BEHAVIOUR

As a Church of England school we believe that Christian values pervade every aspect of school life. We promote positive behaviour and the values of forgiveness, peace​ ​and compassion towards others.  With these Christian values as our foundation, we are committed to creating a safe, calm, orderly and positive Christian environment which values and respects each and every individual. 

We also firmly believe that we are preparing pupils  for their futures. This means that they must have respect for themselves and others, be able to get along with other people and responsibly resolve any differences and have a clear understanding of the term 'consent' . Pupils need to also understand that there is a requirement for rules and laws and the benefits to everyone for these being followed. We have very high expectations of the pupils in our care and instil in them that behaving makes them feel far better in themselves. Our strategy is a very proactive one and staff are well-trained in our whole school approach.

Our Behaviour Policy is rooted in these Christian values and high expectations. We set clear routines and expectations for pupil behaviour, ensuring that this Policy is applied consistently and fairly by all staff.  We take a very serious approach to reports of any form of bullying, use of gendered or homophobic language, any type of discrimination or peer-on-peer abuse. Everyone in our school community has a right to respect and to be able to work and learn in an atmosphere which is conducive to learning. We are also compliant with the expectations set out in the Department of Education statutory document entitled " Keeping Children Safe in Education" and ensuring that the safeguarding expectations are well embedded within the policy and procedures across our school and part of the school's Mission and Vision. 

Our Behaviour Policy means that at St. Michael’s we:

• Recognise and highlight good behaviour as it occurs;

• Ensure that all pupils recognise how to follow school expectations;

• Ensure criticism is always constructive;

• Ensure that all pupils have a positive self image;

• Explain and demonstrate the behaviour that we wish to see;

• Encourage pupils to be responsible for their own behaviour;

• Identify and challenge discrimination.

We also have a clear, fair and consistent framework for dealing with any unacceptable behaviour that is outlined in our Behaviour Policy. Staff have received training and are use effective de-escalation techniques and strategies that are specific to the individual needs of the pupils in our care. 

• School Behaviour Policy 

• Our Child Friendly Behaviour Policy

Growth Mindset supports good progress and good behaviour

At St. Michael’s we are embracing a Growth Mindset theory. We encourage the pupils to use setbacks and difficulties to motivate them; they celebrate effort rather than just results and encourage pupils to accept challenges with a sense of achievement for trying. Evidence shows that this makes pupils more motivated, more engaged with their learning and more likely to put in effort to seek improvement. These are our goals and we have introduced our Growth Mindset characters to support with this across the school.

Examples of some things we do are:

• Using our rewards system so that things such as effort and attitude are rewarded 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’.

• Encouraging the pupils to choose their own level of challenge in lessons, rather than having one worksheet for this group and another for that one.

• 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.

• Whilst looking at these famous people, find out about their approach to effort. Many people who have achieved great things have also talked at length about the hard work, effort and persistence they have put in, in order to achieve their goals. The modern ‘reality-show’ approach to fame can persuade children that results can be achieved through little effort; but truly successful people, who have worked hard to achieve their goals, are far better role models.

• Think about how you talk to, question and praise your child.

Staff Training

Our phase leaders and key members of the support staff attended a Team Teach session for deescallation training. The whole school attended and completed training in safer handling on Wednesday 3rd November 2021. This training was led by an external leader.  The following session included the presentation below:

• Safer Handling Training Presentation 

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).