Behaviour chart

[Howarewenotthereyet]

My dd is in yr 1. They have a behaviour chart on the wall. I've heard nothing of this until recently from another mum. Her child was upset that he's never been on gold and believe be will never be.

The chart is gold, silver, red, orange. They start on silver.

My dd says she has never been on gold (the top) ever. She says that's for exceptional behaviour. She says she will never get there as she's doing her best to be kind and polite and helpful but she's never been moved up. We say doing your best is all that's asked of you . She is accepting of this. She works very hard to stay on silver by never putting a foot wrong (she has told us this just not in those words). And has never been on red or orange.

I hate these charts but know in reality most schools have a version of it. What I am upset about is my child's belief that she will never get to gold despite trying. is that the lessons here? Some kids are better than others? Am I overthinking this? She says there are some kids that always get to gold. They have all been sat together on the same table and always win the table prize.

I don't feel I can talk to the teacher they are not at all receptive. I am hoping the yr 2 teacher will be different.

Is this a side effect of these types of charts? What would you say to your child in this situation?

Our reception class has a chart, with 5 levels. They all start in the middle. I’d guess our son gets to the top once a month or so, and to the second level once a week.

These moves are often for small things (helping tidy up, checking on a friend if they fell over, academic work) and there seems to be very little reason why anyone in the class would ever struggle to have something positive identified.

Whilst I’m definitely not supportive of the “everyone is winners” mentality of sports days, every child should be equally likely to move up on these systems based on their own personal circumstances. I’d be so sad to hear of children who were genuinely working hard and still felt as though they weren’t ever going to be moved up.

On a similar note, our school gives out special certificates in assembly. As far as I can tell it’s on a pre-determined rota and every child gets a certificate over the year. It’s quite amusing hearing the different reasons for the same class - “Ann did an excellent job this week by participating in tidy up time” vs “Bobby read War & Peace with excellent prosody” but whatever the reason, each child feels appreciated.

Thank you. Our school has those certificates too. They are not on a rota system. My dd has never had one in year 1. Ironically if they do a craft competition they all get a 'prize' for taking part.

If a reward system like this is brought in, I do think everyone needs to have the same opportunities, to avoid the awful situation where poor children feel undervalued.

With this being so visible to others, extreme care needs to be taken to avoid perceptions that some kids are “better” than others.

I’ve got no issue with the brightest kids who get 10/10 on a test getting a house point (even though probably similar kids each time) as well as those kids that had done well to get 7/10 because this is more hidden and not as visible to the full class. I don’t think a child would worry so much about not getting a point in their book compared to a big chart on the wall!

How do they define 'exceptional behaviour'?

@Antarcticant I don't know. My dd gave the examples of being kind, helping another child, being polite. I guess maybe you have to be very visible about what you've done. My child doesn't speak out in class as you can move down for speaking out.

The whole concept sounds a bit 'off' to me. Being polite and kind should be standard minimum expectations, surely? Not something you award a star for. And it sounds as though to get the higher grade stars you have to be very performative about it all - a recipe for people only paying lip service to good behaviours while the eye of authority is upon them.

Personally I would scrap it and just praise the children verbally for showing the right behaviours.

God I hate these charts. They're so shaming for many children. Your DD has already accepted she won't be exceptional, to me as a parent, teacher and human being i think that's sad. She tries so hard and thinks that, it must be so destroying other kids too. Are they not allowed a bad day or any emotions but over pleasing the teacher?!! And there is no way a teacher can see everything going on with everyone throughout the day and still teach! Kids do so many lovely, natural things that won't be seen all of the time. And then those gold children all sit together so they win the table prize too??? Well of course they do, why would the other tables bother?!! It also doesn't help them, they could think of themselves as better too and that they must always behave that way and not show emotions. I think you can guess I don't like them lol. You could tell your DD the teacher won't see everything and everyone might have different things that would move them up. Maybe she could say what colour she would put herself on.
Sorry, I may have turned this into a bit of a rant. Am on the side of those poor kids who may already feel worthless then being put on red 😔

Thank you. Its an interesting point that these things could be 'bad' for the pupils that are doing 'well' as well as those who 'aren't'.

I really like the suggestion to ask DD where she would put herself. And also the suggestion to say to dd that the teacher will not see everything.

I too would scrap the reward wall chart but unfortunately I reckon the teacher would object!

My DS is in year 1 and they have one of these too. DS has never, not even once, gone up the chart. Until his teacher had covid and there was a supply teacher for a week - then he went up twice in a week! His usual teacher returns - back to the norm. I completely agree it’s fairly pointless if you can never ever go up. When I asked him which children do go up it’s always the same few, who I’m sure deserve it because they are very well behaved, but for the rest it just becomes meaningless.

My eldest didnt have a chart but if there had been it would have been mostly in the naughty area
Dd7 does have one not that teacher has said. Like your dd has never in a year been moved up! (Or down luckily) the
Imo the charts And yearly rewards become about teachers pets and those the tezcher doesnt like.
Dd1 being a dislike so never gets the year award till last in year. Dd2 not disliked but does cry a lot.
Thing is you cant fundamentally change a child. You can make a small amount of difference but those behaving well or teachers pet etc are just like that.

Schools in Scotland are moving away from any of this. I've not seen a public behaviour chart in a primary school for 5 years.

Psychologists do not recommend these types of charts for in school settings, yet all teachers seem to use them. It's like they deliberately bypass psychological advice. Sympathies.

Seen as bad practice in Scotland. The message is quite punitive and what is 'good' behaviour? Conforming?! We promote positive behaviour by reinforcing when a child has a good growth mindset/keeps trying/enables others to access a right/is helpful/does something awful but then turns it around. Idea is schools should be nurturing. Behaviour charts don't work for the kids who need emotional support and the rest of the class feel its unattainable.

Yep, hate these charts. DC1 Y1 class had a weather themed one - storm, sun etc. Only a very small number of children were ever on the storm cloud (DC has suspected ADHD) and I had no idea until he told me in tears one day. Have to admit I did have stern words with the teacher about how it created such a negative perception. She listened as he didn’t seem to move from the “middle” icon after that.

Year 2 has been much better, they have Dojo points. Not sure if they lose any for bad behaviour, it seems to be more of a reward system. It’s still public but DC only seem to be aware of their own points and of other close friends, so not such an obvious “shaming” or not.

i was your DD though OP, always well behaved enough but not “special” and I definitely knew it, even without this sort of chart which I don’t think existed in my primary days. I don’t think it did any great damage, other than I hate that same culture now my own DC are in school.

You know, they do damage to the kids that always get gold/the most stars etc too. I was one of them and I now have a deep seated need for recognition and praise as an adult.

This school sounds terrible, behaviour charts of this type have been shown to negatively affect children's educational motivation and their behaviour. They damage those who do well, those in the middle, and those in the bottom. They are a lazy teaching technique and they should not be used.

I'd want a serious discussion with the headteacher about this and if it were going to continue I would consider a better school.

I'm a teacher and have used these charts as it's school policy but pretty much all of the kids got to the top every day and if I'm honest it was the naughty ones that got there when I spotted something to praise early in the day to keep them on track (and I know this a whole other can of worms). But all rewards are counterproductive (most schools are aware of the work of Shirley Clarke around this very issue) but personally I find sports clubs are even worse for this sort of nonsense - player of the day etc. I parent my grandson who is generally a pretty
normal 7 year old despite his unusual circumstances but as you can imagine has a few issues with rejection. He is a very capable sportsman and does a few sports clubs. Last week his tennis coach said he was going to choose 4 children to play with orange balls at the end and he was going to choose on the basis of play and behaviour. DGS played well and tried his hardest behave well...and he wasn't chosen. Well he walked off the court and had a complete meltdown and is now refusing to ever go back. I backed the coach and told DGS in no uncertain terms that this was not acceptable behaviour but on the inside I was wondering how the coach couldn't see that this was a counterproductive strategy for all of them. Compare this to his BMX class. The coaches never give any praise just comments for improvement. DGS is incredibly motivated to achieve - I take him to the track most nights at his insistence. He practises and practises and is now winning races. This is all coming from within him. Not to please me, his coach or anyone else. I'm hoping this drive and determination and self motivation will become a feature of all areas of his life.

Sad. They are already teaching young students that they are not good enough.