At Balfour Primary School we have high expectations of behaviour and personal achievement for all our pupils. This is established by providing a caring and stimulating environment. Pupils are encouraged to be independent, develop self-control and show respect for others.

Our Values: 

• We are Reflective  

• We are Respectful 

• We are Responsible  

• We are Resilient 

Our House Teams:

• Marcus Rashford- Red – Equality in access to food- Fareshare  

• Greta Thunberg- Green- Eco Awareness – Reducing waste and carbon footprint 

• Malala Yousafzai – Yellow - Equality in education; especially for girls 

• Boyan Slat – Blue – Ocean Awareness - Supporting cleaner oceans/prevention of pollution 

 

Our Growth Learning Climate:

As a school we have linked our four values and growth learning attributes to make them a daily focus of lessons and a consistent language and dialogue between staff and children. We expect our staff to be strong role models of growth learning and to share how they continue to learn new things and use these growth behaviours, even as adults!

 

Our Growth Learning behaviours will be displayed in classrooms on the Growth Learning Climate tree.

Every class will personalise which Growth Learning behaviours they feel they need to focus on.

The Growth Learning behaviours will be displayed on apples, which can be placed onto the tree.

As part of recognising learning as developmental and to avoid cognitive overload, we have asked year groups to select a specific amount of growth learning behaviours to focus on each term.

Positive classroom management:

Personalised Behaviour Goal 

Each week the class teacher, in consultation with the children, will decide on a class behaviour goal. The goal should come from a low-level behaviour which the teacher and children feel needs to be improved. This could be listening on the carpet, putting hands up before answering, not talking whilst someone else is talking or anything which they feel would be appropriate for their class.  

The teacher will write their goal onto the ‘We are learning to…’ trunk of the Growth Climate tree. The teacher will then reinforce this goal to the children throughout the week and children who are meeting the goal will have their name moved onto the trunk. The focus of the goal should be around positive reinforcement and children can be reminded that it is a whole class achievement.  

Celebrating Positive Behaviour at Balfour:

Positive reinforcement at KS1 and KS2 

• Marbles in a jar – Teachers at KS1 often use this strategy to support with team work and celebrating whole class achievements. It reinforces to the children that they are a team, and their choices and behaviour can impact others in a positive way.  

• Growing Learner Certificates- Teachers celebrate weekly a child who is growing as a learner, in line with our Growth Climate aims.  

• Growth learning stickers – These can be given to children who demonstrate a growth learner behaviour.  

• Showing learning to a member of SLT- Teachers celebrate learning or changes to attitudes in behaviour by sending the child to a member of the Senior Leadership Team to receive praise for their efforts.  

• ‘We are learning to…’- Teachers recognise the child is demonstrating the learning behaviour that is being focused on for the week by moving their name onto the tree trunk.  

• Table points/Team points – Teachers at KS2 often use this strategy to support with team work and celebrating whole class achievements. It reinforces to the children that they are a team, and their choices and behaviour can impact others in a positive way. 

House Teams - Whole school community approach in promoting positive behaviour:

We strongly believe in the whole school working as a team in providing a positive learning climate for our children to thrive in. We have created four new house teams, with representatives who we feel share our school ethos. All of our staff and children are allocated to a house team and are motivated to work together to achieve as a team.  

The children can receive house points for: 

• showing fantastic efforts in learning and achievement 

• acting as a role model to others for positive behaviours 

• being a supportive and encouraging member of Balfour’s community 

Just Right – emotional regulation:  

As a school, we have used Just Right for a number of years with great success in supporting our children who struggle with emotional regulation. This is something that we will continue to use and embed into our classroom practice.  

The colour coding replaces the need to use a lot of complex words to describe emotions. We find that children are able to point to their zone and this supports staff in recognising what they need to do to support the child.  

For children who are identified by the class teacher and inclusion team as benefiting from a Just Right tower, we ensure that the child is fully aware as to how to use this to help them communicate. Discussions are also held with the child to support them in recognising their triggers and to identify what helps them to return to green zone. These are then personalised for each child.