Golden time, punishment/reward - do all schools do it?

[donttrythisathome]

I have a two year old so haven't experienced the joy of schools yet.

Am looking to move areas so I have been looking into schools. I am appalled that all the ones I've looked at use stickers for reward, "golden time" even for 4 year olds, public charts labelling kids as good/bad (well sunny/cloudy, happy/sad etc).

I don't want to get into a debate on the merits of this. I just want to know whether there are also a lot of state schools which don't use this method. Or is it pervasive?

They don't use golden time at my DCs school. They do have stickers and various other positive behaviour management techniques. They don't have things like sunshine and thunderstorms or something similar to that that I've seen mentioned on here.

Thanks Miranda. Seems like everywhere uses stickers. Surprised to see preschools seem to use them too.

DS has been at 2 primary schools. Stickers galore. Both used versions of happy/sad/sunny/cloudy, though one put more emphasis on the kids choosing themselves where they should be on the spectrum. In both everyone reverted to neutral the next morning. Golden time exists in his current school but wasn't used in the previous one.

DS's school (he's in preschool but it's very involved) is excellent but it does have stickers, and red/orange/green faces which the children's names get moved around on. It's really the only thing I'm not that comfortable with about the school - in general it's excellent.

ours has a traffic light system where the aim is to stay green but bad behaviour can make you move to amber or red. Behaviour improvements can then move you back to amber or green again. They also have golden time for an hour on a friday afternoon - you lose golden time for bad behaviour. Children that have mostly stayed green get a gold award each term. There are also silver and bronze awards. If you stay on green and get gold awards you get to go on a special end of year trip e.g. ds is going to a soft play and dd went bowling. Silver and bronze awards get to do in-school activities rather than go on the trip.

What kind of behaviour management system would you like to see?

Thanks. As I am very opposed to it it's going to be a big problem for me. Lots of the schools I read about look lovely apart from this rather big issue. Will have to mull over what to.

Was thinking go trying to get on the board of governors anyway so maybe i can influence it that way (although I doubt it if it is that widespread).
Sorry talkingnonsense I don't really want to get into the merits of it. There are other threads which discuss concerns with this.

Sorry lots of typos.
what to do
Was thinking of

It is widespread - every school I've been into has some variation on this.

I would talk to the HT about how they use it. As I understand it the point is NOT to label children as good/naughty but to reward/sanction behaviour. They all get "reset" back to blue sky each morning.

I don't think you will have much luck changing things by pursuing an agenda on the board of governors.

Both my dds schools use these - seems to work well for my dds.

I don't have a problem with them but I am interested in why some people don't could you point me the direction of the other threads please?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/1337700-How-does-everyone-feel-about-traffic-light-behaviour-management

I don't like it either but all schools seem to use it :(

my dds school uses the golden time system. I really like it as I have 2 girls who are well behaved so this rewards their good behaviour unlike the Star of the Week type system which tend to reward naughty children who have done 1 good thing in the week.

DDs school also changed from Star of the Week to a house pointsystem which is better.

We don't have golden time as such. There is a choosing time but not really at same time each week, and not every week. And all children included as we prefer to deal with behaviour as and when it happens.

We do have the clouds with pictures of the children. But the pictures are tiny so only someone very close would see the face. The children know where they are but they are not in prominent place or anything. The children move their own face between them as required. It is only used when a child has been consistently misbehaving and has had several warnings. It is no more public labelling tbh then the verbal warnings anyway in my experience, and most children respond well to a visual reminder.

We give stickers as rewards as children love stickers. We would never remove a sticker from a child who had earned one - but we would give a sticker to a child who did well. We like to reward good behaviour and hard work.

Schools need to have simple but effective ways to deal with behaviour - it is very different to dealing with one child at a time at home when there are 30 of them in a busy environment.

However, if a particular child is affected very negatively from such a scheme and it was causing more issues then we would look at alternatives for that child. Infact in class at the moment we have two individual star charts - personalised for those two children. They earn a star (pr equivalent)for a period of time spent modelling the right type of behaviour and can earn x number a day. This is done with support from home generally and if the target number of stars is achieved each day it is generally the parent who gives the treat - often a sticker, a Moshi Monster card or whatever is appropriate for that child.

We also have a class star board and a marble scheme. Children are in 4 teams in the class. If a child achieves a star it goes on a velcro board in class for their team (no names on it). If a team gets 10 stars then a marble goes int he class jar. When the marble jar is full we have a class treat.

It's difficult to understand what you want if you don't suggest an alternative.

We also have a star of the week - but every single child in the class will get this at some point in every year. Records are kept to ensure this.

I knew this thread would be hijacked by people who wanted to discuss the merits

It is disheartening indeed to see how widespread it is. Thanks Bertie for linking to that thread so people can read up on debates on it if they want.

My dc's school doesn't use these systems.

Rosebud - what systems do they use?

OP - sorry you feel it is bad for people to put on why they might be used in a classroom. Did you truely just one one or two word responses?

In my experience most primary schools (state and independent) do use various different reward systems.

I don't think it's "hijacking." You've said that you're "appalled" by how "pervasive" this reward/sanction scheme is. You haven't said why you object to it so strongly, or what sort of thing you think is preferable. So it's hard for people to comment beyond saying whether their school uses it or something similar.
For the record, schools have very few sanctions available to use, and many swear by this system as being effective for the vast majority of children.

Clam if you read my first post, I just wanted to gauge whether I was right in thinking that most schools use it. While people's experiences are interesting of course, that would be the subject of another thread. But if you all want to discuss it here, then go ahead of course! Just don't get annoyed if I don't get involved.

Fine. Whatever.

I am fairly certain that there is a lot of very valid research to demonstrate that positive reward systems work in improving behaviour and aiding learning. If you did want to change such a system by being a governor, I would want to see research that indicated that it was not effective, or that your alternative was better.

ds1 goes to a free school, which doesn't use anything like that, but it's slightly different in that it's a montessori school anyway.
most of the primaries I have knowledge of round here use them

i feel as strongly about it as you do OP so was over the moon to find DS1's current school!