Learning & Behaviour
We take a positive and proactive approach to supporting our children to develop positive attitudes to learning, which in turn helps promote positive behaviour.
Promoting positive behaviour
Ensuring that learning is interesting, exciting and motivating is our most important tool in supporting positive behaviours. Our children are self-motivated and love coming to school; they want to learn and they understand that they are valuable members of our community. We do not use external reward systems to motivate good behaviour (e.g. stickers, house points, certificates); instead, children are intrinsically motivated to want to make the right choices because they understand their rights and responsibilities, and because they actively and willingly want to engage in the learning opportunities on offer. We trust our children and give them responsibility both around school and in their learning.
Approach to behaviour
At Ridgeway, it is important that every member of the school community feels valued and respected, and that each person is treated fairly and well. We are a caring, inclusive community, whose values and culture are built on mutual trust and respect for all. Our school has high expectations of behaviour and our approach to behaviour is designed to ensure that everyone, children and adults alike, feel safe and happy and have the opportunity to learn, achieve and be successful.
At Ridgeway everybody has the right to:
- feel safe, happy and secure in school at all times
- be able to learn and play without threat or disruption from others
- know that bullying is unacceptable and will be dealt with
- be respected, listened to and treated fairly and sensitively
It is the responsibility of everyone at Ridgeway to ensure these rights are upheld in every classroom and around the school, and that we support children to know their rights and understand their responsibilities in upholding them. Our whole-school expectations are built on children’s responsibilities towards others, learning and the school environment, with staff and families working together to promote and explain these responsibilities to children.
We ensure there are clear and consistent high expectations for behaviour and all of our staff model the behaviours we expect from the children. Children are involved in discussing behaviours they want in their class and around school, and are listened to and given the opportunity to discuss issues relating to their behaviour in the future and learn from their mistakes. We use Zones of Regulation to support children’s awareness of their own emotions, empowering them with the language and strategies to manage their feelings effectively. You can read more about the Zones of Regulation here:
It is important that children understand that some behaviours are unacceptable, such as those that affect or threaten the rights of others. When things do go wrong, we seek to support children to take steps to ‘put it right’. We understand that behaviours are manifestations of emotions, and it is our role to find out the reasons behind any negative behaviour, so we can put steps in place to prevent it from happening again. We take time to listen and talk to children to find out what is going wrong, and support them to Discuss, Reflect and Put it Right, involving families where needed to ensure a joined-up approach. Consequences are used as necessary and are always meaningful, appropriate, easily understood and aim to put things right and restore relationships. Children are never humiliated or shamed by adults in our school community and are reassured that in rejecting aspects of their behaviour, we are not rejecting them.
Some children will need extra support and an individualised approach to behaviour, with reasonable adjustments taken for children with SEND.
You can read the Governors' Written Statement of Behaviour Principles in our full Behaviour Policy here.