Bee Attitudes

Welcome to Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School.

As a Catholic School, our values and ethos underpin everything that we do, and we pride ourselves on the ‘family feel’ that you will experience here.  We firmly believe that our faith is central to all we undertake and that our central mission “Living and Learning in Faith” is reflected in all that we do.

Whilst it is not essential to be a baptised Catholic to attend our school, it is important that you are in sympathy with our ethos, and understand that our Catholic faith is strongly echoed in our Collective Worship, Masses, Liturgies and Assemblies.  Each classroom has a Prayer Focus, a small sacred space which is an integral part of our Collective Worship and RE provision.

 At Our Lady’s, we encourage positive behaviour which reflects our Mission Statement.  Our behaviour management approach is based on building strong relationships between adults and children.  The use of positive reinforcement strategies will always be our default approach.

We want all of the Our Lady’s family to live out our Mission Statement in their daily lives by following our core values, or ‘Bee Attitudes’.  These underpin our ethos and are drawn from the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12)

Bee Respectful

Bee Understanding

Bee Kind

Bee Forgiving

Bee Restorative

Bee Responsible

Bee Your Best Self

Our Behaviour and Discipline Policy is based on the belief that:

• Children have a right to learn and teachers have a right to teach in a classroom free from disruptive behaviour.
• Good behaviour is not automatically learned but needs to be taught and supported by parents.
• Classroom behaviour can change and that we as teachers can assist children to manage their behaviour more effectively.
• A child with problems is the school’s problem not an individual teacher’s problem.

 Aims

• For staff to project themselves as good role models, co-operating and supporting one another, and treating colleagues and pupils with courtesy, consideration and respect.
• For staff to have a high standard of pupil expectation in all aspects of work.
• For staff to try to raise the levels of pupils’ self-esteem.
• To provide a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum which is both interesting and relevant.
• To provide a varied range of teaching and learning styles to suit the needs of pupils.
• To provide an attractive learning environment and quality resources.
• To track pupil progress, set challenging though achievable targets and support children in achieving them, so that children know their efforts are valued and that progress matters.
• To encourage children to accept varying degrees of responsibility, both in and out of the classroom with the purpose of promoting independence, self-reliance and trustworthiness.
• To make provision for a happy working atmosphere in school by promoting the pastoral care of children, with staff giving support and guidance to each individual child.
• To consistently and fairly implement reward and sanctions systems.
• To encourage school/parental partnership, to promote children’s education and maintain standards of behaviour. 

We implement a range of Positive Strategies, including a Recognition Board, Bee Awards and Learner Interviews. 

All adults also look out for children who demonstrate Our Lady’s values and go ‘Over and Above’, showing that they are ‘Our Lady’s Ladybirds’.  Ways that children will be recognised for doing so include: Our Lady’s Ladybirds, Positive Praise Note / Letter Home from the Headteacher, Good News Phone Call, Our Lady’s ‘Bee Attitudes’ Award Certificates and Celebration Assemblies.

Restorative Approach

At Our Lady’s, we believe that nurturing and restorative practice, as well as high expectations, are key to building positive relationships.  Restorative meetings and/or conversations aim to help the child realise how their behaviour impacts others, teach what appropriate behaviour looks like and equip the child with tools they can use to avoid a similar incident occurring in the future.

Restorative Questions

These questions will be used to support restorative meetings and/or conversations.  All members of staff have a copy of these questions on their lanyard.  The Restorative Toolkit will be used in conjunction with these.

We have an agreed system of sanctions to register disapproval of unacceptable behaviour.  In the use of sanctions, children learn from experience to expect fair and consistently applied punishments which differentiate between serious and minor offences.  Sanctions are applied consistently by all staff, but with the provision for flexibility to take account of individual circumstances.  Sanctions for our younger children may include missing part or all of playtime, or working at the Time Out Table within the classroom.  If we have a specific concern regarding a child’s conduct, we will always communicate this with parents.

Please see our Behaviour and Discipline Policy for further information.