School rewards are miles better... (From This Is Wiltshire)

School rewards are miles better...

6:50pm Tuesday 2nd February 2010 in

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SWINDON schools are launching a points win prizes reward system to motivate their pupils.

Swindon Academy in Pinehurst and Kingsdown School in Stratton are two of around 140 schools in England using the Vivo Miles system which lets pupils gain points for good behaviour or academic performance.

Each Vivo Mile equates to 1p and can be exchanged for items from retail outlets such as Argos and New Look or to top up mobile phone credit.

The online system was installed at the Academy at the beginning of the year, but has been in place at Kingsdown since last September.

Kingsdown deputy headteacher Steve Lowe said: “It’s a fantastic motivator for the students, who really enjoy it.”

Under the scheme at the Swindon Academy, teachers are authorised to give out 180 Vivo Miles a week. These can be given for reasons such as academic performance or effort, leadership and representing the school.

Each pupil has their own credit-card style card and online account to track their progress.

When a pupil attains the number of miles that matches the price of an item they want they can request that item. A voucher is then printed off which can be exchanged in the relevant shop.

The scheme has been accounted for in this year’s Swindon Academy budget and in future may run alongside the canteen’s fingerprint recognition payment system so children will be awarded miles for healthy choices. At Kingsdown, the miles can also be used to get a discount for the final year leavers’ prom.

Swindon Academy’s assistant headteacher Nick Warren said the school had tried many motivational reward systems and none had been as effective or easy to keep track of. He said the system was a way of instilling good manners and attitudes, but points were not being deducted for misbehaving.

He said: “We weighed up the pros and cons – was it bribery? There’ll always be issues with any system. The emphasis is on reward and celebration and sharing with everybody what’s fantastic about this place.”

He said it was also a useful method of compiling data on pupil performance.

Swindon Academy pupil Jimmy Fozzard, 19, said: “All schools have a reward system, so every school has its own form of bribery.”

For more information visit www.vivomiles.com.