Rewarding Good Behaviour

[Guest]

Hi,

 

We are looking at ways in which we can reward good behaviour for all of our children. How do you do it in your nursery's?

We were thinking of giving the children a jar to fill with marbles and maybe some sort of a personal chart for the children with more challenging behaviour as well as a marble jar???? How often would you let them have a reward and what sort of a reward? Would love to hear your ideas. Thank You.

 

 

 

[Upsy Daisy]

I find that the most effective method is modelling the behaviour you want to see and then acknowledging the children who follow suit.

 

If, for example the children are all standing waiting to go somewhere I would stand still with my hands by my sides then look for a child who was doing the same. Id then say "Thank you xxxx for standing so nicely with your hands by your sides, waiting patiently" then I'd 'notice' others who decided to do it too, culminating in a comment about how everyone is standing so beautifully and then point out a natural good consequence like perhaps how nice it is because that means we were ready really quickly and will have more time to do xxxx or maybe because they are all being so sensible today we will be able to do have some extra time on the xxxx(something they all enjoy).

I always try to acknowledge the good immediately and remind them of the natural consequences of their behaviour.

[Beau]

I would avoid any sort of system that becomes too routine and is another burden on staff.

 

My daughters secondary school has a reward system - pupils get an 'ERA' for exceptional work or behaviour. However, my daughter always produces a good level of work and keeps her head down in class and gets on with her work. Consequently she rarely gets an ERA. Also, the teachers tend to give out a flurry of them towards the end of term when they realise they have forgotten to do so through most of the rest of it (I think teachers have a 'quota' that they are meant to hand out). The children all know that these have very little real value in terms of acknowledging their achievements because of the poor way it is executed. The same thing happened throughout Primary school as well.