Rewarding Students at Wath Academy

At Wath academy we believe firmly that students who are consistently meeting or exceeding our expectations, should be rewarded for doing so. We have an electronic rewards system, known as E-praise. The system is linked to the school website in the Learning Platform section.

Each student has their own account, which contains information about the points they have received, who has given the points and what they have been awarded for. They can login to the system from home using the same username and password they use to access the school computer network. When students login to E-praise they will be able to view their “dashboard”, which gives a summary of key information

Below is an example of a student dashboard:

EARNING REWARD POINTS

Students can earn E–Praise points in a number of ways. Firstly if they complete a full positive conduct card they will earn 3 points. This is done by completing homework, demonstrating positive behaviour around school and participating in extracurricular activities. Five positive actions are needed to complete one conduct card

Another way to earn rewards is by demonstrating exceptional commitment to one of the school’s Key Drivers during a lesson, which prompts the teacher to add them to the 'reward board'. The teacher will then add this to SIMS, which will generate two E-praise points for the student.

Finally, students are rewarded each half-term with 10 E-Praise points for achieving 100% attendance.

At certain points throughout the year there are special events, which give an opportunity for students to gain extra rewards. These include: Key Driver awards assemblies for Academic Year Leaders where nominees and winners are given additional points, and World Kindness Day, where students showing particular kindness towards others are awarded extra points by staff members who witness it.

LOSING REWARD POINTS

Whilst the priority is to accentuate the positive in respect of rewards, it is also important for students to understand the consequences of negative behaviour. This is reflected in the E-praise system, where points are deducted when a student fails to meet expectations in regard to behaviour and attitude to learning. If a student receives a detention, either for being removed from a lesson due to poor conduct, or for misconduct during break or lunchtime then points will be deducted from their account. In addition, if a student records 5 negative actions on their conduct card, for example not completing homework, points will be deducted.

Golden ticket events

At the end of each half-term the Academy will hold a Golden Ticket event to celebrate the achievements of students. These events involve giving students access to exciting activities in a session, usually in the last week of the half-term. Students gain access to the Golden Ticket event by spending 50 of their E-praise points. Only students who have enough points will be able to participate in this reward activity. This gives students an extra incentive to work hard and meet expectations.