What did the school look like before relational practice?
- We had a lot of inconsistencies in the way in which we managed behaviour across the school.
- The perception was that there was no Behaviour Policy.
- There was no culture of recognition.
What triggered the change?
- Principal Survey in which parents said they felt their children were not being recognised enough.
- Staff Survey where concerns were raised about a lack of consistency and no visible Behaviour Policy.
What were the expectations/hopes?
- An improved culture which all stakeholders bought into.
- A consistent approach to both recognition and reflection.
- A recognition approach built upon the values of the school.
What happened – what have you done, how did it pan out?
- Pilot of a new, whole Primary school recognition system.
- Pilot of an approach to reflection and restorative conversations.
- Regular feedback from all stakeholders of the school, including parents, staff and students.
- Introduction of a code of conduct that underpins the Recognition and Reflection approach.
- A policy review to update the Behaviour Policy and ensure it is aligned with our changes.
- Introduction of Peer Nominations to promote collegiality and team-ship.
- Regular training for staff.
What was easy, what was hard?
- Implementing the recognition system was relatively easy once we had classes who were happy to pilot
it. - Asking for feedback was easy as it required a simple Google form.
- Interpreting the feedback was hard because you naturally want it to succeed and have your own bias!
- Making it stick has been hard because you cannot let it rest, you have to be relentless in making
connections in your school context. - Seeking student voice has been easy, consistently making sure this is meaningful and not tokenistic has
been hard.
Where are you now?
- I think we are doing well, but we still have a lot more growth and there is always more that we can do.
- We have a high number of new staff this year due to our campus expansion, so building connections
with them is imperative at the moment.
What advice would they give to others?
- Don’t let it drop!
- Keep referring to your recognition approach in newsletters, assemblies, INSETS, class visits,
performances, school trips etc! - Give it back to the students where possible through Peer Noticing etc.
- Be consistent but listen and respond to feedback. You will need to re-iterate over and over again.