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.