Graduation

The rewards system at Foxford is called Graduation.  Students are rewarded for good attendance (over 95%), good behaviour and good progress, our core expectations. This enables us to regularly reward those students who fulfil expectations and, in some schools, can get very little recognition for their commitment to their own education. 

Students have a possible 155 points available to accrue over the course of a term:  

  • 30 points for at least 95% attendance 
  • 20 points for no more than 5 lates to school or lessons 
  • 20 points for less than 5 recorded behaviour issues 
  • 40 points for on or above target progress in lessons (an average of all their lessons) 
  • 25 points for good conduct in lessons (this is calculated as an average of their Attitude to Learning score inputted by staff during a data collection) 
  • 20 points for their Attitude to Home Learning (this is calculated as an average of their Attitude to Home Learning score inputted by staff during a data collection which considers not only the frequency, they complete the home learning but also the quality of the work handed in). 

Magic Moment points can also be awarded by staff in a lesson for outstanding effort or excellent work.  In order for a student to graduate they must accrue at least 100 points. 

All the data is generated by our data manager and is available on Microsoft Teams for tutors to review throughout a term with their tutees. In this document tutors can analyse individual students, their entire tutor group, or key groups within their tutor group. 

Year heads and tutors monitor the students’ progress towards the Graduation target with regular updates and parents are informed if students are not likely to graduate and how to help them achieve success. We also inform parents of students who are on track to graduate through our school communication system, MyEd.  If a student is in danger of not graduating targets are set with the tutor or Year Leader to enable them to improve the area which is a concern.  Additional points are then awarded for students who achieve their targets. 

The points are reset at the start of every term, a fresh start for all, with the attitude that we want everybody to graduate. 

Students who graduate are rewarded termly.  In the autumn term the rewards for students who graduate are linked to Christmas, this year we gave out selection boxes, Santa delivered them to tutor rooms! In the spring term the rewards for students are linked to Easter, usually an Easter egg and will be delivered by the Easter bunny (if I can persuade someone to wear the costume!). In the summer term year 7 and 8 students are rewarded with an ice cream on sports day or a voucher for the barbecue. 

At the end of Year 9 we have a special reward ceremony in the evening where students who have graduated are presented with a new school tie.  The tie is a different design to the tie they wear in key stage 3.  Parents are invited to attend the presentation, and there is a photographer and refreshments. A real celebration of the student’s achievement. Students who have not graduated at the end of year 9 are given a pack of work to complete over the summer break, to show their commitment to learning at Foxford and when completed they too receive their new tie. 

Students in all year groups who achieve over 150 points, through graduation expectations and magic moments receive not only the reward that the rest of the year group get but also a voucher and a certificate. 

Rewards vary throughout the years and are discussed in year group council meetings and whole school council meetings. The Year 11 reward if they graduate is to receive an invitation to apply for the Prom.  Year 10 went to Drayton Manor for a fantastic day out. 

As you can see each reward is tailored towards the individual year group and the time of the year with student’s thoughts and suggestions being at the forefront of the graduation reward process.