Families will be aware that we started a School House system at the end of the last academic year. There are four House Teams and these have been named after our four Christian Values of Hope, Community, Perseverance and Compassion. Each child has been allocated a House. House points will be awarded to the children for showing ‘Respect’, following school ‘Rules’ and ‘Routines’ and taking/showing ‘Responsibility’.

• Respect
  House Points can be won by children who are polite, show respect for themselves, for property and especially for others. They use good manners and treat everyone in our school community with respect including visitors.
• Rules
  House Points can be won by children who observe our school rules, they look after our school, are polite and friendly to everyone, walk in school, always try to tell the truth, try to do their best in everything they do, listen to other people’s point of view and demonstrate good behaviour outside school and in our community.
• Routines
  Points can be awarded by staff observing children carrying out routine tasks such as lining up properly. It is not to be a one off occurrence – children should be seen to do this on a number of occasions with ‘perseverance’ being seen to be part of the task.
• Responsibility
  Children can win House Points for taking on responsibility in school. They may look after other children, be a good friend, look after the classroom or school, volunteer to keep areas tidy. They may decide to fundraise for charity or have academic/sporting success. Doing well in tests, doing homework well or reading at home for example may attract House Points. It is noted that trying hard is as important as getting the answers right and effort will also be rewarded.

Rewards

House points will not be deducted for negative behaviour as this policy is meant to be a positive team building experience. It is hoped it will encourage the children to inspire each other to win points and to build friendships throughout the school. The points will be added up each week in class on a Thursday and the information given to Mr Green by House Captains who will collect it from the class teachers in both classes. The secret count will be calculated at the end of each week and the winning house will win the cup with their coloured ribbons displayed. It will be presented in assembly, along with other possible rewards such as extra playtime for the Top House each Half Term. The results may be displayed on a roll of honour board.

In the beginning

Any member of staff and dinner staff can award points. Dinner Staff will have five points available to award each week – one a day to the best behaved child at lunchtimes. Points will be awarded verbally and will be recorded onto a graph displayed in all of the classrooms so the children can see where they are in the ‘race’ to get more points. A cup or shield will be awarded at the end of the year to the winning House. A Year 5 or 6 child will be elected as House Captain of each house.

Of course, our lovely children here at Naburn Primary have a long history of working together to improve our school and contribute to our local community. In 2017, our pupils raised funds for a defibrillator in the village. The children held cake stalls, collected money in buckets and generally raised awareness of this cause and Waitrose even chose us to be a Charity of the Month! They were then able to complete this project, with the help of a very generous grant from Wheldrake Ward Committee. The defibrillator is in  the old telephone box just outside school and while we had hoped we would never have to use it, it has helped to save a life. We are glad we could help to make our village a safer place.

After winning the CYC ‘Scoot to School’ Competition in Walk to School Week one year, our children chose a new scooter pod to park our scooters in and decided on a red and yellow pod because that will be bright and cheerful, just like our school. Here is the one of the pods in use!

They also helped to organise a ‘Buddy Bench’ to support anyone feeling a little sad or lonely. The bench is not used very much at all, but it is there if anyone needs it.

We hope that our new House system will encourage and inspire our young people to build on these excellent foundations, while demonstrating and celebrating our core Christian values of perseverance, hope, community and compassion. As a school we believe that it will encourage our children to play even more active and positive roles in the life of the school, to enjoy their learning, and to be justifiably proud of their achievements.