Behaviour at Oakfield

 

We share the responsibility for the care and discipline of our pupils with their parents. A constant, quiet encouragement to order and good manners is maintained in the school. Rules are kept to a minimum and are all expressed in positive terms (never ‘don’t’, but always ‘do’).

 

Our long-term aim is to encourage sensible independence and self-discipline. There is a clear behaviour code (the ‘Golden Rules’) with appropriate rewards and sanctions, which operates consistently across the school. Pupils are expected to be smart in appearance, punctual, reliable, courteous in manner and speech, and understanding of others.

 

Oakfield children are discouraged from fighting at all times. Disagreements which cannot be resolved by the children themselves are referred to the teacher or Teaching Assistants on duty at break, or to a Lunchtime Supervisor at lunchtime. Regular meetings are held between the Headteacher and the Lunchtime Supervisors to discuss the quality of play in the playground during lunchtimes, and strategies for helping individual children, if necessary, are agreed.

 

Children are taught from the outset that good behaviour is a matter of making appropriate choices in response to different circumstances. We appreciate that for some children whose boundaries at home differ from those at school, it can initially be challenging to adjust to our high expectations of behaviour, and the Headteacher works with parents individually to support in these cases. Our ‘Golden Rules’ are deliberately generic and designed to be equally applicable at home and at school.

 

The Golden Rules were originally drawn up in consultation with children and parents. They are displayed throughout the school, including in every classroom, and form part of the ‘Home School Agreement’ signed by pupils, parents and the Headteacher on school entry.

Rewards for good behaviour are applied consistently throughout the school. Individual children spotted being particularly helpful, kind or polite are rewarded with a ‘Leaf of Respect’ to hang on the Tree of Respect in the school hall. At the end of each term, book prizes are awarded to the children from each class who have achieved the highest number of Leaves of Respect during that term, and at the close of the year ‘Hugh’s Award’ (donated by Mr and Mrs Tom Wigley in memory of their son Hugh, a past pupil) is presented to the child in the school who has collected most Leaves within the academic year.

 

Classes which have achieved particularly high standards of behaviour, or a full week of attendance and punctuality for every child, will be given a treat which may be going to Imperial Park, across the road from the school, for an additional playtime on a Friday afternoon. In addition, each class operates its own special in-class reward scheme for good behaviour decided between the teacher and the children at the start of the year. Raffle tickets to earn a small reward, or ‘marbles in the jar’, are particularly popular with the children and their chosen rewards for a full jar of marbles have recently included a pyjama party, a ‘bring your bear to school day’ and a ‘pirate afternoon’.

Minor infringements of the Golden Rules are dealt with immediately and lead to set sanctions, the majority of which remind the children of their responsibilities and discourage any further escalation. Any more serious misbehaviour will be recorded in the appropriate book (playground, classroom or lunchtime) and the child will be expected to write (or dictate if too young to write) a reflection on the Golden Rule which they have transgressed and why they chose to behave in that way, using a ‘Golden Rules sheet’. On the rare occasions where a child’s behaviour gives serious cause for concern, parents or carers will be brought into school for discussions and appropriate further advice may be sought from the Local Authority’s Behaviour Support Team.

We are very proud of our children’s behaviour, which is consistently graded ‘outstanding’, and is frequently commented upon by visitors to the school and also by members of the public when we are on visits and outings, and particularly on the Year 4 Residential Field Trip.