Mr T Mockridge – Praise

• Mr Mockridge shared the latest research on praise systems with the parent council and discussed the personal research that he had been undertaking into praise with the student council.
• Mr Mockridge discussed the information relating to praise that had been derived from the ‘pupil pursuit’ observations across the school.
• Mr Mockridge discussed further work that he had undertaken before he proposed the changes to the school praise policy, including: reviewing and auditing current rewards policy; research into praise and rewards systems in education; collecting feedback from Department Heads on any department specific rewards policies; surveys with targeted students to gain more general student feedback on the current rewards policy; reviewing current rewards budget for praise systems.
• Mr Mockridge shared the current system for praise in the school such as house points, super 7 and super 7 lounge.
• Mr Mockridge shared quotations from academics who have studied effective praise systems and drew out the following key ideas:
• Effective praise specifically describes positive behaviours
• Praising Effort Rather than Intelligence Fosters a Growth Mindset
• Praising Positive Behaviour for Learning has a ripple effect
• Praise enhances memory
• Mr Mockridge discussed what current heads of department are doing and what students have said about how they feel about praise within the school.
• Mr Mockridge explained the SIMS system for issuing praise and discussed the move towards ‘conduct points’ which take into consideration student negative and positive behaviours to allocate an overall ‘conduct score’.
• Mr Mockridge then outlined 5 areas for development based on his research and findings within the school. He explored the draft new policy with parents and it was felt that the new policy would be a ‘significant improvement to the older policy’. He discussed new rewards structure and the inclusion of automatic praise for student attendance.

Actions arising:

• The parent council would like a tour of the school in the next meeting.
• Mr Mockridge would return to the parent council to talk through the final policy and how it is being implemented when it is launched across the school.