APIE Education for Positive Peace course...

Behaviour Management - Rewards and Consequences

Steps to take for setting up the Classroom Level House Points system

Every class teacher should create a House Point wall chart - to do this you need the list of names of everyone in your class. Organise them into their allocated ‘Houses’. In this example we are looking at a House system at classroom level; remember your school could choose to make the House system a whole-school one. There are 35 children in the example class and the teacher has organised them into 5 groups of 6 learners and 1 group of 5 learners. If you have a class of 80 learners you might split the class into 10 groups of 8 learners. 

1. You should give each group a different name e.g. a colour or the name of a Rwandan hero or a famous geographical feature or a well-known landmark. 
2. Write each learner’s name in their House. 
3. Include a 10x10 numbers grid so you can record every time the ‘House’ is awarded a House point. Alternatively stick a blank piece of paper next to each House so that you can record the House points as a tally.  
4. At the beginning of a lesson, remind  learners what the House Point system is for and how it will work. Be sure to explain what reward the group with the most House points will get e.g. extra 10 minutes play time, extra time to spend with a special material or resource.
5. Only reward one House point at a time.
6. Reward the behaviour as soon as you see it. Then they know what they are being rewarded for, and others see that and do the same!
7. Use House points consistently and often.
8. A child who is not behaving well may receive a consequence as per the Behaviour Triangle process above but the whole House group should not be penalised. The aim over time is to encourage good team work and this can also improve the behaviour of individual children because everyone wants to succeed.