Culture of Excellence

Culture of Excellence in St Michael's Academy

"Classroom Climate covers the quality of interactions between teachers and students, and teacher expectations: the need to create a classroom that is constantly demanding more, but still recognising students’ self-worth. It also involves attributing student success to effort rather than ability and valuing resilience to failure (grit)."

Robert Coe, 2014  

"Only rewards that promote the repetition of specific actions contribute to habit formation.”   

Wood and Neal, 2016, p.75

"Reinforcement programmes based on students gaining rewards can be effective when part of a broader classroom management strategy."  

Classroom Management: Positive Reinforcement by Chandra Williams  

 

What is St Michael’s Culture of Excellence?  

• Building a culture of celebrating success – a proud to achieve/have a go attitude.  

• Developing students' confidence in communicating about their learning.  

• Developing the language of learning.  

• Giving opportunities at different levels opportunities to promote success and resilience.  

• Providing students with opportunities to share their learning experiences.  

• Raising the profile of learning within the different curriculum areas.  

• Celebrating success with parents, carers and community.   

What is What Went Well Wednesday?  

Celebrating a successful learning culture.  

A stall is set up in the school LRC on a Wednesday lunchtime.  
  
Students are to bring a piece of work that they are proud of.  
They are asked to have a conversation about their learning and answer three questions: 
    
What have you learnt?  
Why did you have to learn about it?  
What are you most proud of?   

 

Students get a sticker on the piece of work they have brought so that their teacher knows they are proud of it. A sticker also goes into their learning passport for that subject area. They then get to choose an instant reward. When students have a full learning passport for all subjects, they can hand it in for a consistent reward.   
  
Instant reward:  St Michael’s stationery or a chocolate bar.  
Consistency reward: £15 voucher. 

What are Curriculum Champions Awards?  

Curriculum Champions Awards are awarded on a weekly basis. All staff can nominate (to their curriculum leader) any student who has shown excellence within their learning in that specific subject. The winners of the award are announced via a PowerPoint slide that is shared with tutors/students every Friday. These awards are to promote excellence within different subject areas.    

  
Instant reward:

Certificate from the subject. 
Hot chocolate with the head teacher.  

 

  

What are Virtue Awards?  

Virtue awards are given out every lesson to reward students for showing excellence in their learning.  Virtue awards are linked to the Trust Virtues- Respect, Responsibility, Compassion, Honesty, Self-belief, Confidence, Resilience, and Justice.  If a student has shown one of the virtues identified in Class Charts, then they get a virtues sticker, and a virtues award goes onto Class Charts. Every Friday, the virtue awards are announced via a PowerPoint slide in registration.  

These are the following virtue awards: 

 

Respect – Have shown respect for the classroom learning environment.  

Have shown respect for staff members/peers.  

Have shown respect in the presentation for their work.

 

Responsibility - Have shown responsibility for their own and other's learning.  

Have shown responsibility in preparation for the lesson.  

Have shown responsibility for engagement within the lesson.  

  

Honesty – Have shown honesty in addressing gaps in knowledge.  

Have shown honesty for putting 100% effort into their learning.  

Have shown honesty in asking for help when struggling.  

  

Confidence – Have shown confidence in attempting challenging work.  

Have shown confidence in taking responsible risks in their learning.  

Have shown confidence in being proud of their learning.  

  

Resilience – Have shown resilience in completing a challenging piece of work. 

Have shown resilience for having a growth mindset.  

Have shown resilience in developing new ways in which to learn.  

  

Justice – Have shown justice for keeping a positive learning environment.  

Have shown justice for correcting another student’s behaviour.  

Have shown justice for fostering a classroom of conscience.  

  

Compassion - Have shown compassion by demonstrating warm, patience and kindness to all. 

Have shown compassion to understand that students learn at different paces. 

Have shown compassion to understand that all students have different talents/skills.  

  

Self-Belief – Have shown self-belief when answering questions about their learning.  

Have shown self-belief when completing independent work.  

Have shown self-belief when volunteering for in-class/afterschool/extracurricular activities.