Giving Golden Time a new Polish
Four years ago, we agreed as a staff to adopt Jenny Mosely’s Golden Rules = Golden Time philosophy to underpin our positive behaviour strategy and we have been relatively happy with it’s success.
As with all things left unchanged though, they become routine rather than impactful. Staff, parents and children began to notice that the Golden Rules were becoming undervalued and Golden Time was really just a free playtime each week. It was time to reflect on what was happening, make some changes and make sure the Golden Rules and Golden Time shone brightly again.
During our INSET days in October, staff focussed on current research, education readings and their own professional experiences and, as a team, we identified what was and wasn’t working and strategies for implementing positive changes.
We agreed:
- We are very lucky to work in a school where the behaviour of the children is so positive so often;
- We will keep the Golden Rules and the shared language;
- Children do not choose to be ‘naughty’, negative behaviour is usually a call for help;
- Punishments have limited value because they don’t teach;
- Restorative justice processes are fair, correct behaviour issues and educate children about better choices;
- The traffic light system is very public, and can humiliate children and label them ‘naughty’ in the wider community. Having this label can then become a self-fulfilling prophecy and children begin to live up to the label;
- The ‘team spirit’ of the school needs more development, so that children work together, cooperate and support each other.
How does this impact on Golden Rules and Golden Time?
The emphasis is now on children demonstrating teamwork skills and collaboration as part of their class community. The celebration of weekly Golden Time is a class time where all students participate in a shared activity. Children encourage and support each other to follow the Golden Rules.
Weekly circle time is held and children are supported to express their feelings and develop strategies for helping each other and developing tolerance of difference.
Teachers and children are responsible for keeping their 30 minutes of Golden Time and where mistakes happen the class works together to fix it. Issues are addressed and discussed openly and it is the fixing of problems and working as a class which is celebrated.
Will my child be punished and miss Golden Time even when they follow the rules?
This will not happen. The class will not be punished for the negative actions of the few. Golden Time is lost when the class don’t work in harmony together and won back when they do. The reflection on how it was won back is where the key learning takes place and where the modifications towards more positive behaviour choices happen.
Of course, there will be times when individuals or small groups choose not to follow the rules. In these circumstances, these children are spoken to separately and privately. Agreements are made with the class teacher as to how their behaviour will change. Where improvements are not seen, consequence essays or conversations are used and these are communicated with parents so that teacher, parent and child can work together in a supportive partnership.
We ask that consequence essays are brought home, discussed, signed by parents and returned to school. In the rare case where this level of intervention is not successful, and a child is receiving multiple consequence essays, we will invite parents and child to a meeting with our AEN department to create a more detailed behaviour plan in order to support the child to make positive behaviour choices.
What is the new Golden Rule?
We have introduced a new Golden Rule; We speak our shared language. This rule is important in making the school an inclusive environment where everyone can play and learn together because everyone is speaking English and so can understand one another. Of course, at times children need to speak their mother tongue and this is especially true for new English language learners.
Children would never be punished for speaking their mother tongue but instead are encouraged to speak in English whenever they can.
We understand that all students at BISP are here because their parents have a commitment to them learning to speak in English. Practice is important, so maximising the time that English is used will accelerate the language development progress. Parents could also try to use English whenever they can too. Children not yet as confident in English would benefit hugely from hearing a parent trying to speak in English too. Modelling learning, taking risks and learning from mistakes is the best example we can set.
As with all change, we are going to run into some glitches and problems. However, we have made these changes in order to continue to provide a safe and secure environment for rigorous learning where we develop expert learners.
We welcome your feedback and look forward to your continued support in making BISP an ever improving learning environment. Questions can be addressed to:
Helen: hmunoz@bisphuket.ac.th
