Rewards Systems part 2

Image created at http://www.wordle.net/

I just wanted to outline the reward system that we put in place in my first headship. When I started at the school there was a raffle system (which I have outlined an objection to in Rewards Systems - square peg into round hole) and it needed to change.


My initiial change to introduce a weekly "Star of the Week Certificate" to replace the raffle system. Each class awarded one certificate rewarding something that the recipient had done really well during the week, which could be either behaviour, attitude or learning. The certificate seemed to be well recieved by pupils and parents, but there were occasional comments from pupils about the lack of prizes and the fact that only one or two certificates were being given to each class in a week.

In the September I decided that we needed to review the behaviour and rewards policy. This was done in consultation with the pupils, parents, staff and governors. Developing a policy as important as beahviour and rewards has to be done in consultation with the key stakeholders - and the resulting policy was one of the defining policies in the school.

The rewards system developed was one which would encourage individual response, and gave each pupil in the school the opportunity to achieve and be rewarded publicly. Each child was given a merit chart which they kept stapled and folded inside the back of their reading record. The merit chart was constructed as a 5x5 grid. Each time a pupil did something in their work that met a target, or was above and beyond expectations they were given a merit sticker or stamp. A merit sticker could also be awarded for exceptional behaviour, good manners, supporting another pupil, etc. etc. Once a child had earnt five merit stickers they were presented with a "merit star" which was a very simple paper star with their name written on and the date of the award. This was presented in the Celebration assembly on Friday morning.

Once the merit chart was completed the pupil earnt their first badge. This was a "Blue Badge" - and enamel blue badge that they wore on their uniform. Again this was presented in the Celebration Assembly on a Friday morning. Having recieved the Blue Badge the pupil then started another merit chart and started earning merits again. The completion of the second chart led to a Bronze Badge, and from there a Silver Badge. Gold badges were slightly harder to attain - they required a fourth and fifth merit chart to be completed. Each time a pupil acheived a Badge they had their photo on our achievements board in the school entrance, and their name (no photo) published on the achievements page of the school website.

There were no prizes attached to the system, other than the pride of being able to wear the badges. The children always knew exactly how many merits they were from their next badge. What's more, so did their friends, and this led to the children encouraging each other and finding another way of earning another merit. Sometimes, friends might even attempt to persuade their teacher that they really should award a merit to someone close to a Badge award. Funnily enough, this had a positive impact on the development of the peer review and assessment elements of our AfL practice.

I have written this in the past tense, as I am no longer Head at the school (made an interesting decision in light of the change of Government to work for QCDA). However, as far as I am aware the system has been continued by the new Head and there are no plans to change it, so it couldn't have been too bad.

Thanks to Nikki Davies, who commented on my last post. I think there are some interesting similarities between the two systems developed. Please do leave some information about your rewards system. I am very interested to see what else is happening out there.