Praise over criticism

If you know Moorside, you’ve probably come across this catch phrase of ours. It lies at the heart of how we try to motivate students and is a basic principle in our behaviour policy or DFL as we call it.
 
Praise over criticism sounds great, doesn’t it?
 
But it’s very hard to put into practice.
 
And to be honest, and please keep this to yourself, the student council say that we’re not very good at it. They say that they like lessons where the teacher sets a positive tone by using encouraging language and voicing praise for jobs well done. They think that good teachers give them a warm welcome and use our merit system in every lesson and that a consequence is a much better climate for learning.
 
As much as I don’t like to admit it, they must have a point, so I’m thinking of asking the Teaching and Learning Focus Group to prioritise praise over criticism for the rest of the school year to ensure that far more of Moorside lessons are as positive as the pupils want.
 
Bu just in case you think that I’m running the Consett equivalent of Dotheboys Hall, I want to say a few words in staff defence.
 
There’s definitely a link between achievement and motivation and that’s why we have a well developed system of merit points and awards which students can collect throughout the year. It’s a good system of praise and we even differentiate it for year 11. They have to work very hard so we put them on a special tariff which means that they automatically amass merits for meeting their learning targets, attending revision classes and good behaviour and attendance. Sixteen year olds tend to be a bit wacky, so we try to organise reward events for them which appeal to the teenage sense of irony.
 
Let’s take last night as an example.
 
Year 11 are doing well at the moment so we took over half of the year group out for a treat in Newcastle. At 3.05 pm they walked out of school to find an old fashioned, London Routemaster double decker bus waiting for them (and thanks to Elaine Robinson for tracking it down) and this conveyed them (slowly) to the Quayside with a restive queue of traffic behind it all the way to Gateshead. And yes we did have a sing song on the top deck with Hannah Collingwood as choir mistress who led raucous renditions of The Wheels on The Bus, Summer Holiday and, bizarrely, YMCA. We were dropped off at the Millennium Bridge for a photo opportunity and then walked in the rain to Uno’s Trattoria for pizza or pasta and soft drinks. The other customers looked devastated when all 63 of us marched in on their “the weekend starts here” glass of wine but they needn’t have worried. The students’ behaviour was excellent and they made me feel proud. Then back on the bus to Consett.
 
And they all thanked the six staff who gave up their Friday evening to accompany them.
 
So praise over criticism works both ways.