Last year, for example, we took a group of year 10 students (aged14/15 years) to a nearby army barracks for a day where they were able to participate in assault courses and other challenging activities. This year we decided to use gift vouchers - they are both simple to administer, yet extremely effective, and our pupils have expressed keen interest. After some initial research New Look came out as the store of choice – it offers great value fashion and we have nearly ten stores within a ten mile radius, so it’s very accessible to everyone.”
The scheme, called Progress Rewards will reward three key elements across the year 10 group – attendance, attainment and behaviour. Pupils who have 100% attendance over a term, meet attainment targets and demonstrate good citizenship will be rewarded with both a certificate and a New Look gift voucher.
“We will monitor these three key targets and assuming that sustained improvements are seen then we expect the programme to continue into next year. In addition to these ongoing activities, we are also considering on the spot rewards – using ‘guerrilla tactics’ to keep the students on their toes, which may be something as simple as entering a classroom and asking the teacher to nominate one student who has impressed them during that lesson,” Barry concludes.
