The New Islington Ingredients

‘A comprehensive guide to the principles, operations and routines for Teaching,learning and behaviour at Co-op Academy New Islington.’

Policy Details

● Date created - 01/10/2024

● Date reviewed - 01.09/2025

● Date approved - 01.09/2025

● Next review date - 01/09/2026

● Policy owner - Joshua Berry

1. Contents

2. Rationale

The “New Islington Ingredients” is a document outlining our vision for life at Co-op Academy New Islington. It outlines the theory and expectations that sit behind everything that we do, including behaviour, teaching and learning, and expectations for the staff who work in our academy.

This policy is used to support the induction of new staff in understanding the way we expect our school to function as well as being used as a guide for all staff, including leadership, that ensures we are all working towards the same vision of providing the best possible education for every child that attends our academy.

3. The Ways of Being

The four Ways of Being Co-op guide our future – no matter what we do, they’re how we do it.

Being Co-op is about creating an environment that celebrates difference. Somewhere both students and colleagues feel responsible, valued, empowered and trusted to do the right thing for each other and our community.

All four of the values outlined below form the basis behind our approach. They are:

Do What Matters Most:

What matters most is ensuring that our students achieve the best possible outcomes.

• We all focus on doing the right things for our colleagues, students, parents and communities
• We’re straightforward. We say what we will do simply and honestly, and we do it
• We challenge when things aren’t right – we don’t look the other way
• We earn trust from each other because we always do the right thing
• We use our resources carefully, so that we can get the most from them and build a strong future together

Be Yourself Always:

We bring our best self to work, so that we each contribute a bit of our own unique Co-op difference, and respect others for doing the same. Of course, being yourself isn’t about excusing poor behaviours that contradict our other Ways of Being Co-op.

• We’re confident about who we are and know that it’s okay to be ourselves at work
• We inspire everyone to do their best because we value what they do and we lead by example
• We’re open to change and challenge. Having lots of different points of view means we can come up with better ideas
• We’re pioneering - we always look for new ways of doing things so that we get even better
• We’re authentic, so we do things the same when working alone or with the whole world watching

Show You Care:

We care about our Co-op, our colleagues, our members, our students, their parents and communities, now and for the future.

• We’re down to earth and we show this in all the things that we do
• We all take ownership – if we know we can make something better, then we do it
• We always make sure we do things fairly and responsibly
• We listen to people because we care about them
• We help our communities, because that’s what makes us different

Succeed Together:

Cooperating is what makes us different; we’re better and stronger when we work together.

• We know that our team has to come first, because when we work together we will become a stronger Co-op
• We involve people, because we value their ideas
• We all contribute to making the Co-op Academies an enjoyable place to work and learn
• We respect each other for being ourselves and we know the value we each bring to our Co-op
• We support each other. We know that it’s okay to learn from our mistakes and great to share success together

These values are crucial to how we operate as an academy and as such they are displayed prominently throughout the building and regularly referenced in lessons, assemblies and conversations between adults and children.

4. Skills Builder: A Shared Language

At Co-op Academy New Islington, we firmly believe that, in addition to developing our pupils’ academic attainment, it is our duty to promote their development as human beings who are set up to succeed in later life.

As such, we have prioritised the teaching of key life skills to sit alongside our duty to teach the content of the National Curriculum. A key aspect of this focus is the use of Skills Builder in all facets of school life.

Skills Builder identifies eight life skills that are essential to children being successful. These skills include:

Research strongly indicates that children who are able to apply these key skills achieve better both in education and in later life.

When designing our curriculum and behaviour principles, we have used the skills builder skills and their progression maps (shown below) to shape the language that is used by all members of staff so that it is also embedded in the language used by children. This shared language supports us to make sure interactions are purposeful and result in a long term benefit for children.

5. Behaviour

1. What are the Ingredients to  High-Quality Behaviour?

Co-op Academy New islington is committed to creating an environment where exemplary behaviour is at the heart of productive learning. Everyone is expected to maintain the highest standards of personal conduct, to accept responsibility for their behaviour and encourage others to do the same.

Our behaviour policy guides staff to teach self-discipline and self-regulation. It echoes our core values with a heavy emphasis on the principles of Ready, Respectful and Safe developed by the behaviour expert Paul Dix.

We are committed to fostering a community that is

• Ready to learn
• Respectful of themselves and others
• Safe in school

2. Positive Policy

At Co-op Academy New Islington, we strive to promote good behaviour through a positive approach and celebrate when children have demonstrated our ways of being through a number of strategies. These have been separated into acknowledgements that take place in front of their class, in front of the school and in front of their family.

Class:

• In class we use the platform ClassDojo to award behaviour points to children who are demonstrating that they are Ready, Respectful or Safe. Points allocated on ClassDojo will also be framed around one of the eight key skills from skills builder.

e.g. “I am awarding a teamwork point to ________ because they are all contributing to the task.”

• During lessons, teachers and teaching assistants will consistently use positive and precise praise feedback when praising children’s work or conduct. This feedback will be framed around one of the eight key skills from the skills builder scheme. Points allocated on ClassDojo will also be framed around one of the eight key skills.

• At the end of each school day, the child in each class who has gained the most points on ClassDojo will have their name entered into a weekly raffle. Each Friday afternoon, the winner of this raffle will take part in “Hot Chocolate with the Head”.

• When children demonstrate that they have applied one of our key skills very well in a lesson, they will be rewarded with a sticker indicating which skill they have demonstrated. Other adults will then use these to praise them throughout the day.

• We encourage group responsibility by ensuring each class has an ongoing reward counter such as marbles in a jar. For each successful lesson they will have a unit added to the total and when this is full the class will receive a reward that they will have input on deciding on.

School:

• When a child has consistently demonstrated the Co-op Values throughout the week, they may be chosen by their class teacher to receive a Co-op values certificate during Celebration Assembly on Friday. They will be presented with this in front of their Key Stage.

• When a child has consistently demonstrated the key skills throughout the week, they may be chosen by their class teacher to receive a Skills Builder certificate (example below) during Celebration Assembly on Friday. They will be presented with this in front of their Key Stage.

Home:

Staff at Co-op Academy New Islington will go out of their way to ensure parents are aware of the success that takes place in school. We will do this through:

• Positive phone calls home from class teachers
• Sections of our weekly Parent’s Newsletter
• End of unit or term events

3. Consistent Routines

In order for children to feel secure in our expectations of them, we have strived to ensure consistency of routines in our academy. This ensures that children are never unsure of what is expected of them at each point of the day. Our shared routines are used by all staff members and are outlined in the table below:

4. Restorative Practice

While we believe that there should be appropriate consequences for poor behaviour at Co-op Academy New Islington, we also recognise that in order to make changes to behaviour children must be allowed time and space to reflect on it.

In order to provide this, we ensure that every incident of behaviour that does not conform to our Co-op Values is addressed through a Restorative Conversation with an adult.

For these conversations to have maximum impact we scaffold the questions that are asked. Below are the “Reflection Forms” that we expect all children to complete, separated into Key Stages.

KS2:

KS1:

5. De-escalation: The Zones of Regulation and Emotion Coaching

Children and adults are sometimes unable to control their actions because they don’t understand the emotions that they are feeling. Because of this, at Co-op New Islington we use the Zones of Regulation as a way of scaffolding conversations taking place with children exhibiting behaviours that are not Ready, Respectful or Safe.

These zones are used as a key part of our restorative approach so that children can identify the reasons behind the actions that they took and feel supported in how to manage themselves in the future.

In addition, there are times when children feel in a heightened state. In these instances, we believe that the following emotion coaching script should be used as a way of avoiding any escalation of behaviours and supporting children to return to a calm state.

All staff who work at our academy receive coaching and practice in using these scripts as a key part of our continued professional development cycle.

6.   Recording Incidents: Arbor

As an academy, we record behaviour incidents using the online tool Arbor. This tool allows leaders to analyse behaviour trends on an individual child, class or whole-school basis and take appropriate action to address them.

When an incident occurs, the staff member who dealt with it is expected to log the details of the incident on Arbor. This data is tracked by the school’s behaviour team throughout the year.

7. Consequence Tariff

While we use a restorative approach at Co-op Academy New Islington, we also recognise that there are some behaviours that require an additional consequence to both support children to understand why how they behaved was wrong and to deter them from repeating the same behaviours.

For all incidents, an adult will conduct a restorative conversation with the child.

8. Home-School Communication

In order to ensure the children at Co-op Academy New Islington are supported in their behaviour, we feel it is vital to establish effective relationships between the academy and parents/carers.

Positive Phone calls home will be completed by teachers for at least two children in their class per week and will be made in the following circumstances:

• A child has consistently demonstrated positive behaviour
• A child has achieved something beyond everyday classroom expectations

Phone calls around negative behaviour to follow procedures outline in the consequence tariff.

9. Positive Behaviour Management Plans

Even though our behaviour policy is robust, we recognise that sometimes children may require further support in order to meet our expectations. When this is the case, we implement individualised behaviour plans designed to support the child to succeed.

These plans will be implemented consciously by all adults and class teachers will work closely with the behaviour team when a plan is created.

An blank example of a personalised behaviour plan is shown below:

10. Pupils with SEND

Pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND)

Co-op Academy New Islington is aware of the links between the SEND Code of Practice (2015), our SEND processes, and the whole school behaviour system outlined in this policy. Some special educational needs may pose a barrier or difficulty when applying the requirements of this policy and require suitable adaptations; e.g. for pupils with communication and interaction or social, emotional and mental health needs. We recognise our legal duty under the Equality Act (2010) to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made that are personalised to the pupil’s strengths and needs and are regularly reviewed. Reasonable adjustments may take a number of forms, from adaptations to the way in which the policy is communicated and explained to adaptations to its implementation.

In conjunction with the class teacher, the SENDCo will evaluate a pupil who exhibits challenging behaviour to determine whether there is a possibility of the pupil having underlying needs that are not currently being met. Where required, strategies will be put into place to address and support. These strategies will be reviewed using the graduated approach of the assess, plan, do, review cycle. Liaison with external agencies will take place where necessary. Where appropriate, pupils who struggle to manage their own behaviour will be given specific, measurable targets (e.g. I will remain in my seat during lessons; I will use only kind words). Some pupils will have an individual reward chart which acknowledges positive behaviour over short periods of time (e.g. 5 or 10 mins). These rewards will then accumulate for pupils to earn Dojo points in line with their peers.

Equity

Academy staff will work hard to support all children to help them meet the behaviour targets of the school, utilising a number of strategies which may include seeking support and advice from outside agencies, offering alternative, bespoke curriculums and part-time timetables where appropriate; these strategies will be discussed and agreed with all stakeholders. In instances in which it has been decided that a part-time timetable is the most appropriate course of action, the timetable will be reviewed weekly in order to assess progression to the next stage, increasing the amount of time within the academy. The aim will be to move to the next stage as quickly as possible as long as the pupil is coping successfully.

Sending pupils to alternative provision may also be considered, however, advice and guidance from outside agencies and specialists will always be sought and strategies to accommodate the child within the academy will be implemented and evaluated prior to any decision to access alternative provision.

On very rare occasions, it may be agreed that Co-op Academy New Islington is not an appropriate setting for a pupil, This will not be a single person’s decision and academy leaders, governors and Trustees will be a part of this process.

11. Exclusions

At Co-op Academy New Islington, we believe that excluding a child from learning should be a last resort. As such, any decision made to exclude will be made following a conversation between SLT with the final decision being made by the Headteacher.

Before making a decision, any mitigating circumstances that led to the behaviour will be considered and the Headteacher reserves the right to override the consequence tariff if they believe it appropriate to do so.

Refer to our behaviour policy for more information on exclusions.