Here at Preston Hedges we understand that alongside ensuring that our children gain strong academic knowledge, schools should also support the wider development of our future generations, supporting the development of the skills necessary to be a positive member of society.
Information:
Reward Schemes
Our School
Values & Reading Recognition
Values Rewards
Co-operation; Aspiration; Self Discipline; Respect; Resilience & Caring.
We believe that our six core values help our children develop and grow personally as an individual, while also promoting the fundamental skills and attitudes that allow them to work with and care for each other. Ultimately this helps them become a compassionate member of their local community and beyond. We base our school reward system around these values at three levels:
Level 1 (Whole School) – Class Gems: the children are awarded a specific class gem when they demonstrate a school value during the day. For example, a child could earn a Respect gem if they are seen holding a door for another pupil or adult. These are often awarded in line with the school’s expectations of behaviour and attitude to learning and are used to fill class jars. Once filled, the whole class get a reward for demonstrating their values consistently as a group.
Level 2 (Whole School) – Values Stickers: we award children with values stickers when they demonstrate a value in a way that stands out to an adult as above and beyond the school expectations – these can be one-off occasions and don’t need to be demonstrated over a period of time. The children will always be able to earn stickers, and they can earn the same sticker multiple times.
Level 3 (Reception to Year 2) – Values Certificates: children gain certificates when they have attained smiley face rewards for showing these values.
Level 3 (Year 3 – 6) – Values Badges: our Values Badges are awarded when children demonstrate a school value in an exceptional way. This often means they demonstrate it over a long period of time, in a way that shows they are an ambassador of that value as it is a consistent approach/behaviour. Children with these badges can be seen as role models to other children who wish to earn that badge.
In this way, Values Badges often take a long time to acquire, and it is usual for children to still be earning their badges in Year 6.
Here are some examples of the ways a child might earn a values badge:
Aspiration: This is awarded for fulfilling an aspiration – created by the children themselves at the beginning of the year. Children can nominate themselves when they can show that this is fulfilled.
Co-operation: Worked or played well with others in the school and co-operated with them considering different points of view. This will be demonstrated over time and is nominated by teachers or after-school staff.
Self-discipline: This is awarded for exceptional focus and commitment to learning over time and is nominated by teachers. Commitment over a prolonged period of time to out of schools sports training sessions can also count for this value. Children can nominate themselves for this with support from the sports coach.
Respect: This value is nominated by a teacher or other pupils about an individual’s polite and respectful approach towards others in all they do.
Resilience: Children and parents can nominate for this value for recovering from an operation, illness or a difficult time at home or in school. Teachers can nominate for this responding to adversity or challenges in learning over a period of time.
Caring: Children can nominate themselves for this value for charity-based work such as a sponsored activity to raise money. Teachers and children can nominate for this value when an individual shows exceptional compassion towards the school or local community over a period of time.
The values and their colours are shown below:
| Red | Aspiration |
| Green | Caring |
| White | Resilience |
| Blue | Self-discipline |
| Yellow | Co-operation |
| Orange | Respect |
Golden Ties
Golden ties are awarded annually to a boy and girl in each class between Years 3 and 6. These children are nominated by their Class Teacher as having represented the school values extremely well & consistently across the year. It is not a reflection of the children who have performed the best, but who have most impressed their teachers throughout the year.
The children receive their golden ties in a special assembly and can wear their golden tie for the full academic year, demonstrating their role model status.
This is all part of our wider philosophy around Behaviour and Fundamental Values.
Reading Recognition Scheme
Reading is the most important life skill your child can learn – being able to read at age expected or above by the time they leave primary school is essential for wider and long term success at secondary. Research has shown that only 10% of children who leave Y6 below age expected levels in Reading manage to attain passes in GCSE English and Maths. These are often essential GCSEs for additional study at A Level, so it’s really important that our children leave here as the best readers they possibly can be!
Reading and re-reading books regularly enables children to gain fluency and automaticity, which is vital as children progress through the school and need to read dense texts to access other curriculum areas (such as in History, Science and Geography). We are very proud of how much our children enjoy reading here at Preston Hedges.
Here are the details of our Reading Recognition Scheme
Children earn ticks on a grid (located at the front of their Reading Journal) for each day that they read their ‘reading for learning’ book (RfL). The RfL books are made up from any phonics-based or levelled reading book that your child is in receipt of. For children that are free readers, their RfL book will be a book that has been chosen with support from their class teacher to ensure an appropriate level of pitch for your child’s reading ability. Along with the usual parental date and signature in the reading journal, we also ask parents to add a tick to the grid.
When the children have read for a specific amount of days, they gain recognition as follows:
- 20 reading days = Bronze recognition certificate
- 50 = Silver recognition certificate
- 100 = Gold recognition certificate
- 150 = Platinum recognition certificate
- 200 = Star reader badge
- 250 + = Vending machine
The recognition certificates and badges will all be inscribed with their year group, with the aim being that the children work towards achieving all of these each year, then it resets and they work for the following year group recognition certificates and badge. All children in all year groups follow this in order to make the process as simple as possible. Ticks can be added over school holidays if you wish and teachers will be able to add ticks to reward children for excellent contributions to class reading sessions.
‘Reading for pleasure’ books will of course still be available for your child to encourage engagement and exposure to a wide range of texts.
INFORMATION
FOR PARENTS
ASPIRATION FOR ALL
Our bespoke curriculum nurtures aspiration, imagination, moral guidance, fun and creativity.
Alongside academic achievement, this gives every child at Preston Hedges School the opportunity to fulfil their own unique potential.
Our
Story
We pride ourselves on providing our children with the very best creative experiences and opportunities and have evident strengths in the Creative and Visual Arts. We believe our unique curriculum is the vehicle for lifelong learning. We don’t just give our children curriculum experiences, we light the fire of creativity.
LEARN MORE
OUR STAFF
Our creative and highly skilled staff team share a passion to sustain the school’s exceptionally high standards.
Constantly driving our practice forward, and delivering continuous school improvement. We work together to share ideas, spread best practice, support and constructively challenge each other, to bring out our very best.
PRESTON HEDGES PRIMARY SCHOOL
Wootton Hope Drive, Wootton Fields, Northampton, NN4 6BU
Registered Office: Wootton Hope Drive, Wootton Fields, Northampton, NN4 6BU. Registration No. 08282041. England & Wales.
