Celebrating Positive Behaviour and Christian Values

At St Mary’s, we believe that recognising positive behaviour plays an important role in building a nurturing, values‑led school community. Our rewards are designed to celebrate pupils who consistently make positive choices, embody our Christian values, and demonstrate exemplary learning behaviours.

Hot Chocolate Champ Award

Each week, teachers nominate children who consistently demonstrate our Christian values of Service, Friendship, Compassion, and Forgiveness, together with excellent learning behaviour.
These pupils act as role models within our school, showing sustained commitment to doing the right thing over time.
Selected children meet with the Headteacher for our Hot Choc Champ celebration.

This recognition reflects more than a single good week – it celebrates character, kindness, and attitude.

Christian Values Certificate

Every week, one child in each class is awarded the Christian Values Certificate for clearly exemplifying one of our core values in their words, actions, or relationships with others.

Learner of the Week

The Learner of the Week award recognises exceptional effort or achievement in learning – whether through resilience, perseverance, outstanding work, or personal progress.

Class Dojo Points

We use Class Dojo to recognise the everyday positive choices children make.
Pupils can earn Dojo points for:

• Showing our Christian values of Service, Friendship, Compassion, and Forgiveness
• Demonstrating positive learning behaviours
• Contributing to the school community
• Being a role model to others

This mirrors approaches used in many strong primary settings where Dojo points reward effort, behaviour, responsibility and contribution to school life. 

Dojo Celebration Assemblies (3 times per year)

Three times a year, we hold a Dojo Assemblyto celebrate pupils’ sustained positive behaviour.
During these assemblies, the child in each class who has earned the most Dojo points for that period is recognised and celebrated.

These assemblies help reinforce that recognition is earned through consistency, character, and effort over time — not just one week of good behaviour.

Our Commitment to Fairness and Inclusion

We aim to ensure that all pupils have opportunities to be recognised.
Because some children consistently live out our values and behaviours, they may be acknowledged more frequently; however, we regularly reflect on our processes to ensure fairness, balance, and inclusion for all.

Our rewards system is part of our wider behaviour approach, which focuses on:

• Clear expectations
• Positive relationships
• Restorative conversations
• Helping children learn to be ready, respectful, and safe

For more details, please see our Positive Behaviour Policy here.