Achievement boosted by better behaviour

The Harefield Academy, Uxbridge, has used its management information system to track and thus improve behaviour, which has led to improved exam performance.

In 2005, less than 20 per cent of students gained five or more A*-C grades at the academy. After introducing a new behaviour policy and combining it with good teaching practices, this figure had risen to 54 per cent by 2008.

"We realised when we opened as an academy that the biggest barrier to us moving forward was student behaviour. It was not acceptable that the behaviour of a handful of students affected the learning of a whole class," says Lynn Gadd, principal.

"To create the right environment for learning, we also needed to reward students that were doing well to create an environment of praise."

The academy used SIMS, the management information system from Capita Children's Services, to help manage the behaviour policy. SIMS enabled the efficient recording of every sanction and reward from the most simple to the most serious, affording early identification of problems so that teachers could intervene with disruptive students before the problem became ingrained.

"Students know that every infraction will be dealt with quickly and significant achievements will be celebrated," says Lynn.

• Capita is an ASCL premier partner. For more information visit www.sims.co.uk or call 01234 838 080.