Rewards

Recognising positive contributions within the school is key to developing a strong sense of community at Netherhall.  We believe that by rewarding positive behaviours we will develop the best personal characteristics of our pupils, enabling them to make a beneficial contribution to the community they live in now, and in the future. We also believe that recognition is most powerful where it is genuine and personal. This is why the backbone of our rewards system are praise postcards. Each week, teachers will choose a few students who have impressed them with their contributions or actions and a personalised praise postcard will be sent home.

We will recognise the positive contributions made by students in all aspects of their day including during lessons and breaks, in clubs or societies and the wider community of the Queen Ediths, Coleridge, Cherry Hinton and Trumpington wards and beyond. Students can gain recognition for these contributions through their attitude to learning and achievement, behaviour in school and the wider community, attendance, effort and achievement in extracurricular activities and contributions made in the community. We believe this system helps recognise students for their successes and allows them to continue to be motivated to excel and to do the right thing.

The rewards structure is supported and reinforced through the Netherhall house system. Students are placed into one of four houses at Netherhall; Hobbs, Davies; Franklin and Soyinka – further information on the house system can be found in the tutor handbook. Tutors recognise attendance, behaviour, and readiness to learn and attendance and pupil achievements are celebrated through regular house assemblies across the year and the annual celebration evenings in the summer term.

We know that students enjoy the challenge that house competition brings, so during the term, we encourage healthy competition within and between the houses to build their own house identity and to encourage participation in different events. The outcomes of these competitions are shared with students regularly through our house assemblies. We encourage participation and positive behaviours through two different types of competitions, the ongoing competitions across the year including average attendance, the total number of points in the ‘Friday quiz’ and the total number of pride points. We also run discrete competitions across the year that are linked to either our PSHE curriculum or national events such as ‘Children in Need’ or our steps challenge aimed at increasing the amount of exercise the pupils do each day. Prizes are given to the tutor group that wins these intra-house competitions and the house that wins overall.

Netherhall has a wide range of rewards for positive contributions to the school as well as sanctions for use when students fail to meet the school’s behavioural expectations. In deciding what is an appropriate sanction for a particular incident/offence, the individual circumstances and the student’s background and previous record may be taken into consideration.