Background
St John Plessington is a Catholic College based in the Wirral, Merseyside. It was recently awarded TES Secondary School of the Year 2010. It has eight houses and house points are awarded for various reasons, including recognition of good effort within the classroom, homework, positive contributions, full attendance and acts of kindness. Points given are not just for the house, individual pupils also build up their own individual points, which cumulate in award presentations at the end of term and the school year.
The Challenge
In 2009 St John Plessington was looking for an easily managed rewards system that could deal with the points for its eight houses, as well as for individual pupils and separate competitions. It needed to be easy for the teacher to manage and use, exciting for the pupils, and very cost effective.
The Solution
St John Plessington chose to use School Stickers and its management system, Carrot Rewards, as it recognised that it offered the effective and efficient solution it was looking for. It has seen a significant increase in learning outcomes and pupil enthusiasm for rewards, and it is delighted with the results.
Pupils log their own rewards onto www.mystickers.co.uk. This gives them ownership of the scheme, but it also releases pressure on staff members who no longer have to spend hours logging and adding up house points.
Teachers manage the rewards and their own competitions through www.carrotrewards.co.uk. This simple interface captures all the data from MyStickers, and the latest house points, competition results and individual records can be checked in real time, and shown in graphs whenever needed. This ensures that all pupils are included as the data can be used to identify pupils who are meeting (or exceeding) targets and scoring high effort grades, but also those who are not engaged, so teachers can make informed decisions and take action to address this.
Teachers and pupils at St John Plessington have been very enthusiastic about the ability to easily personalise stickers and postcards. The teachers often tailor the postcards for specific events and don’t tell the pupils that they are sending postcards home. This makes the rewards even more special. The online shop has also been a great success. The pupils were asked what prizes they would like and pupils can now redeem their rewards for prizes including stationary, vouchers and even pizza parties.
Colette Singleton, Assistant Head, St John Plessington Catholic College (TES Secondary School of the Year) said
“School Stickers has helped motivate students to do well in our school. The online shop and the personalised postcards are particularly popular. The School Stickers team are great. They provide fantastic support and the price is very competitive. Every time we have had a questions or idea on how the system could be improved, they have been very quick to sort it out. I would recommend School Stickers and Carrot Rewards to other schools.”