Should we be concerned about over-using rewards?
Q: We have been using Circle Time and Peer Mediation for some time and I am concerned both about the possibility of overusing rewards and also about ensuring that some children (often the 'middle' ones), who are sometimes a little overlooked despite our best efforts, receive adequate recognition. We use structured reward systems with our more challenging children and it is often difficult for other children (and their parents) to understand the reasons behind these and to appreciate that some children need help and support in learning how to behave in the same way as other children need help with reading or maths. Because the behaviour of these more challenging children is so public and visible, then their rewards can be too. Although their peers are generally supportive and often involved in setting up and sharing the rewards themselves, there are occasions when being convincing about fairness is hard. I would really appreciate your comments.
Jenny: Those headteachers who have worked with myself or my team and are using Golden Time properly (and many schools aren't - as it can become a bit of old rusty time at the end of a Friday afternoon when a teacher marks her books)!! - will tell you that Golden Time, if it follows our precise recommendations, can meet the needs of all 'middle plodder children' i.e. all the children who may not distinguish themselves through particular academic efforts or particular behaviour, but merely, every day do something very wonderful which is just to keep to the rules of the school. In fact they create the ethos of the school in which everyone may flourish. This is why we promote Golden Time - as every child walks in on a Monday morning sparkling with it. They don't have to earn it - they merely have to keep the Golden Rules - and then the teacher doesn't have to remember who they are (as she/he will only have kept a list of the ones who have lost it). Therefore, all the others must have kept the rules and then Golden Time must be golden.
Any child who does not lose Golden Time automatically receives a Golden Time certificate sent home to their parents or carers. In this way the message of the school is that 'we value all our middle children and celebrate them loudly' (you can now get the pads of golden time certificates and these save the teacher a lot of time and trouble). Your difficult unhappy children may well receive other golden leaves, stickers, badges etc. but they will not be able to earn the Golden Certificate as that is only for children who keep the Golden Rules every day. I hope this helps.
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