Our Approach to Behaviour

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Our Approach to Behaviour

At Castle Hill, we have a restorative approach to behaviour management and our approach is based on having just 3 rules.

We are Ready.

We are Respectful.

We are Safe.

We believe that appropriate behaviour should be taught and modelled and the foundations for this are built on the positive relationships that we build with our children.

All adults in school are trained using ‘Pivotal’ approaches to behaviour and this is underpinned by five ‘Pillars of Pivotal Practice’.

These are:

1. Consistent, calm adult behaviour.

2. First attention for best conduct.

3. Relentless routines.

4. Scripting difficult interventions.

5. Restorative follow up.

We praise in public, we reprimand in private.

We have been recognised by Pivotal Education for having these pillars embedded into our school and in September 2019, we were awarded ‘Silver’ award status.

Our Approach to Positive Behaviour

Our three houses; Framlingham, Eye and Orford ensure that all pupils and staff belong to a team. We use our team approach so our children and staff know that their positive attitude and behaviour is for more than individual recognition as it is for the good of all. Pupils will be awarded House Points for demonstrating being Ready, Respectful and Safe.

All classrooms at Castle Hill have a recognition board. This is updated weekly and will demonstrate a key learning behaviour which is the focus for that class that week. All children should receive recognition during the week for showing that learning behaviour consistently. Once earned, this recognition cannot be withdrawn. The only names any visitor would see displayed in the classroom are of those children who have demonstrated positive behaviours.

As well as this, we anchor good behaviour through a range of reinforcements such as;

• sincere, precise and timely, verbal and written praise,

• positive recognition through class and school achievement awards such as our ‘Learning Knight’ recognition, Headteacher awards and ‘Spotlight’,

• Hot Choc Friday,

• positive notes home,

• positive phone calls home.

Our first attention is for best conduct.

Our positive approaches are based on understanding that pupils are learning how to manage themselves with the added complexity that they are doing so within a community of other learners who might not yet be skilled. This clearly suggests that triggers and challenge will arise, which will need to be managed. Children will be supported in self-regulation and this represents that good learning has taken place.

Restorative Practice

We understand that children will, at times, make poor choices and our restorative approach gives children the opportunity to learn from these. Therefore, following an incident, the adult involved will have a restorative conversation with the child based around 5 key questions:

1. What happened?

2. What were you thinking at the time?

3. What have you thought since?

4. How did this make people feel?

5. Who has been affected?

This is the point when there will be an agreement between the pupil and adult about what should happen as a consequence. It is important that any consequences are developmentally appropriate and are designed to support children to learn about both their physiological response to challenge and difficulty and how better to manage this in the future.

The Castle Hill Way

We believe in equity. Our differentiated response to behaviour recognises that our children are unique and individual and that some will require additional support in order to achieve the high expectations we have for behaviour for all children. We aim to actively promote high self-esteem and high aspirations for all pupils, through an ethos that values every child. For children, being able to manage and understand their emotions, to apply thinking between feeling and action, and to increasingly show empathy and understanding to others is core to our work.

For more information, please see our Behaviour and Relationship policy on the Statutory Information page.