Rewards & Sanctions

We are not a school that seeks to rule with an iron fist and media images of the need for ‘The Demon Headmaster’. Silent lines in corridors and submissive compliance are not what we are about.

Be assured, we are quite prepared to crackdown on any nonsense, and we take our responsibilities beyond the school day, and into the school holidays too, but we are a school that wants a buzz and also wants our school to simmer.

When a child simmers they might very occasionally bubble over, but teaching children to deal with excitement, challenge, fun and energy is all part of life. We are not a school for regimented control, and draconian rules, but we are one that develops characters that exude self-control, friendly relations and moral independence.

Consequently, our school seeks to celebrate and reward positive steps wherever possible and is systematic in ensuring all students have the chance to be successful, receive praise, and maintain high standards, or at least present them with real options of turning over a new leaf.

Of course, we operate sanctions too, but there has to be incentives as well; with every ‘stick’ there needs to be a ‘carrot’, and whilst we are prepared to use the metaphorical ‘stick’ if necessary, we are always ready to reach for the ‘carrot’.

House Points

All students can earn House Points throughout the school year and these are totted up to qualify for a range of rewards. Some of these rewards are for whole-year totals, whilst other factor in shorter time-frames so that those who under-perform, or are absent at the start of the year, can still reap rewards later in the school year.

The rewards flow through the termly House Celebration Evenings, but there are also places that can be earned on the Rewards Day experience at the end of the school year which in recent times has been a well-received Inflatable Day.

House Trophies & Awards

There are a range of certificates and awards available through the House system that provide status and credit for CVs and future college, job or university applications. These include Half-Colours, Full Colours, as well as specific awards for attendance, punctuality, effort, etc.

Attendance Reward Events

There are termly rewards events tied to attendance which go to those students with high levels of attendance via a prize draw, as well as to students who have been incentivised by short-term specific targets to reduce their absence. These have included crazy golf, dodgems and shooting.

Half-Termly Reward Events

We also stage half-termly events which celebrate those students from each Year group who have gained the most House points in that time-frame. This varies but has included luxury hot chocolates or ice-creams from our local ice-cream van!

Prize Giving

Finally, we stage an annual Prize-Giving Evening which includes Key Stage Three and Key Stage Four subject prizes, as well as other specific awards related to our Year 8 Character Award, charity fund-raising and student leadership.

Certainly, we are not a school who believes that everyone should be rewarded – in our mind rewards have to be earned and real-life doesn’t see everyone win whatever they have done. However, if there is something to celebrate, then we celebrate it.

Behaviour Interventions

At times, sanctions have to be deployed where a student has not conducted themselves as well as we would life.

We work to ensure these steps are fair, balanced and proportionate, and whilst we take individual needs into account, we understand that sanctions play an important part in drawing a line and shaping clear expectations that helps all students to move forward.

The full list of sanctions is detailed in our Behaviour Policy and our expectation is that every parent / carer will provide us with calm and patient support, a readiness to let us get on with it, and a genuine awareness that managing 1,250 children in one organisation is not always perfectly straight-forward and cannot follow the same benchmarks of every individual home.

Our rewards and sanctions are not really about the instance of praise or a telling off – more they are about shaping minds and approaches so that adult life is easier to negotiate and becomes more successful.

For more information about all forms of rewards and sanctions, please contact Michelle Simpson, Assistant Headteacher, via office@friaryschool.co.uk.