Learner Expectations

Promoting excellent behaviour at Queen Elizabeth’s

Our key principles are to:

• Enable all members of the school to be self-respecting, responsible and positive individuals with an enthusiasm for learning
• Encourage respect for all members of the community, such that every individual feels valued within a culture of tolerance and creativity
• Create a happy, safe and secure learning environment where the well-being of all is paramount and within which all can learn, develop their talents and achieve their very best

Queen Elizabeth’s aims to meet the needs of all members of our community by establishing standards of behaviour based on respect. We aim to promote an ethos that sets out high expectations of all students through developing high self-esteem in an inclusive community.

We aim to ‘teach’ students how to choose appropriate, responsible behaviour. It is our belief that a positive, assertive style of behaviour management can do this.

Students should feel safe, think through the consequences of their behaviour and be able to learn without being disrupted by others.

Queen Elizabeth’s aims to empower students by preparing them for a life beyond education. We therefore reserve the right to apply all aspects of this policy to students recognisable as QE students (not just by their uniform) even if they are outside of the school grounds or outside the usual hours of attendance.

Purpose:

1. To maintain a positive ethos by promoting respectful behaviours
2. To encourage everyone in the community to understand their responsibility to guide their behaviour by these principles at all times
3. To provide suggestions and support that help staff to manage their classes effectively, according to these principles
4. To ensure that student behavioural needs are identified early and that appropriate support is offered
5. To ensure that all staff administer rewards and sanctions in a staged way, fairly and consistently, while recognising that reasonable adjustments may be made based on identified needs
6. To emphasise the importance of promoting, celebrating and rewarding good behaviour
7. To ensure students understand how to behave well in school and in our community
8. To ensure students and parents understand the rewards and sanctions given and the principles on which they are based
9. To recognise the role that every adult plays in maintaining good conduct within the school to support learning
10. To set out clearly the systems which support staff in managing student behaviour

Consistent Expectations

Consistency is hard to achieve, but this is key when creating an effective learning environment. Students are less likely to push the boundaries if they know that what is expected of them will remain constant throughout the day: from one classroom to the next; one teacher to the next; one subject to the next; one learning environment to the next.

Maintaining a Positive Learning Environment

A positive learning environment is best maintained through focussing on and giving positive reinforcement of good behaviours and not through a confrontational approach to negative behaviours. At Queen Elizabeth’s we recognise this through the effective use of our staged reward and sanctions systems.

Staff make a commitment to ‘catch students being good’ as often as possible and reinforce this through non-verbal and verbal acknowledgement and praise, as well as using some of the more formal rewards available.

Staff also make a commitment to deal indirectly with some negative behaviours in this fashion too. An off-task student can often be redirected through praise of a neighbouring student who is working and behaving appropriately. When staff do feel the need to resort to formal warnings and staged sanctions they are committed to doing so in a calm, non-confrontational and professional manner at all times.

Ready to Learn

The aims of Ready to Learn are:

• To eliminate all disruptive behaviour, so that there is a scholarly culture where students take learning seriously and no learning time is wasted
• To provide clarity for staff and students about acceptable behaviour and the consequences of poor behaviour or behaviour that means students are not ready to learn
• To foster an environment of mutual respect amongst and between staff and students
• To encourage students to be self-motivated and responsible, independent learners who take responsibility for their own actions
• To enable teachers to deliver lessons that inspire, engage, challenge and support students to reflect on their learning in a positive learning environment free from interruptions

Ready to Learn is a whole school system which relies on all staff using it in a fair and consistent way.