“Well done for not punching anyone!” The irony of behaviour reward systems.

As well as being a PE teacher, I am also a year 7 form tutor. Previously, I have only been involved with KS4 forms, so this is the first year I have truly seen first hand the impact of the whole school reward system (it is not used at all with KS4 students). At the time of writing this, the student in my form with the most yellow stickers (awarded for outstanding work or improved attitude behaviour) happens to be the same student who has the most negative behaviour entries, including a short-term, temporary exclusion to his name. Herein lies my biggest issue with our school reward system, and is the primary reason why I have set out to create a staff working group designed to completely revamp the system we use. As the tongue in cheek title of this post suggests, there is an over-representation of rewarding naughty students simply for not being naughty.

Joining in – is it ever OK?

Let me start by being completely transparent – I am aware AfPE guidelines dictate that joining in with students in PE lessons is a no no, largely due to safety and liability reasons. However, my aim in writing this post is to suggest the situation should not be so black and white, and in fact there are several scenarios within PE that I believe it is something that can benefit the students we teach.