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Democracy In Action |
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Citizenship |
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Building The Community |
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Active Involvement |
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Helping Others |
Active Involvement
To enable children to make amends through active involvement.
To replace a system of school detentions, we instigated a 'community service' system. If a child would have been given a half hour detention, under the new system of community service, s/he would have half an hour of service to the school - litter picking, cleaning graffiti, tidying cloakrooms and PE stores etc.
This worked better than detentions, and helped the school community at the same time. Staff would keep a list of jobs for community service and felt better about giving out punishments that were not worthless - the children atoned for bad behaviour by making school a more pleasant place for others.
We think that, over time, as children see what needs to be done to keep the school running well, they will create fewer tasks for those on community service. Those who have undertaken community service have done so with better grace than attending detention and seem to do their tasks more willingly than we had expected, perhaps because they can see the sense in them. Parents are more in favour of this as a sanction as they feel that their children are learning some life skills as a result.
Most staff felt that the detention system was not working - children attended with reluctance and knew that it was just a waste of their time, so did not do anything productive there. With the new system, they are able to see some meaning in what they do, and some take pride and satisfaction in the improvements. Parents are always informed that community service has taken place and the tasks that their child has done, and asked to comment. So far, all think it is a worthwhile punishment!
To enable children to make amends through active involvement.
To replace a system of school detentions, we instigated a 'community service' system. If a child would have been given a half hour detention, under the new system of community service, s/he would have half an hour of service to the school - litter picking, cleaning graffiti, tidying cloakrooms and PE stores etc.
This worked better than detentions, and helped the school community at the same time. Staff would keep a list of jobs for community service and felt better about giving out punishments that were not worthless - the children atoned for bad behaviour by making school a more pleasant place for others.
We think that, over time, as children see what needs to be done to keep the school running well, they will create fewer tasks for those on community service. Those who have undertaken community service have done so with better grace than attending detention and seem to do their tasks more willingly than we had expected, perhaps because they can see the sense in them. Parents are more in favour of this as a sanction as they feel that their children are learning some life skills as a result.
Most staff felt that the detention system was not working - children attended with reluctance and knew that it was just a waste of their time, so did not do anything productive there. With the new system, they are able to see some meaning in what they do, and some take pride and satisfaction in the improvements. Parents are always informed that community service has taken place and the tasks that their child has done, and asked to comment. So far, all think it is a worthwhile punishment!
Managed by BRL4IT |
Last Updated -
01-Feb-2010
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