St James' Church of England Primary School Behaviour Policy: A Guide for Parents and Carers

Link: Behaviour Policy (which includes our Anti-Bullying Policy)

The importance of good behaviour

St. James’ Church of England Primary School is a caring community, whose values are built on mutual trust and respect for all. At our school, we encourage our children to develop spiritually, socially, personally and academically. The school behaviour policy begins with the expectation that children will make good choices and do the right thing in an environment where everyone feels happy, safe and secure. To achieve this the policy is built on forgiveness and new starts so that all members of the school can live and work together in a supportive way.

We expect children to:

• Wear the correct school uniform (uniform guide on website)
• Be prepared – have PE kit and swimming kit on the right day
• Complete homework on time and to a good standard
• Have their reading/homework diary signed by an adult at home
• Leave non-essential personal items (like toys) at home

How do we promote good behaviour?

Children are given clear guidelines of the appropriate behaviour and expectations in all areas based on our ‘Golden Values’ which all staff expect the pupils to abide by.

The policy is applied equally across the school day: before school activities, playtimes, lunchtimes, lesson times, school trips and clubs that happen after school and during holidays.

The behaviour policy is supported through a variety of different strategies, which include our:

• Vision, Mission and Values Statement
• planned curriculum work
• SEALs (Social Emotional aspects of Learning) curriculum
• planned assemblies
• teaching and learning styles
• well organised school routines
• high expectations and consistency from all staff
• specific, targeted support for those experiencing difficulty

Encouraging Good Behaviour in the Foundation Stage

At St James’ Church of England Primary School we believe that establishing clear and consistent expectations from the very beginning of school to be crucial in helping children to feel safe and secure and understand what is right and wrong and why. Following St James’ Golden Values and the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, children are encouraged to respect others and their beliefs, to know and follow the expectations of the setting and to be proud of their own achievements with the belief that good personal and social development is the foundation for all other learning.

The expectations of the children are developmentally appropriate and good behaviour is recognised through verbal praise, stickers, feedback to parents, sharing good work, postcards home and, for reception children, taking work to good work assembly (in the summer term).

The ‘Good to be Green’ principle (explained below) begins in Foundation Stage with the difference being that sanctions for inappropriate behaviour are instant. Children who are not behaving in an appropriate way will be spoken to about their behaviour and given a warning.  Should they continue to display the inappropriate behaviour they will be redirected to an alternative activity. They may be asked to make right what they have done, for example by cleaning up spilled glue or tidying an area.

Where a child has consistently been given warnings and moved on during a session or has caused considerable distress to another child they will be sat in a quiet place with a timer to consider their actions. Where a child has upset another child they will be encouraged to apologise and help them.

Staff communicate regularly with parents regarding their child’s progress and where children consistently present difficulties in their behaviour, appropriate support and advice is sought. 

The ‘Good to be Green’ system

• Each child has a pocket on a wall chart that contains three coloured cards: GREEN, YELLOW and RED.
• The day is broken up into set units of time, usually punctuated by a break or change of activity.
• At the beginning of each time unit, the pupils start by being ‘GREEN’ on their chart.
• Should a pupil do something that is unacceptable, they are given a verbal warning which should be sufficient to remind the pupil what is expected.
• If the pupil continues to behave unacceptably, they are issued with a YELLOW card. It is pointed out the pupil that they have a choice about how to behave.
• If the pupil corrects their behaviour (and makes the right choice), they can revert to GREEN status.
• A RED card is issued if the pupil’s unacceptable behaviour continues.
• There are rewards for the pupils who sustain being GREEN (the ‘always’ children).

Some rewards for GREEN behaviour include:

• Earned ‘Golden time’
• 'You've been spotted!' tickets
• Class rewards
• Rewards for pupils who sustain green for a period of time
• End of year treat for those who sustain green all the majority of the year.

Procedures for dealing with inappropriate behaviour

Sometimes children forget our expectations for good behaviour.  If this happens, they will be reminded of the school’s Golden Values.

Children will not be allowed to use the words ‘only’, ‘just’ and ‘because’ when giving their accounts of event. (e.g. I was just kicking, I was only shouting. Because it was boring.)  These words lessen and self excuse the action. There can be no excuse for violence and aggression and disrespect to others.

Children will always be encouraged to apologise to their victim and where appropriate help their victim. They will be encouraged to empathise with other people’s points of view and to consider the consequences of their actions.

Should a pupil regularly be reaching RED status their parents will be inform. Their behaviour record will be analysed and an appropriate sanction will be applied. The pupil will have either an in-school exclusion or even a fixed term permanent exclusion.  If appropriate, the pupil may be given additional SEN Support strategies/provision to encourage them to conform to the school behaviour code successfully.

Pupils who regularly get Red Cards for not following teachers’ instructions, cause a health and safety risk to all. They will be prevented from attending out of school clubs and off-site school visits - including the residential at Robinwood in Year 5. 

There may be incidents that occur that are so extreme in nature it is felt that these must be referred immediately to the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher. Each case will be considered carefully and dealt with in a way that is fair to the needs of the individuals involved and to the school community. In these cases, fixed term or permanent exclusion may be immediately applied.