Behaviour & Values

Our Behaviour Policy, Anti-Bullying Policy and Home-School Agreement, can be dowlonaded from the 'Policies' section of our website. 

Positive Recognition and Reward Systems

Our positive, restorative approach to supporting children in managing their behaviour focuses on praise to reinforce positive choices and promote self-esteem above assigning blame and punitive sanctions. We believe this leads to success at school. We have a number of reward systems to promote good behaviour and learning.

• House Teams and points: All children are placed into one of four teams when they start at Mossgate: Purple, Red, Blue and Green. Children can earn house points for a variety of reasons which may include: good behaviour, manners, effort and excellent work. House points are displayed in every class with the total announced in our weekly celebration assembly each Friday.
• Celebration Assemblies: These are held every Friday with Star of the Week, Golden Book names, best attendance, team points and out of school awards celebrated.
• Star of the Week: Class teachers choose two stars from their class every week. Children’s photos are displayed in the school hall for the whole week and they are awarded a certificate. Parents are given a week’s notice so they can hopefully attend.
• Golden Book: Every class has a special Golden Book which staff and children use to record children who have been spotted using their values. The Golden Books are read out during our weekly celebration assembly by the class teacher.
• Positive Postcards: Staff send home postcards weekly celebrating children’s achievements.
• Marble in the jar: Classes earn a marble in the jar for whole class achievements like best attendance in our celebration assemblies, or all meeting their home reading target. When the class earns ten marbles, together the vote for a whole class reward.
• Children who produce particularly good work or demonstrate improvements in behaviour, may be sent to the Headteacher or another member of staff for praise which is often then shared on the school Facebook page.
• Home Reading: Children who meet their weekly home reading target have their photo displayed on their classroom door. Reading records are reviewed and displays updated every Thursday in the juniors and Friday in the infants. We also celebrate the class percentage in our celebration assemblies using the ‘Reading Around the Block’ display in the hall.
• Children are encouraged to bring to celebration assemblies, awards they have earned outside of school so we can celebrate these – parents are invited into the assembly as well.

Restorative Practice

The school embraces Restorative Practices as a means of empowering staff to be successful and effective practitioners within their classroom, raising standards and achievement across the school and developing aspiring, motivated and responsible pupils.

Restorative practices constitute an innovative approach to inappropriate behaviour, which puts repairing harm done to relationships and people over and above the need for assigning blame and dispensing punishment. This approach fosters awareness of how others have been affected by inappropriate behaviour. This is done by actively engaging participants in a process which separates the deed from the doer and rejects the act not the actor, allowing participators to make amends for the harm caused.  Restorative Practices acknowledges the intrinsic worth of the person and their potential contribution to the school community.

Through a restorative practice approach, we will:

• Improve behaviour and attitudes.
• Provide explicit tools within a defined framework to challenge unacceptable behaviour, resolve conflict and repair harm.
• Establish rights and responsibilities.
• Provide a safe, philosophical basis for staff, pupils and parents to share ideas and discuss issues.

Pupil support systems

Staff work hard to develop an environment in which children feel safe and protected. We teach them to speak to trusted adults if others treat them in a way that hurts them, makes them feel unhappy or uncomfortable. We also work hard to create a culture in which children know that their concerns are taken seriously and will be addressed, with their involvement until they are resolved. Due to break and lunch times being in phases, they are staffed by a TA and teacher from each of these phases: Reception, Year 1 & Year 2; Year 3 & Year 4; and Year 5 & Year 6. As a result, children have a trusting relationship with these members of staff, allowing any conflicts or disagreements to be dealt with appropriately.  

Support and advice will be sought for children who show challenging behaviour from: specialist teachers, Educational Psychologists, medical practitioners and others depending on identified needs. We monitor incidents of unacceptable behaviour carefully and establish additional support strategies for those behaviours staff find most challenging. When a child is identified with acute needs, we liaise with external agencies and plan support programmes for that child. We work with parents to create the plan and review it on a regular basis.

Liaison with parents

We recognise that ongoing communication with parents is vital. Parents will be contacted when we have concerns about behaviour at an early stage so that we can work together to support their child. Children who are persistently involved in low level disruptive behaviour, will be invited into school to plan the best way forward with their class teacher, Headteacher / Deputy Headteacher and SENDCo as appropriate. This may involve a personalised behaviour plan being implemented and support being accessed from other agencies.  

Parents who experience challenging behaviour at home are encouraged to share their concerns with school by arranging to meet with the class teacher in the first instance. An Early Help Assessment may be suggested so that we can better understand the needs of the family and identify the best possible support and next steps.

Parents views are sought when the Behaviour Policy is reviewed and through the annual parental survey.

Home School Agreements

Expectations of behaviour are detailed in our Home School Agreement which parents sign when their child joins in Reception and again when they join key stage 2. The agreement also includes consent for photos, local visits and other activities.  

Unacceptable Behaviour

As well as rewards for positive behaviour, it is important that we deal with any unacceptable behaviour in a clear and consistent way. Staff must deal with situations they encounter, so that they establish and develop their own expectations and relationships with children. If one child is behaving poorly in class and distracting others, or is constantly taking up teacher time with poor behaviour choices, then the learning environment suffers. The classroom is a place for learning and it is important that we ensure that is how it is seen by all children.

All staff have access to a secure online system – CPOMS – allowing staff to record incidences of unacceptable behaviour with the relevant staff immediately and securely. This system allows staff to track and monitor the behaviour of individual children within school, which allows us to better support our children.

Sanctions

When poor behaviour is identified, sanctions are implemented consistently and fairly. We have clear sanctions for those who do not comply with our expectations, which may include: 

• Extra work or repeating unsatisfactory work until it meets the required standard.
• Working in another class or area in school.
• Loss of privileges, which may include responsibilities, non-uniform days or school visits.
• Litter picking, weeding or cleaning.
• Regular reporting to designated staff members to reflect on behaviour and learning.
• Internal isolation – child works away from the class on their own.
• In more extreme cases we may use temporary or permanent exclusions – see the Exclusions section in our Behaviour Policy.

Although persistent, or serious misbehaviour needs recording, every child must feel that every lesson is a fresh start; however, sanctions may occur over several days.

Updated March 2024 RS