Class behaviour management - incentive schemes (long)

[NotBigJustBolshy]

My dd is 10 and in Y6 at a middle school. She is reasonably bright and in top sets for everything but not hugely socially confident (had a troubled start to school). She is very well-behaved and is now even putting up her hand in class lots and volunteering answers. It wasn't always like this - for the first four years she had no interest in or enjoyment from school and would try just about anything to avoid going and we have worked hard to turn this around. So I'm a bit twitchy when there are signs of things going wrong again. The last few weeks she has come home on a Friday really despondent and says there's no point in trying or in being good. The class teacher introduced an incentive scheme whereby certain prizes (different ones every week) are given to one or two pupils who behave really well and try really hard each week. dd got one in the first couple of weeks of the scheme and initially she was very enthusiastic and agreed that the scheme was doing its job and lots of pupils who were not very well-behaved previously had got better and deservedly got prizes too. The class teacher told me (at parents' evening) that dd had deserved the prize many times (although she has had it just once). Now she is really p*ssed off because some people, who are barely making an effort but just cleaning up their act when they know the class teacher has them in his sights, have had the prize twice. She says she is trying her hardest and getting no recognition at all. I see the teacher's dilemma, but I also see my dd's point: people are being rewarded for mainly behaving badly and then making a small amount of effort, whereas those who make a big effort all the time and behave well as a matter of course get no reward. What is this teaching them? She says the system is crap and I agree with her. How do we move on without her reverting to her bad old "don't give a damn/make no effort" ways?

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???

Didn't want to ignore this one but don't have any advice - just sympathy.

As teacher, I don't agree with your dd's teacher's scheme - unless it is alongside another reward scheme that works well for those who always try hard.

In my class, we have a sticker card which children fill to receive a prize - pupils get stickers for achievements appropriate to them (ie fantastic writing ... sitting still for two minutes ...!) but they are not directly competing with each other - everyone can win and succeed at their own rate.

However, not sure that you can criticise teacher's scheme - maybe just flag up how it is making your dd feel.

Thanks for the sympathy, amateurmum. Your scheme sounds just the job as it is tailored to the individual. dd's teacher is very young and has previously only worked as long-term supply. He's new to the school and cutting his teeth on this class and the class has more than its fair share of "characters".

Your daughter is very astute. It is a rubbish system.
Sounds like the whole school ethos needs looking at. All children should feel valued. Your dd does not. What is the prize? They should behave just because that is what you do in school and the prize is learning. What has happened to a heartfelt 'well done' from the teacher and the understanding that you do as you are asked because the teacher is a grown up and the child is a child.
I know that some children have behaviour issues but all they want is to know that the teacher likes and values them.

Oh dear, we've been there but I'm not sure I can offer any constructive help. My two dds were always well behaved (at school, anyway ) and schemes like this completely disillusioned them as it was always the kids who didn't work/misbehaved who seemed to get rewarded for the odd bit of good behaviour. As she is fairly inexperienced is it worth having a gentle/confidential word with the deputy head?

If it's any consolation, you could be describing my dd2 as she was at primary - she is now a noticeably happy and confident year 8 - I think they really start to mature at this age. Best of luck.

This used to make me just mad.

When dd was in year 3 her teacher had a star system. The children who had the most stars were without fail the naughty ones who had obviously not hit someone at playtime or managed to write the date without being nagged.

DD was enthuisiastic and hard working but had far less stars. Used to make me SOOOOOO

...ANd no the children in question did not have SN!

We have a merit system at school with badges/certificates/ pencils/prizes given out for good behaviour/work etc.

Part of our discipline system is a warning sheet and pupils who have misbehaved get written on it (with various consequences for repeat offenders).

One of the things I always do each week is give merits to all the children who are not on the warning sheet - those nice sensible children like your DD who always behave appropriately and deserve to be rewarded for it.

I think merit systems work best when all children are kept on roughly the same number of merits (so the teacher just tots up the 'well behaved kids' as the 'naughty' ones shape up) and when the reward is a whole class reward (eg golden time). After all the point of good behaviour at school is that everyone suffers from 1 child being difficult so it is in everyone's interest to find a way of getting that one under control.

I have 'good' dc's and naughty dc's and this system works for both of them.

I found that individual rewards become very divisive and create resentment which is hard for the kids not getting stars and the kids getting them...

Also, I think stars are a bit so I comment as in "Oh, you got a star" but I never particularly praise or care if they don't, so none of mine are ever too concerned about stars..

Hope that helps

Thanks for the answers, everybody, I can see that I have no alternative but to go and have a word with the teacher (something I hate doing). As dd is at a middle school, where they go from Yr5 to Yr8, the Yr6 culture is a great deal different from a primary school. The behavioural expectations are much more secondary-like; no such thing as "Golden time" or stars. They have a merit system, and dd is getting plenty of those and has been awarded gold certificates for high numbers of merits in previous terms etc. This "class prize" thing appears to be something that this class teacher has come up with by himself (there are 5 or 6 other classes in the year group, we are talking a large school here) to try and motivate the people who couldn't give a toss about merits - fine, except that it's working to de-motivate people like my dd, who was previously only focused on the merit system. I see I will have to go and have a word with the class teacher, but feel rather resentful about having to. I used to be a teacher myself and I know that these kinds of schemes don't work, so why can't the class teacher see that? I also dislike any scheme which involves teachers bribing children with toys/stationery/sweets because it is just giving children completely the wrong message. But frankly, I think the education system sold out long ago on this particular point, so I'm not even going to bother honing my rant about that...

Not all of the education system has sold out on this point! I think it's a historical thing that many teachers do without questioning the value of such a reward scheme or whether it works. At my current school we don't have any type of reward or sanction scheme at all and teach the children the need to behave appropriately for the good/benefit of all and it's working really well on the whole. However, it's not a quick fix. I agree with your DD - her system is rubbish! As a teacher though I can see why you wouldn't want to go and have a word with the teacher about this. Seems you're in quite a tricky position given that you used to be a teacher yourself.

I'm intrigued sararararah by your system. Is this a secondary school?

Do you really have no rewards or sanctions at all? What about celebrating achievement? What do you do, if anything, to reward a child you tries particularly hard?

I work in a secondary school and as far as I am concerned at the moment we are getting it wrong. But I am intrigued as to what the options are.

No, not a secondary school, a primary school. We are a brand new school though so at the moment only have pupils up to Year 3. And yes! We really have no rewards or sanctions at all! TBH it's quite hard to explain how our system works here and we have spent a looooooooooooong time developing what we do.

Simply, the ideas are thus -

1. The idea that the only effective motivation is intrinsic motivation (Alfie Kohn, amongst others writes about this) Therefore contolling children by praise is just as negative as controlling by punishment.Children need to want to do things for their own sake (in the case of learning) and because they are the right thing to do (in the case of behaviour)

1. The school is a community as a whole and each class contributes to the community. Each class is also a community in it's own right - therefore each child contributes to their class community too.

1. We spend a lot of time talking about their contributions to the community and the affect that behaviours have on ourselves and each other as well as teaching the children how to recognise these things for themselves. So, if, for example a child hurt themselves and another child went over to check they were ok we would say "Oh, look at x's face. DOn't they look happier now? You helped them to feel that way." Remember our children are very young - so this is young children's language!

1. We have a Learner Profile (which was derived and adapted from the IB system - one of our teachers used to work abroad) which talks about various aspects of children's learning - risk takers, compassionate, ethical, collaborative, reflective, to name but a few, which we refer to all the time and have photos with examples of children behaving and learning in these ways.

1. We have a very creative, active curriculum and spend a lot of time working on collaborative tasks so children have to work together.

In answer to your question about if a child tried particularly hard. We would comment on it and say something like "Oh I've noticed that you have been trying especially hard. Shall we look at how your work has improved since you've been working that hard? Oh I bet that makes you feel proud of yourself?" The difference is in the language you use and the tone of voice too.

Sorry - this is very long! and I'm not sure I've explained it very well either. As I said in my previous post this is an ideal and is not a quick fix in terms of solving behaviour issues immediately. We have worked hard with parents too so that they understand what we are trying to achieve. One thing I would say is that last year I had the Y1/2 class who had all been to other schools previously (as we only opened in Sept 07). They had all had experience of reward systems in other schools. Not one of them asked me where the stickers were! They didn't miss them and it didn't even occur to them!

I admit I was sceptical before we opened having only had experience of the traditional methods - but I will never go back!

HTH - and sorry for waffling!

That is really interesting sarah. I wish you every success.