With "Golden Time" children are rewarded for behaving well.  Often in school it is children who behave badly who are rewarded in different ways in an attempt to modify their behaviour pattern and this can cause resentment amongst both children and staff in school.  "Golden Time" ensures that the majority of children who behave well are rewarded.

Before implementing "Golden Time" each class are introduced to a set of 'Golden Rules' which is a short well-defined list of positive behaviour statements agreed on by both staff and pupils.

Children who are in danger of breaking one or more of the rules in class or elsewhere in school or playground are usually given two verbal warnings.  If the child continues to ignore the warnings they lose an allotted period of 'Golden Time' - usually a 5 minute block. 

Children are given the opportunity to 'earn back' their time before the next "Golden Time".

"Golden Time" activities are suggested and agreed on by the children.  

In this way, the message we are giving the children is that if they are sensible, co-operative and go about their business to the best of their ability, the will be consistently rewarded for their efforts and they are secure in the knowledge that their reward will not be forgotten about due to pressure from other commitments in the curriculum.

Ideally those children who have a tendency towards disruptive behaviour will be less inclined to continue if they are risking the loss of a privilege which they had a part in deciding on.