Class Dojo

[RideTheLightning]

My child is in year 1 and our school has just introduced this. Any parents/teachers with any experience of it?

From what I've read, I am instantly weary of it and am already concerned at the negative impact it is having on my son. He is anxious about the system and can't understand why his hard work is going unnoticed. It seems to have zapped his confidence and he is questioning whether he is 'a good boy' or indeed 'good enough' when he sees other getting points.

We are raising him to be self motivated, and to work hard for himself, not for an external reward. I'm worried that this system will undermine this.

Initial feedback from other parents is mixed. Those parents who (in their opinion) have children with behavioural issues are positive - saying it is good that they can 'keep an eye' on their child etc and think that it will motivate their child to do better. They are thrilled that their child has already won treats/certificates when last term they were in front of the headmistress etc/always having warnings. Others with children who are generally well behaved are optimistic or (like me) are seeing negative repercussions this early on and are concerned.

Any experience yourselves? Will things get better? Is this system a good thing for your school/child? I'd love to hear some positives so that I can either stop worrying or so that I can raise my concerns with the school in a reasoned, sensible manner.

Thanks very much.

[user789653241]

Geegee4, I would mention what your dd said to the teacher if it was me.

When one of ds's teacher used this, she gave points to everyone, even well behaved kids got points for things they do it anyway. It worked well.
But sounds like in your dd's case, it seemed to demoralise children rather than encouraging, which is totally wrong!

[TeacherBob]

The system is fine, the people with negative posts I would think it isn't being implemented properly.

But it is absolutely no different to house points, reward points, behaviour charts, diamonds, stickers on a card, happy/sad faces or whatever other behaviour system is being used, it just happens to be on computer instead of on a display on the wall.
Does exactly the same thing in pretty much exactly the same way.

I don't use it as a teacher atm, but only because I have a similar paper based copy that works and there is no need to change it.
(and ironically, i rarely use them. I expect the children to behave in my room and try their hardest because it is the right thing to do, its an expectation that I always have, its high and it works)

[Geegee4]

My DD is in year 1- they've just started using class dojo. She is very well behaved, compliant etc And doesn't understand why one child gets a point for sitting nicely, while she is always sitting nicely and doesn't get a dojo. She told me last night, 'I don't know how to be anymore gooder '

[MidniteScribbler]

I use it in my class, but don't use the negative points, just the positive ones. I reset it at the end of the day, or sometimes even at the end of a class. I use it mostly when I want them focused, as they love getting it. Like any form of classroom reward, I generally target those that I think need the reward and make sure they've got the points needed for the prize, and make sure everyone gets a chance at "winning". My students love it, and all it takes is for me to say 'I'm putting Dojo on the board' to have them racing to their desks and start working quietly.

[BizzyFizzy]

I used it in my last school for about 2 days. The boys were competitive about who could get the most minuses.

[jamdonut]

We gave up using Dojo points because , in the end, it was just such a faff, and the 'always' children never seem to come out on top, only the children whose behaviour is challenging!
Glad to see the back off it, tbh.

[Muddlingalongalone]

Dd's school used it last year in reception & she loved it. Definitely more rewards available for the well behaved child who contributed positively, but the one more challenging child behaviourally was also motivated by it according to his dad.
Yr 1 so far, it's been useful for info from teachers, interesting to see pictures of what they've been upto & the messenger facility will save me writing endless notes to teacher because I use the school wraparound care, but not sure new teacher is used to it yet, days with nothing, then a flood of 5 in one day, then whole class -2 for not tidying up marbles quickly enough when only 3 kids were playing with them.
Am off to try & find privacy policy though after post above.

[Hulababy]

We only add positive points btw. We have some neutral ones (doesn't affect the score, and doesn't flash the name up on screen) but no negative points given. Neutral ones are things like no PE kit and is used as a way of monitoring that behind the scenes - the child can't see those ones.

And we have edited the list of positive ones to include a whole range of things such as sitting quietly, being ready quickly, good effort in work, helping at xyz, joining in, etc. and we have set them all as equal points.

We have occasionally given while class positives but, as said before, no negative ones - for whole class or individuals.

[Hulababy]

We use it in some of our classes - its up to individual teachers. Its used in a pretty positive manner and at present the children appear to like the system. We reset the scores at the start of each week.

We do not add photographs, nor have we invited parents. Its just used in class.

[SisterViktorine]

If you are off task because you have unmet needs it is not fair to get a 'negative' mark for it.

[user789653241]

I think at my ds's school, points were given for things like:
on the task/ perticipating/good listening/ team work/ sitting nicely etc. Nothing competitive at all.
Only red my ds got was for "talking out of turn" or something. Which is good reminder for him not to do it again.
It wasn't bad at all.

[SisterViktorine]

I (exclusively) teach pupils with HFA and challenging behaviour. I would not use this type of points system for them. As far as I am concerned instances of challenging behaviour are learning points for us all, and as with anything else, each pupil is developing their emotional literacy and self control at a different rate. I would not dream of giving them 'red' points for their behaviour.

Likewise I would not make positive points competitive. I would hate a pupil to do well, but feel that they had not done well enough because they had less points than the next little body.

I do however, have a system I love called Tapestry. It is an online sharing system so I can send parents photos of highlights, achievements and learning almost in real time. It might even be just that, if a pupil comes in wobbly, I send the parent a photo at 9.30 to show they are settled and engaged in learning- which they can access instantly. I think it's amazing for communication. I can see when the parents log in and I like to see the 4pm check-ins because I imagine they are using Tapestry to support a discussion about the day.

[rainbowstardrops]

With regards to the more challenging children being given lots of dojos while the ones who always do the right thing don't, we also have a marble jar.

This is a whole class reward and the children all vote for their preferred treat.

We tend to praise the more challenging ones with marbles for them and their peers if they manage to sit still/have a gentle play time etc as they're not disrupting the rest of the class but helping them.

They obviously still get dojos but these are saved for much more personal achievements. This could simply be a chatter-box staying quiet through the register.

I'm not sure I'm making sense but I know what I'm on about!

I honestly don't know of any problems with our dojo system.

[user789653241]

Agree with 2014newme .
My ds is very well behaved. And there were few badly behaved children in his class, but everybody got points accordingly. Good children still got points for good behaviour. A lot of points was given as a whole class.
There were no anxiety of any sorts.

[AnotherUsernameBitesTheDust]

A child at my child's school managed to somehow get on the schools account and post photos of her siblings on there for everyone to see. No idea how easy it is to do that, but it put me off it.

[EElisavetaOfBelsornia]

Am I the only one who doesn't know WTF a Dojo is?

[2014newme]

It's a teacher issue not a dojo issue would be same with stickers or other reward. Ours are very very generous with the dojos giving them out all day

[RideTheLightning]

Thanks for your comments everyone - lots to think about.

My DS has had no anxiety issues at all before now and is well behaved/top academic group. It's clear he's not anxious because he's badly behaved. It's because he feels he has worked hard/been 'good' but his teacher hasn't noticed.

It's early days for our class, but so far the 'winners/leaders' are children with known behavioural problems who are obviously behaving better (fair enough). Other parents whose kids are also bright/ generally well behaved are saying their children are also worried/feeling sad about their dojos or the lack of them.

I think we will need further info from the teacher as to how she is awarding points and we can take it from there.

[TheAntiBoop]

In dd's class they don't give red ones and they don't remove either.

It's a tool ultimately - the pros and cons discussed are about how it's implemented by the individual teacher

[2014newme]

We don't get red points but points can be removed for poor choices

[2014newme]

The child with most dojo in dds class last year was toward bottom of the class academically but very well behaved and also shy and quiet.
Obviously if you are badly behaved you won't get as many.

[chamenager]

Our school introduced this last year when DS just started Y1.

Initially it made him incredibly anxious. He completely froze up in school for fear of doing something wrong that would earn him a red point. The only thing he ever talked about when he came home was who got how many points of which colour. In a sense you could say it completely took his mind away from learning and focused him on behaving instead, his own and others' behaviour. He didn't need his behaviour improving, it was fine already due to pre-existing latent anxiety, but the dojo made the anxiety much worse.

After a while, after many conversations at home in which we tried to make clear that we did not care one jot about dojo points, and that what matters is the choices you make, not the points you earn (or not), he started to relax about it and now he largely ignores the dojo points. His behaviour has remained the same (or even improved) as he now has returned to 'normal' i.e. is not afraid to say something in case it may be 'wrong'.

I have been a classroom helper and have seen that some children tend to frequently collect red points, others not. This didn't change over the year which indicates to me that these children's behaviour wasn't actually positively affected by the system. Separately and independently some children's parents told me that their children's self esteem was terrible, that they'd often bang their heads on to walls (literally) and state that they 'were bad'. Because whatever they did, however hard they tried, they kept getting red points.

So no, I am not happy at all with the dojo system. However, I must say our school (or teacher) uses it particularly badly. In our school the kid with most green dojos (and no red ones) at the end of the week gains an award. That is wrong on so many levels. It makes good behaviour into a competition between the kids. And a child who struggles to behave well will never win the award. They may give their utmost best for half a day or a whole day but won't be able to keep it up for the week, so will not be rewarded. And once they collected that red point, blocking them from 'winning', they may well give up trying.
Also initially they were constantly pinging. With children gaining 20 or more points each week. Completely distracting from learning. Whereas after a while they made it harder to get green points, so the weekly winners would have 6 or so. And sometimes they made class rewards dependent on no children having red points, so children who did get a red point felt bad for spoiling things for their mates.

All that said, I think the dojos CAN be used in a more positive manner. E.g. rather than making it a competition between the children, you can set each child individual aims. You can tally up and set back to zero after half a day, rather than making yesterday's behaviour hang over your head (and be displayed for everyone to see) every day. Children who find it hard to sit still can be told they will gain points for sitting still, while other children won't - but each child can be aware of their own individual target/goals. You don't have to actually use red points, you can use green ones only, and this does have a good side: You can have an immediate positive reaction to/recognition of small positive things throughout the day. Children who behave well generally can still have goals and be rewarded.

Of course you can do those things with or without the dojo things. So, as with most things, it depends not so much on the system, than on how it is used. And if you talk to school, I'd focus on this aspect. Suggest ways how they can use it more positively.

The main problem IMO is that teachers using the dojo system tend to stop thinking. They feel 'oh this is how we are managing behaviour now, ok then' and just start using it, rather than thinking about what they really want to achieve and how they can use the system to do that.

[rainbowstardrops]

I work in Yr1 and ours have funny little monsters as well. Definitely no photos of the children and only their first name. I really don't think anyone would be interested in that.

With regards to any problems, I haven't experienced any. We mainly give them out for good sitting, good listening etc to encourage the wrigglers and chatter-boxes to make the right choices.

We also tend to try and make sure that everyone gets at least some!

[ReallyTired]

My daughter's school has never used such a system. Surely a computerised system makes it easier to check that no child is left out. Its very easy to over look the quiet middle ablity child. A least with a computer the system the head teacher could ask the teacher why he has not awarded Perfect Peter any points and given loads of points to horrid henry.