Is Golden Time still the best reward system?
Q: I am head of a Junior School and two years ago one of your trainers worked with us to develop improved systems of Circle Time and behaviour management - best thing we ever did! We implemented Golden Time and have been consistent in our use of this strategy alongside the Golden Rules. We revisit regularly, review progress. Is Golden Time still the best reward system? Have you developed any other rewards?
Jenny: Thank you for your warm words – I have a great team of consultants and I know that they really make a difference. We invest a lot of time working with whole school staffs on raising their energy levels and developing their own self esteem first – otherwise it is almost impossible to help them respond positively to challenging pupils.
Golden Time certainly reduces teachers stress levels as they do not have to use up all their energy by being cross or disappointed, they can just calmly put down a warning card. Some of the issues here have been answered in other questions here, so please see this as additional information.
I think that the core system of Golden Time is the very best system there is, but it needs constant overhauling and shining up to make it truly sparkly. We constantly have review circles with pupils to have a round of ‘one thing that would make Golden Time better’. We do need to bring in different people from the community to celebrate – Sixth Formers too can come in and work with the pupils – learning mentors can come in and play football during Golden Time, it needs to be the most exciting weekly community effort. Golden Time Certificates are the key as well as these constantly reinforce with parents the importance of the Golden Rules as these are printed on the certificates.
Some schools move on to creating Golden Time clubs (once children get used to making wise choices). The only thing you have to watch there is that you don't put the children who lose Golden Time into a separate room – as this will become the Sin Club which some children with low self esteem subscribe to as it gives them a temporary notoriety. You need to make sure that the empty table with the sand timer is in the actual club that the child would have attended if they hadn’t chosen to lose that privilege. Don’t forget that we try and help children back from the brink of losing it by talking through how they can use their Earning Back Contract. We need to see if there are any children beyond this approach (very few)…there are some children who need some extra therapeutic support.
Regarding your question if there are any other incentives – we do use a range of parallel incentive systems – these are best described in Turn Your School Round pages 28 to 32. Amongst these are the Happy Family Tree – it is one of my favorites. You can either use a real branch into a pot or cut out a tree and put it on a wall – the children receive golden leaves for any golden rules they have kept such as being gentle or honest…so many golden leaves can lead to a golden acorn and three golden acorns leads to a red squirrel…isn’t life abundant and amazing!!!
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