build on these as the child develops in maturity.

Behaviour plan (see appendix 1)

Our Whitefield behaviour plan is a concise A4 document which staff will refer to for a clear and consistent approach to managing behaviour and outlining expectations.

Scripted 30 second response (see appendix 2)

As part of the behaviour plan, a 30-Second Script will be used to reinforce expectations when behaviour shown is not reflective of our school values. This will take place at Step 4 of the behaviour plan. The purpose of this script is to provide a quick, consistent and non-judgmental dialogue with the child to encourage positive choices to be made. The scripted response should be delivered in a calm and emotionless tone, designed to prevent escalation. Once the script has been delivered, the child 'owes 2 minutes'. They then must stay behind at break time or lunch for a brief reflective discussion with the class teacher.

Logical consequences

“Children need people, not punishment. It is time we gave them what they need to succeed, not simply what we feel they deserve. Exclusion and heavy sanctions rarely meet the needs of the child." Paul Dix

At Whitefield, we encourage excellent behaviour which is reflective of our school motto and values. Our approach is based upon strong healthy relationships between adults and children. The use of positive reinforcement will always be our default approach.

However, if a child is not responding to these strategies, there needs to be clear, consistent and logical consequences. These are designed for children to take responsibility for their choices and understand the impact of their behaviour on others. The goal of logical consequences is to prevent children from repeating negative behaviours and help them make more constructive choices. Logical consequences need to be related to the behaviour and are non-punitive.

‘2 minutes owed’ – a reflective time where the child and class teacher privately discuss the child’s actions and how it has impacted on others. This 2 minutes will be at the start of playtime or lunch time. The purpose of this is to enable the adult to reinforce our school values and expectations and to encourage more constructive, positive behaviour in the future.

‘Pay it back time’ – is a logical consequence linked to the incident or behaviour which the child has demonstrated. For example, not completing tasks in learning time due to repeated poor choices results in lost learning time which then needs to be paid back. Another example would be if a child has purposely damaged or broken school property, they would spend some ‘pay it back time’ helping to repair or clean up the damage.

Parental involvement – we strongly believe in a partnership approach to managing behaviour and building relationships. Parents will be informed of repeated and/or more serious incidents. We will communicate this through a phone call, face to face conversation or a meeting.

Managing behaviour engagement with learning is always our primary aim at Whitefield. For the vast majority of our learners a gentle reminder is all that is needed. However, there are occasions when other strategies need to be put in place. This will be done in accordance with our behaviour plan (see appendix 1) and steps will be followed through with care and consideration. We will ensure individual needs are taken into account where necessary.

Additional needs

We recognise that children with additional needs many benefit from a modified behaviour approach. In line with the Equality Act 2010, reasonable adjustment will be made to ensure that SEND pupils are not treated less favourably because of their additional needs.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Review

The Governing Body will review this policy annually and assess its implementation and effectiveness. The policy will be promoted and implemented throughout school.

Policies