rewarding bad behaviour

[bubbles4]

just after christmas we recieved a letter from the school saying that ds was showing some challenging behaviour and would be placed on report for two weeks,this report would be available to us so we could see his progress,on talking to the school he was one of a number of students being placed on report and they were trying to nip bad behaviour in the bud before it got out of control.he did really well whilst on report and he has carried on behaving really well and his end of term report showed a great improvement.on the last day of term he was presented with a certificate and a £5 gift voucher,the certificate i agree with it but i,m not so sure of the voucher.it seems that they are rewarding bad behaviour.if he had been behaving as he should have been he would never have been put on report and therefore never had a chance of getting this voucher.part of me wants to send it back saying thanks but no thanks,what does everybody else think?

It certainly is very tricky to find the right balance. What about the good students who have never found themselves in ds's position. Have they got £5? I think not.

But you have to motivate them to improve somehow. The danger is that some students (the bright but unconventional ones) can see through this very quickly and get into a cycle of bad behaviour/good behaviour in order to earn the rewards.

Do you think that for him it was a significant achievement to keep up the good behaviour for the entire term?

Would you think it appropriate for you to say you will hang on to the gift voucher until the end of this term, and then he gets it as long has his behaviour has continued to be exceptional?

that is exactly my arguement,my other ds who is no angel but always get good behaviour reports has never received any monetary rewards.i think you have a good point and i will hang on to the voucher for a bit,as for his bad behaviour i think that by working with his school we have got to the root of the problem (wrong crowd etc)and by adressing the problem both at school and at home things seem to be taking a step in the right direction,hope i havent spoke too soon!!

anybody else have any thoughts about this?

The school has given the voucher to your son. I'd just let him spend it (and encourage him to do so as soon as possible). If you hold it back, you risk giving him the impression that you don't trust him to behave well in the future.

However, I can understand your concerns, and if he showed signs of behaving badly in order to get rewards like this in the future I'd take action over the matter then.