Recognition and consequences

All staff at Melbourn Village College are committed to providing an environment where all students feel safe and secure and are able to thrive in an atmosphere of mutual respect. An integral part of that is a spirit of partnership and co-operation which helps all parties feel valued and part of a
wider community. Good behaviour and discipline are at the heart of all successful communities, based on respect for oneself and others.

The whole ethos of Melbourn Village College is underpinned by our 3 keys to success:

1. Be ready
2. Be respectful
3. Be responsible

The language used when discussing behaviour with students is focused around these school-wide expectations to re-enforce their importance, and to prepare our students for life after Melbourn Village College.

Formal recognition

Encouragement, praise and recognition are an essential part of positive behaviour and have a motivational role in helping students to realise that good effort is valued and acknowledged. Verbal praise and encouragement should be used as often as possible in lessons to acknowledge the successes of students.

In addition to verbal praise, staff will be able to award students with the ‘achievement behaviour points’ for contributions both inside and outside of lessons. These behaviour points will be recorded on Go4Schools by the awarding member of staff and will be worth +1 point for a ‘good’ contribution, +2 points for an ‘excellent’ contribution, and +3 points for an ‘outstanding’ contribution. It is important students receive immediate rewards for their positive contributions; the rewards they will receive include postcards sent home, free lunch passes, celebration of their achievements in the weekly newsletter and personal letters of congratulation from the Head Teacher.

In addition to immediate rewards, the positive contributions of students will be recognised termly. This will involve an end of term celebration assembly, which will include a specific reward organised by the Heads of Year and a range of subject prizes and recognition of students’ wider contribution to school. The celebration assembly will involve senior members of staff congratulating students on their consistently positive contributions in relation to their attitude, effort and success at Melbourn Village College.

Consequences

Whilst we understand that students will make inappropriate behaviour choices at times, it is also important that students acknowledge these choices, understand them and learn from them. Restorative discussions with staff at the end of a school day will provide students with the opportunity to discuss the issue and focus on how to move forward. The basis of these discussions is outlined below. In addition, the restorative discussions will allow staff to discuss and decide upon any reasonable adjustments for students with SEND provision, or students involved with external authorities.

Restorative discussion:

1. What has happened?
2. What were you thinking at the time
3. Who has been affected by the actions?
4. How have they been affected? (Teacher can respond to this question after the student as well.)
5. What needs to be done now to make things right?
6. How can we do things differently in the future?

Wherever possible, staff will always accentuate the positive, but inevitably there are occasions when consequences are necessary. Day-to-day consequences are based upon three school-wide expectations designed to help students develop good learning habits for life. It is therefore expected that students will observe school rules both in school and when representing the Melbourn Village College. It is considered good practice for a member of staff to contact a parent/carer if a behaviour persists.

A range of consequences may be used by staff to tackle and discourage inappropriate behaviour both inside and outside of lessons. These include:

Verbal reminders

Communication with parents

Set times out of social circulation

Reports

Fixed Term Suspensions and

Permanent Suspension

The aim is always to use the consequence that is the most appropriate to tackle the behaviour in question and will involve appropriate restorative work. The school reserves the right to recommend that a student is removed from a bus. Mobile phones are now banned for students on the school site and any student who is using their mobile phone during the school day will be challenged, and the phone confiscated. Parents are encouraged to call the school office if they need to pass a message to their child.

All staff must ensure that the school environment is safe and conducive to learning and staff will challenge any student who is not meeting the school expectations in terms of conduct and behaviour.  Class teachers should use a variety of classroom management techniques to ensure a purposeful and positive learning environment and where needed supplemented by whole-school systems. Students will be given a maximum of 2 reminders in lessons if they are behaving in a manner to disrupt teaching and learning, or are demonstrating a poor attitude toward their studies. If their behaviour does not improve, students will be removed from the lesson by a member of the pastoral team, resulting in an after school restorative conversation with the relevant member of staff. If a student is removed from more than two lessons in the same day, they will remain out of circulation for the remainder of that day and parents/carers will be contacted.

Teachers must record all incidents and communication with parents on Go4Schools on the same day as the incident. For persistent misconduct, or other concerns, students may be placed on report by Pastoral Support Officers, Heads of Year, Head of Departments or the Senior Team. Behaviour contracts and meetings with parents will be arranged if the persistent negative behaviour does not improve.

Monitoring Achievement and Behaviour

Tutors analyse weekly reports of the achievements and behaviours of those in their form. This informs their conversations with those students and enables them to build up an accurate picture of their tutees. In addition, Pastoral Support Officers and Heads of Year also track the achievement and behaviour of the students.

Everybody is somebody