Supporting student recognition

There are three types of incentives for rewarding positive student behaviour: tangible rewards, recognition and privileges. 

Positive behaviour incentives  can be categorised into four social groups: 

Individual rewards reinforce individual student behaviour and most often consist of handing out good work tickets, raffle tickets or digital tokens using online platforms such as ClassDojo or ClassCraft  that can be traded in to ‘buy’ self-selected rewards from the established classroom economy. Coaches can help teachers to develop effective classroom reward menus that promote recognition and privileges over costly tangibles. 

Reward	Cost
Choose a brain break for the class	5 tickets
Pick from the prize box	5 tickets
Sit in the teacher’s chair	10 tickets
Draw on the whiteboard	10 tickets
Board game with a friend	15 tickets
Teacher’s chair for the day	15 tickets
Homework pass	15 tickets
Computer time	20 tickets
Lunch with the teacher	25 tickets

Small group rewards can be used by the classroom teacher to promote teamwork by motivating student groups to work together towards mastery of a behaviour or expectation. For example, pod groups or desk groups of 3–5 students might work together to keep their group materials organised or practise respectful collaboration in completing an activity. Groups might be incentivised with a star chart that, once completed, rewards the group with a privilege such as:

• Board game time
• Arts and crafts time
• VIP privileges in the classroom for the day
• Special breakfast or lunch with the teacher. 

Whole-class rewards are incentives that motivate the entire class to work towards mastery of a behaviour or expectation. This might be scoring the most points in the teacher–student game to gain a privilege such as

• Extra recess time
• Pyjama day
• Movie and popcorn day.

Whole-school rewards are developed and managed by the principal, the coach, and the BMT. They might include:

• A student of the month award that celebrates model students from each class/grade level on a bulletin board display with recognition at school parades and in the school community newsletter
• Celebrations such as a field day, pyjama day or crazy hair day.

The coach posts the established school-wide incentives on the School Data Wall and ensures that teachers are using them in every classroom.

They also support the school team to manage the School Store: a shop full of desirable goods that can be ‘bought’ by students using the school-wide positive behaviour tickets they earned over time.

Example of Standard School-Wide Incentives Chart

Name	Criteria	Award/Prize	Presented at
100% school attendance	100% of students present	Email to CYAAA leadership team Scholar dollars	Newsletter ParadeEmail
Caught being good	Names put in a box for a raffle	Small amount of scholar dollars	Newsletter Parade
Jigsaw certificates	Pass mastery and checkouts in reading and maths (first time)	Puzzle certificates	Monday (Parade)
Students of the week	Academic or behavioural improvement	Scholar dollars Privileges	Newsletter Classroom Parade
Big balloon	100% of students present in class	Class picture in a balloon	Parade
Gold and silver	Attendance:3 excused absences = silver award0 absences = gold award	Gold or silver certificate Scholar dollars	Newsletter Parade