Positive Alternatives to Exclusion by Cooper Paul;Drummond Mary Jane;Hart Susan;Lovey Jane;McLaughlin Colleen;

Author:Cooper, Paul;Drummond, Mary Jane;Hart, Susan;Lovey, Jane;McLaughlin, Colleen;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1166513
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Monitoring cards and the reward system

The questionnaire responses showed that the system of ‘monitoring cards’, by which specific targets were set to support the progress of students giving cause for academic and behavioural concern, was only vaguely understood by the students themselves. The majority (64 per cent; n=207) of students indicated that the monitoring cards served a positive purpose that sometimes led to student improvement, largely in terms of academic progress and behaviour. However, a substantial minority of students (18 per cent; n=58) claimed to have no knowledge of the nature or purpose of the monitoring cards. A similar proportion of students believed that the cards served no useful purpose (15 per cent; n=49).

The students’ largely positive attitudes towards the monitoring cards were reflected in their responses to questions about the reward system at the school. The overwhelming majority of students recognised that there was a fairly wide variety of rewards currently available for Ogden Nash students including:

• merits

• commendations

• good referrals

• ‘unofficial Mars bars’

• certificates

• extra chips in the canteen

• trophies for sports.

In addition to these, some students expressed a desire for other concrete rewards, such as:

• money

• high street vouchers

• day off school

• music tokens

• day trips

• sweets.

This apparently mercenary position, however, should be placed in the context of the substantial minority (26 per cent; n=84) of over a quarter of students in all year groups, including Year 11, who claimed to find merit certificates a desirable form of reward. This might be interpreted as a reference to the symbolic importance of rewards, as signs of individual acknowledgement and enhancements to personal status. This interpretation is further supported by the additional status-oriented (as opposed to concrete) rewards some students (15 per cent; n=49) requested, such as for:

• letters home about good work

• more freedom and trust

• recognition.

Each of these implies a desire for personal, and possibly public acknowledgement of achievement, with the actual content of the reward being essentially symbolic, in the form of a positive reflection on the student’s personal identity and public status. This was further reflected in the claims made by some students that the reward system was a source of motivation and provided a ‘sense of achievement’.

The personal and symbolic importance of rewards was further illustrated in the negative responses that some students gave when describing the effects of the reward system at Ogden Nash. More than one-fifth of responding students (21 per cent; n=68) declared that the rewards served no useful purpose or were actually associated with negative outcomes. Of these, a small group (3 per cent; n=10) were clearly personally affronted by the system, seeing it as a form of ‘bribery’, as ‘patronising’ and being more appropriate for ‘primary schools not upper schools’. This view of the reward system as personally demeaning alludes, in a negative way, to the same issues of personal dignity and status implied by the positive responses. The negative form of this theme is further highlighted by the sense of manipulation suggested by references to the effect of

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