Taunton
Self-efficacy
All teachers had removed all rewards. In one school the headteacher was persuaded to remove them for the whole school. A letter went out to all parents and only one came back with a reply. Children do not miss them, there is less pressure on teachers and with training given, TAs quickly came on board.
Two teachers kept the golden book but children were made aware that they will all be in this at some time. Teachers are now giving more meaningful feedback to children rather than simply giving a reward. Children like to give their reasons as to why they are in the golden book.
Two teachers had a random ‘bird of the day’ (monitor for the day) as a fun event.
All teachers had scaffolded how children could give feedback to one another. There are now more established conversations between children and there is greater language acquisition.
All teachers had no ability groups apart from phonics and reading. All other lessons have random partners.
All teachers had shown pictures of the brain, marvellous mistakes and PETI. Children’s learning language is developing through these.
One teacher has ‘celebrate/evaluate’ time.
Encouraging peer praise has been really important in my Y1 class. One way to do this has been using the gallery approach, giving children the opportunity to praise each other using explicit language, modelled by adults.
George Turnbull – Ruishton primary