WWJD - Rewards & Sanctions (inc. Exclusion)

7 years ago, I submitted my MA dissertation. 

I completed a Masters in Catholic School Leadership at St Mary's early in my career, in part due to my school offering to pay in full. However, despite being relatively inexperienced, and before I had even secured a middle management leadership position, I learnt a lot, and I still refer to my findings years later. 

After tweeting a 'memory' of handing it in, I had a number of requests to read it. Somewhat hesitantly, I also went back to reread my conclusions to see how they had held up - I don't like reading my early blogs for a couple of years back, let alone seven! It also seemed topical, with exclusions one of the 'hot debates' with education at the moment. 

The challenge for Catholic school leaders in developing and implementing a system of rewards and sanctions is that of promoting Gospel-driven and Christ-led values. Thus, there is a need to balance the need for reconciliation alongside the need for sanctioning students while, at the same time, finding enough time and space to fully reward those students making a wide range of achievements.

Cole’s suggestion of creating an environment based on reward and praise was echoed by the responses of all students (Section 2.3; Daniels et al; 1998; 83 in Cole; 2005: 162). The creation of such an environment is a challenge to school leaders particularly in a school which has traditionally had a large number of rules and a far greater number of sanctions than it has rewards.

Catholic distinctiveness needs to pervade all areas of school community life from the School Discipline and Pupil Behaviour policy down to the individual interactions which take place in every classroom, corridor and playground. It needs to be led from the top, and be explicit in words, actions and spirit. Ensuring that this takes place creates varying difficulties, but if it is missing, the school can lose its distinguishing features as a Catholic community. There is a shared ownership and commitment to the common beliefs and goals of a community, and these should be made clear in policy and lived out by the stakeholders as they will hopefully reap the benefits. The students are the most important stakeholders in such policy decision making as they are the ones that need to feel comfortable and safe every day in school. As a Catholic community, this gains even greater importance over and above our legal obligations as set out in documents such as Every Child Matters (2003) and its successor Help Children Achieve More (2011).

Disengaged students must be a priority, as the outcasts were for Jesus. Those who are already disillusioned with the system currently in place whereby they feel they miss out on all rewards and receive disproportionate sanctions, or feel they work hard with little recognition. Additionally due to the way in which they often receive both the rewards and sanctions, they feel detached from their actual work and behaviour. A student may be pleased with a certificate received at the end of term, but maybe unaware exactly what they are being rewarded for. In a similar fashion, to receive a detention a week after an event has taken place, or due to a number of smaller indiscretions that build up, unbeknownst over the week.

Teachers need to be empowered as leaders, recognising their individual responsibility within the classroom. If this is not taking place, senior leaders need to offer support, but also challenge so that this does take place. If rewards are happening regularly in written, visual and aural forms, an environment of praise can be created engaging students and enabling them to work to their best of their ability and fulfilling their potential as individuals and images of God. Likewise if lower-level sanctioning takes place in this often intimate and more immediate environment, students can be offered greater guidance as to how to seek reconciliation and improve their behaviour in future.

The question of exclusion is a recurring problem for school leaders. Sometimes it can be essential for the greater good of the school community. The open and welcoming gestures modelled by Jesus need to be evident in the Catholic school. There must be a demonstration of forgiveness and reconciliation evident; no student must leave feeling excluded as a member of the Kingdom of God. Even if excluded, the student should have felt the love of the community and be given opportunities to repent. However, if

these are rejected by the student, then the school is given little opportunity, like the Rich Young Man who walked away from Jesus and the opportunity offered to him.

The number of rewards and sanctions on offer within a school community are vital, as are the numbers of each awarded. Leaders should be suggesting targets to staff if there is to be a culture of reward rather than sanction. It can be easier to focus on punishing students in order to create academic excellence and high standards of behaviour, yet as seen in this study students can end up feeling excluded and disengaged. They want rewards, and even those students regularly in detention appreciated and felt guided by rewards offered to them for their good behaviour. Additionally recognising that students are not ‘all bad’ and that even students who are often poorly behaved do do

praiseworthy work and actions on occasion.

Do I agree with all of this now?

I don't think behaviour targets are a great idea as such. I do think it is important to encourage staff to think carefully about how they can try to send positive emails and make positive calls, as well as the negative ones. However I freely admit, with limited time, this just doesn't often happen.

At this point, I was a little naive to some of the worst behaviour and disruption which happens in some schools. I was a little too kind in places, and for serious issues exclusion should not even be up for debate. I think Jesus would agree though; punishment (eternal) was a reality for those who wilfully and deliberately turned their back on God.

Rereading the whole dissertation, I still agree that often detentions can be ineffective. I do also agree the an 'internal exclusion' or isolation can be very effective. Some of the students with poor behaviour needed this deterrent and claimed it was the only thing that stopped them misbehaving at times. However I do now see how problematic it can become with reintegration, and how students end up in cycles due to getting behind in work. This can be overcome with good management. 

I still don't know how to do rewards well (without a huge budget!). The reward of the Gospel is in the next life... and I wonder if our students don't truly get the reward of good, disciplined schooling until the leave?  

Download my full MA dissertation