We believe pupils should have their achievements recognised and rewarded. Rewards can be small tokens or more substantial incentives, but more importantly, pupils should feel that their efforts are recognised in a meaningful way in order to promote positive engagement with school life and foster the feeling of success. At Ethos College, we continue, alongside our pupils, to design and develop a reward system that is personalised to the needs of individuals through the setting of mutually agreed developmental targets.
Pupils are given the opportunity to achieve on a daily basis and are rewarded regularly; this progress is recorded on the school’s MIS system. This system enables pupils to manage their own rewards and to use them to buy items that they value. This promotes budgeting skills, and pupils are encouraged to donate some of their rewards to charities we support as a school. The following rewards are used by staff to recognise and promote positive and appropriate behaviours:
- Postcards home
- Certificates
- Celebration assemblies
- Regular phone calls/text messages home
- Positive meetings with families
In addition, we recognise the importance of verbal praise and recognition. As a team, we believe in catching our pupils doing the right thing and look for ongoing opportunities to highlight the positive behaviour they display. In some instances, this means that we personalise the rewards and incentivise pupils by supporting them to focus on achieving a specific goal.
