BEHAVIOUR

As a Church of England school, our Christian values underpin every aspect of school life.

Our school values Love, Serve, Grow, and our motto, “Working Together for the Good of All” guides how we treat one another and shape our behaviour culture.

We are committed to creating a safe, calm and orderly environment where every child feels valued and able to flourish.

Our Approach

At St Michael’s, positive behaviour is taught, modelled and reinforced every day. We establish clear routines and high expectations so that pupils understand how to:

Recognise and celebrate positive choices as they happen
Follow our school routines with confidence and clarity
Take stewardship of their own actions and personal growth
Learn from constructive feedback in a supportive environment
Flourish with a positive sense of self-worth and dignity
Embody the values we model and demonstrate each day
Treat others with justice by identifying and challenging discrimination.

Our approach reflects the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), ensuring every child’s right to feel safe, be heard and learn without disruption.

We believe that good behaviour supports wellbeing and learning. Staff apply expectations consistently and fairly and pupils are supported to take responsibility for their choices.

Safeguarding and Respect

We take a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, discrimination, prejudiced language (including sexist or homophobic language), sexual harassment and child-on-child abuse. Every pupil has the right to feel safe and to learn in an environment free from disruption or fear.

Our Behaviour Policy is fully aligned with statutory safeguarding guidance, including Keeping Children Safe in Education, and safeguarding principles are embedded throughout our practice.

Promoting Positive Behaviour

We:

Recognise and celebrate positive behaviour
Clearly teach and model expectations
Encourage restorative reflection and responsibility
Make reasonable adjustments for pupils with SEND or other identified needs, following a graduated approach (assess -plan - do -review)
Work closely with parents and external agencies where required

Where behaviour falls below expectations, we follow a clear, fair and consistent graduated response. Parents are informed where appropriate and involved in supporting improvement.

In rare and serious cases, suspension or permanent exclusion may be considered in line with DfE statutory guidance.

Full details can be found in our:

Growth Mindset supports good progress and good behaviour

We promote a Growth Mindset approach, encouraging pupils to value effort, resilience and perseverance. Mistakes are viewed as opportunities to learn and children are supported to challenge themselves and take pride in improvement.

Examples of some things we do are:

Using positive praise so that things such as effort and attitude are highlighted rather than results.
Change the language we use when speaking to pupils: ‘You tried really hard with your tables test, well done’, rather than ‘ten out of ten – well done, you’re a brilliant mathematician’.
Encourage competition but only with yourself.

Helping Your Child Develop a Growth Mindset

Clearly, it will be beneficial for children if these messages are also being reinforced at home. Try these simple strategies:

Set high expectations. Tempting though it may be to say, ‘never mind, try the easier one’, this approach doesn’t nurture self-esteem. By expecting your child to try something more challenging, you are showing them that you believe they can do it.
Don’t be afraid to criticise your child supportively. Teach your child to see criticism as useful feedback on how to improve. Remind them that it is always the ‘mean’ judges on reality shows whose criticism means the most to the contestants!
Don’t do everything for your child (at an age-appropriate level). If you do everything for them, you are simply telling them that you think you can do it better, and that they are not good enough.
Encourage resilience and ‘stickability’, even when something is tough. It’s helpful to talk to children in terms of ‘growing their brains’ – when something is at its most challenging for them, that is when their brains are making lots of new connections. Encourage them to see that struggling is a sign of learning, not of failure.
Celebrate mistakes. Children should not be made to feel ashamed of mistakes since mistakes can help us to learn. If in doubt, look online for examples of famous sports people, inventors and other well-known people who struggled with errors, setbacks and failures before achieving their goals.
Think about how you talk to, question and praise your child.

Staff Training

Our phase leaders and key members of the support staff attended deescalation training. The whole school attended and completed this on 28th January 2025. This training was led by an external leader.

Behaviour Monitoring

As part of the ongoing monitoring of behaviour, we record serious behaviour incidents on our internal behaviour monitoring system, called CPOMS. We ensure we take immediate and effective action to prevent reoccurrence and inform parents where necessary. We also ask all children to reflect on their behaviour either through a discussion (EYFS and Key Stage 1) or by writing it down (Key Stage 2).

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