Behaviour at Wootton

A parent’s guide to Behaviour at Wootton Lower School.

At Wootton, we believe that every pupil has a right to learn. Each child has the right to be safe and every parent has the right to information about his or her child’s behaviour. We want to work in partnership with parents and carers to encourage high standards. We have high expectations of our children’s learning and behaviour in order to maintain a good learning environment.

January 2024 sees the refresh of our behaviour system at Wootton Lower. Our full behaviour policy can be found on our school website under ‘Key Information’ in our ‘Policies’ section however we wanted to share our behaviour relaunch with you.

At our school, we focus on developing positive behaviours for learning and successful relationships. We aim to provide a consistent, positive approach to empower children to take responsibility for their actions and to behave in a socially acceptable way. We value parental support and ask that you help and encourage your child to show the schools values and behaviour rules to behave appropriately. In the picture below you will see our 6 values and our 3 school rules; Be Kind – Be Safe – Be Ready.

Wootton Lower School Behaviour System

Reception, Year 1 and 2

Every child will start their day with their name on the ‘sunshine’ visual. Children are encouraged to follow our school rules and demonstrate a positive attitude to learning which will ensure that they stay on the sunshine for the whole day. The visuals will be displayed in each classroom.

We want to teach our youngest children how to behave by catching them being good and rewarding this positive behaviour.  For doing something special, children will therefore be moved up to the ‘rainbow’ visual. The reasons for being moved to the rainbow can be personalised to each child and will be at teacher discretion. When children go onto the ‘rainbow’ visual they go and visit the Early Years or Key Stage lead for a rainbow sticker.

Consequences in Reception, Years 1 and 2

Children who are not following the school rules, will firstly have warnings about their behaviour. If they continue to not follow the rules, their name will be moved to the cloud. Staff can use their discretion at this point to determine whether a child needs some ‘thinking time’ to calm down. It is hoped their behaviour will improve and their name can be returned to the sunshine. However, if their behaviour continues to deteriorate, their name will be moved to the thundercloud and time out given. For more serious incidents, their name will go straight to the thundercloud and they will be seen by the Year Group or Key Stage Lead.

Years 3 and 4

We use a ‘Good to be Green’ system in class. This system works using a traffic light approach. All children start the day on ‘green’ with a green card against their name. See below for how the traffic light system works as part of our consequences ladder.

Consequences in Years 3 and 4

Children who are not following a particular rule will be reprimanded through a consistent ‘ladder’ of consequences. These increase in severity if the behaviour does not improve. Strategies are used to encourage the child to improve their behaviour, such as highlighting positive behaviours and looking for opportunities to re-establish the relationship with the child, such as helping them with their work or addressing the underlying cause of their behaviour. For more serious incidents, the child’s name will be given a red card and they will be seen by the Year Group or Key Stage Lead.

Rewards

In the differing phases, children also have ways to celebrate their behaviour choices;

In Reception, children begin to learn about the school rules, expectations and values, when they demonstrate good choices they can earn themselves a sticker for their individual sticker chart. When the charts are full, the children will be placed onto the rainbow and will receive a rainbow sticker from the Early Years Lead. The children will also be celebrated in class. The sticker chart will then be sent home to be shared with parents.

In addition, in Reception, each class will work together to fill their ‘cool class token’ jar and choose their class reward when their jar is full. A cool class token can be rewarded to children for a number of different reasons (learning, values, reward etc). Each class will start the half term with 30 cool class tokens and children will work as a class to fill their jar. Tokens will be rewarded for working together as a whole class ‘team’.

In Years 1 - 4, each class operates a ‘DoJo’ point reward system.  DoJos are given to children for good behaviour, demonstrating the school values and for making good progress in lessons.  DoJos are administered via classDoJo.com.  The following incentives will be awarded when children accumulate DoJo points:

The following reward system will be followed:

• 25 DoJos – the pupil is allowed to change their DoJo
• 50 DoJos – the pupil will be awarded a special sticker
• 75 DoJos – the pupil will get a certificate
• 100 DoJos – The pupil can choose one of the following rewards:

o   cuddly toy at the table

o   10 minutes on an IPad

o   sit next to a friend for a day,

o   work at the teachers table

When the class achieve a combined total of 1,000 DoJos the whole class will be rewarded with a whole class treat.

Key Frequently asked Questions.

How do the children know what the expectations are?

We have launched our rules in assemblies across the school. Over the next few weeks, we will spend time in our classes and various assemblies sharing and discussing our new behaviour rules.

Moving forwards, at the beginning of each school year, we will take time in our new classes and in assemblies to explore the school values and behaviour rules. These will be regularly reviewed with the children throughout the school year.

The school rules and values will be visible in every classroom and in main areas across both school sites. The children will also have a copy of the values and school rules in their planners from September 2024. This will be a great way for parents and carers to share with their children at home.

What should parents do if they are concerned about a behaviour incident?

Whatever the problem we know that it can be very worrying and stressful for parents if they feel their child is ‘in trouble’ or if an incident has occurred. We will always involve parents if an incident is serious or if the same problem keeps happening. If, however, you are concerned about anything, please contact the class teacher in the first instance as they will often have first-hand information of any incident. You will be able to find your child’s teachers email address in the front of their planner.