1.  Behaviour Statement

At St Paul’s CE Primary School, we believe that all children and adults in our school community are important and should have every opportunity to flourish. In order to achieve this, we aim to provide an environment where everyone feels valued, happy and secure.  In the letter to the Galation’s, Paul makes a statement about behaviour that is reassuring and reflects our culture:

“God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.”

Galatians 5:22-23

It is our nature to be kind, something we celebrate and nurture in school. Importantly, we have a legal responsibility to ensure every child is safe and protected from harm. 

School vision link

Our expectation is that behaviour will be of the highest standards; we always aim for excellence. How we do that is by supporting children, either through the curriculum or with additional support, to understand themselves, how they behave and to understand others.  We believe strongly that school should be an exciting, vibrant place to be and that learning, whether it is academic or pastoral, should be filled with joyful experiences that remain with the child long after they have left and help guide them to make healthy life choices of their own beyond school.

At St Paul’s we believe that all children and adults in our school and community are important.   Our vision asks our children to understand others as well as themselves. We believe this is critical part of behaviour and understanding how personal behaviour can impact others.  

The policy is based on the following beliefs:

• Developing the whole child enables them to take responsibility for their own behaviour by promoting self-discipline and proper regard for authority.
• Providing a welcoming and friendly atmosphere in which the children will feel secure and develop the skills, will enable them to make the right choices.
• Encouraging good behaviour and respect for others aims to prevent all forms of bullying among pupils.
• Children need to know when they have been successful. Improved self-esteem leads to improved behaviour.
• Schools can and do make a difference to the personal development of the child.
• Praise and positive reinforcement is more effective than sanctions.
• Good behaviour for learning allows children to work and participate to their full potential
• Children should have equal access and opportunity to the curriculum.
• Effective links and co-operation between home and school are essential to success.

Aims and Expectations

It is a primary aim of our school that every member of the school community feels valued and respected. A Rights Respecting ethos is embedded and built upon. The school behaviour policy is therefore designed to support the way in which all members of the school can work together in a supportive way. It aims to promote an environment where everyone feels happy, safe and secure so they can achieve their full potential.

The UNICEF articles and rights remind us of the importance of strong behaviour within school;

‘Right to an education that develops talents and abilities.’ Article 29

The primary aim of the behaviour policy is to promote good relationships, so that people can work together with the common purpose of helping everyone to learn. This policy supports the school community in aiming to allow everyone to work together in an effective and considerate way.

‘Right to respect other people and be respected.’ Article 29

The school expects every member of the school community, adults and children, to behave in a considerate way towards others and uses rights respecting language to promote positive personal and social relationships.

‘Every child has rights.’ Article 2

Our policy aims to help children to grow in a safe and secure environment and to become positive, responsible and increasingly independent members of the school community and empowered active global citizens.

The school rewards positive behaviour, as it believes that this will develop an ethos of kindness and co-operation. Our policy is designed to promote behaviour that is in accordance with British values and global attributes, rather than merely deter anti-social behaviour.

Please see our full Behaviour Policy in the ‘Policy’ section; our policy complies with section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. 

House Points

Following the return to school after the pandemic we made the conscious decision to move towards a system that immediately rewarded children for their behaviour and learning.  Having had two highly disrupted years, it was felt that a new system would best support our learners' wellbeing and also provide a reactive, positive tool for staff to catch good behaviour. Learning from our partner school, Monken Hadley, we introduced a House Point system. 

Each child and family are placed into a house, along with each member of staff. 

Our house names are based on places of significance in the life of William Wilberforce, inspiring politician whose work set in motion the abolition of the slave trade. With money set aside by Wilberforce (who retired here in Mill Hill), the church and school were built.

The four houses do have a core school vision element attached to them that is the motto of the house with a focus statement word highlighted below:

• Westminster - Red - We aim for excellence
• Kensington - Yellow - We seek to understand ourselves and to understand others
• Mill Hill - Green - We value creativity, innovation and the joy of learning
• Cambridge - Blue - We are gaining a deeper understanding of the Christian Faith