Consequences

The Barrow Hedges Reminder, Warning, Consequence System was designed so that a consistent approach to tackling unacceptable behaviour is used by teachers and teaching assistants. 

At the start of every teaching session, the teacher will set expectations for good behaviour, for example: good sitting, good listening and making it clear as to if and when children should be working silently. If these expectations are not met, the teacher will use positive narration: focusing on what students are doing correctly and openly saying those things aloud to help motivate students. If the expectations are still not met by all, the teacher will use group correction (a verbal reminder to the whole group or a smaller group) with clear instructions requiring specific action. 

If positive encouragement and group correction do not work, staff will use the Reminder, Warning, Consequence system. The scripts below show the language and guidance that teaching staff at Barrow Hedges have been trained to adopt. Scripts 1, 2 and 3 naturally escalate (so if Script 1 fails to have the desired effect, Script 2 is used and so on). In EYFS, while the same system of scripts is followed, the language may be simplified so that it is age appropriate, e.g. ‘Fred, eyes on me/ looking eyes.’. 

Script one – Private reminder of the expected behaviour. eg: “Fred, this is a reminder that we face the front and listen. Thank you.”  

• Adults will use a firm but calm voice showing they are serious but in a non-confrontational way that might otherwise lead to a defensive response.  
• Adults will be assertive and avoid starting or ending with ‘please,’ end with ‘thank you’ instead. This carries an expectation that they will do as you have asked of them and helps support the idea that your request is not optional.  
• Adults won't ask ‘why?’ children are doing what they’re doing, as this can be confrontational.
• If a positive change in behaviour is seen, it will be acknowledged with a further ‘thank you’ or with a gesture (e.g. a smile or a thumbs-up).  
• Children will be given ‘take up time’ to think about their behaviour and respond. It may be desirable to deal with another task or child, to temporarily divert attention away from the child, and allow sufficient space and take-up time.  
• When the child is demonstrating a positive change, make sure to acknowledge that with praise: “Thank you, Fred, for... (e.g. walking/putting your pencil down/listening nicely...)” 

If the child’s behaviour doesn’t change after a reasonable take-up time, move on to the warning stage in Script 2.  

Script Two – Warning, e.g.: “Fred, I’ve reminded you to face the front and listen. This is now a warning that if you continue to talk, then you will miss 5 minutes of your play.”  

• Adults will remain calm, without any sense of agitation, while making it clear to the child that they are responsible for the consequences of their actions; that what has happened so far and what will follow is their choice.  
• Adults will need to ignore minor secondary behaviour, e.g. stomping about, muttering, or answering back – the most important thing is that the child has made the right choice about their initial undesirable behaviour.  
• Where appropriate, allowing a child to have the last word can help resolve or avoid further conflict and can also be valuable in helping you to role-model grown-up behaviour.  
• If the child chooses to do the right thing, then the adult must praise them for making the right choice. This will help them learn that it’s good to do the right thing and that the adult is pleased with their choice. Every child likes to be praised and acknowledged on the inside, even if they might not show it on the outside: “Well done/Thank you, Fred, you made the right choice.” 

Should you not see a positive change in behaviour, move on to Script 3.  

Script Three – The child will be informed that they are missing 5 minutes as a consequence.  

‘Fred, you have chosen not to follow our rules and will now miss 5 minutes of your break.’ 

• Should the child choose not to do as they have been asked, then the adult must follow through with the consequence. This is very important so that the child comes to understand that you mean what you say. Failing to be consistent in carrying out consequences that have been threatened quickly undermines the adults authority and indicates to the child that they need not listen to future requests for improved behaviour.  
• Once a consequence has been issued, it must be seen through. Adults will not cave in to protests, remove or reduce the sanction. If good behaviour follows, that will be rewarded separately, but the consequence will be maintained.  
• When a child has completed their 5 minutes of missed break, they will reflect with their teacher on their behaviour and say “Sorry, Mrs XX.” 
• If a child progresses through the Reminder, Warning, Consequence system during lunchtime, at this stage the child will be issued a yellow card and told to sit on a bench for 5 minutes.  

Script Four: Removal to another classroom (reinforce and depersonalise) / red card at lunchtime: “Fred, at Barrow Hedges we respect and listen so that everyone can learn, you need to go to Mrs X’s classroom now and be ready to listen when you get back.”  

• If the behaviour continues, the child will be sent to work in another class for the rest of the lesson (a guide for a Reception child is 15 minutes). Ideally within the same year group, but this may not always be possible. The child will take their learning with them. At this point, parents will be informed.  
• The member of staff who has been sent the child will not speak to them about their behaviour and will keep any communication to a minimum, simply directing to where they should sit.  
• If the child refuses to leave the classroom, a phone call will be made to the main office and a member of the senior leadership team will assist.  
• Repeatedly referring to whole school expectations (i.e. Core Values) can be very helpful in reminding children of an objective set of rules and values which never change. This approach indicates that the request is fair and consistent; it is simply what has always been and what will always be expected, rather than personal ‘against’ them. 
• If the child reaches this stage during lunchtime, the child will be issued with a red card and sent to the blue chairs to be spoken to by a member of SLT.

Lunchtimes at Barrow Hedges are an hour long for all children. While children obviously eat their meal during this time, at Barrow Hedges we also recognise this part of the day as being important for children’s personal development and wellbeing. Play keeps children fit and enables them to develop their ‘building learning powers’ and apply our values.

Positive Reinforcement and Awards 

As well as socialising with their peers, lunch breaks allow time for children to build familiarity with adults in school. We very much value the relationships children form with our Midday Assistants and the Teaching Assistants who supervise the playground during lunchtimes. Positive reinforcement and praise are integral in this. For this reason, Midday Assistants and Teaching Assistants can reward children with a Green Card to recognise where a child has displayed our values or ‘pro-social’ behaviours. 

Inappropriate Choices 

In order for lunchtimes to run safely and happily for all concerned, we have established rules that are applicable specifically to lunchtimes. We aim for any instances of inappropriate behaviour choices to be dealt with swiftly and effectively. Our Red Card System empowers the Midday Assistants and Teaching Assistants to provide an appropriate consequence in line with the misdemeanour and ensure children have time to reflect on their actions. Furthermore, this behaviour system allows for the involvement of senior leaders when this is necessary. 

Wherever they are at lunchtime, children are expected to adhere to the school’s values.

 Our specific lunchtime rules are: 

In the dining hall (or if eating in classrooms or other locations of the school) children must: 

• Line up in an orderly fashion 
• Say please and thank you and use good manners 
• Stay in their seats for the duration of their meal 
• Talk calmly to others, never shouting 
• Be gentle and not hurt others 
• Be kind and helpful and not hurt anyone’s feelings 
• Work together to solve problems, using words to express and explain, rather than actions 
• Clear away their own plates, cutlery and any waste, including from their lunchboxes 
• Walk sensibly and never run 

• Return their lunchboxes to the lunchbox trolley carefully and neatly 

In the playground, children must: 

• Learn and know the rules for how to use our playground and adhere to them 
• Be gentle and not hurt others 
• Be kind and helpful and not hurt anyone’s feelings. Play together and look after each other 
• Work together to solve problems, using words to express and explain rather than actions 
• Take care of our equipment and use it properly 
• Leave dirt and rocks on the ground 
• Ask to use, and behave sensibly in, the toilets, only going if needed (this is not a place to play or remain for a chat) 
• Tidy up after themselves 
• Stop playing when the bell goes, stand still and listen silently 
• Tell an adult if they are feeling sad and/or lonely 
• Tell an adult if someone is not following the rules 

In the classroom at wet playtimes children must: 

• Learn and know the rules given by the Class Teacher about how to use their own classroom 
• Be gentle and not hurt others 
• Be kind and helpful and not hurt anyone’s feelings 
• Play together and look after each other 

• Work together to solve problems, using words to express and explain rather than actions 
• Take care of our equipment and use it properly 
• Ask to use, and behave sensibly in, the toilets, only going if needed (this is not a place to play or remain for a chat) 
• Walk sensibly and never run 
• Tidy up after themselves 
• Stop playing at the end of lunchtime, sit silently and be ready for registration 
• Tell an adult if they are feeling sad and/or lonely 
• Tell an adult if someone is not following the rules 

If a child is not adhering to the rules above, then the Reminder, Warning, Consequence system will be used in the same way as the classroom. However, at the point of a consequence (Script 3), they will be given a 5-minute consequence on a bench in the playground. A Yellow Card will be filled in at this stage and given to the office at the end of lunch.  

This 5 minute time out is given to children in order to calm down, provide time and space between children and for reflection. 

Examples of behaviour choices and actions that may result in a child receiving a Yellow Card: 

• Deliberately disrupting other children’s play 
• Showing disrespect towards a Midday Assistant or Teaching Assistant – this includes verbal (e.g. answering back) and non-verbal behaviours (e.g. rolling of eyes) 
• Non-compliance 
• Throwing food on the floor and/or behaving inappropriately with food 
• Shouting and messing while eating, including being out of your seat 
• Pushing in the line 

• Entering the school building without permission 
• Being silly and/or loitering in the toilets 
• Unkind behaviour 
• Being silly with equipment or items 

If a child is not adhering to the rules above, and the behaviour displayed is of a more serious nature, a Midday Assistant or Teaching Assistant can issue a Red Card.  

Examples of behaviour choices and actions that will result in the immediate issuing of a Red Card include: 

• Physical assault 
• Threatening/aggressive behaviour 
• Derogatory/prejudice based language 
• Defiance 
• Swearing 
• Wilful damage/destruction of property* 
• Stealing 
• Using equipment or items dangerously or to cause harm 

*See also Charges and Remissions policy as to how damage costs may be paid. 

In the event of a child’s behaviour continuing after a yellow card (consequence) in the playground, the child will be issued a red card and asked to miss 15 minutes of their lunchtime by spending time on the blue chairs or in the Head, Deputy or Assistant Heads’ office. 

• If the adult is thinking of issuing a red card due to a serious incident rather than an escalation through the Reminder, Warning, Consequence system, the member of staff will ask the child to move away from the situation into an area of the playground or building which is quieter. The staff member will use neutral body language to avoid further aggravating the situation e.g., moving down to the level of the child and adopting open body language. Regardless of the child’s actions, the member of staff will remain calm and use a talking voice to speak to the child. Shouting is never acceptable. The member of staff will listen to the child and will not jump to conclusions.  
• If the child is unable to respond to the adult, the adult will give the child a 5-minute cool down until they are ready to articulate what happened.  If a staff member needs to communicate with another member of staff to explain a situation, then they will do this in private without the child being able to hear them. As above, the adult will not use emotive language to describe what happened but facts.  
• If after the conversation the situation is found to be serious, the lunchtime staff will issue a red card and involve SLT in resolving the situation. The child will be asked to miss 15 minutes of their lunchtime by spending time on the blue chairs or in the Head, Deputy or Assistant Heads’ office. Until they transition to Year 1, any Reception child who is given a Red Card will be separated from their peers but remain in the Reception area under the supervision of the Midday Assistants/EYFS staff. Any significant behaviour will be reported to the class teacher by SLT at the end of the lunchtime and logged by the admin team. In the event of a red card being issued, the investigating senior leader will contact parents as appropriate. 

Consequences from Yellow or Red cards at break or lunchtime may span across more than one lunch break, dependent on the time that the card was issued. If an incident occurs right at the end of playtime, then the whole ‘detention’ will be undertaken the following day. In all other respects, we treat a new day with a ‘fresh start’. Children will spend this time inside, with provision made for them to eat their lunch and have a comfort break. 

This time is given to children in order to: 

• maintain the safety of all pupils and to restore calm following a high level of disruption. 
• enable the child in question to regain calm in a safe space and be heard. 
• receive a consequence for their inappropriate choice(s) of behaviour and consider how to move forward. 

The Midday Assistants and Teaching Assistants will make decisions about the issuing of Yellow and Red Cards in a fair and consistent manner and with the children’s best interests at heart. Therefore, as with all adults in school, children must treat our Midday Supervisors and Teaching Assistants with respect. 

At the end of each lunchtime, Yellow and Red Cards are delivered to the office. A record will be kept of this information to allow us to track trends in behaviour at different times of the day and to provide support for children who are finding it hard to follow the rules of our playground. 

We want our children to learn from their experiences and to develop increasingly healthy, pro-social behaviour responses. It is therefore important to routinely encourage them (as appropriate in the circumstances) to use ‘The 3 Rs’: to reflect on what happened; to repair any damage (to themselves or others) and to restore (themselves and others) to their previous (or improved) good selves.  

Immediately following 5 minutes missed break time, children will have a reflective discussion with the adult who issued the consequence. Following removal from class and more serious incidents, or a red card, a child will always complete a reflection form and discuss this with an adult (apart from in EYFS where this will be verbal). Where a response to unacceptable behaviour still leaves a lasting impact for that child or for others, it will often be necessary to take formal steps to review how to learn from mistakes and restore relationships. This can include restoring relationships with other children as well as teaching staff or other adults. It also helps the individual(s) concerned to draw a line under the matter and move on. The process can only start when the individual(s) concerned is/are calm and ready to learn from the experience. It may take time and it may be something that an adult will have to come back to over a few hours or even days. The aim is to demonstrate that it is very possible to learn from a negative experience; to work out what went wrong and why; to make amends; and to help avoid it happening in the future. To support children to reflect on their behaviour, adults will use some or all of the prompts below; 

• What (in your words) happened?  
• What do you think the people involved were thinking and feeling at the time?  
• Who has been affected and how?  
• How can we put right the harm?  
• What have we learned to make a different choice next time? (Next time I will...)  
• What would you like to happen next?  
• How can we make things better for _______?  
• If everything was going to be OK, what would need to happen?  
• How can you help to put this right?  
• How can we make it OK for you to go back to your lessons/activities/friends?  
• What do you think ________ might need?