Parent sees red over Tranmere school’s colour-coded school discipline system

Mar 14 2012 by Helen Hunt, Birkenhead News

A COLOUR-CODED system designed to keep pupils well-behaved has left one parent seeing red.

Mersey Park primary school, in Tranmere, has a policy where children are metaphorically put in different coloured zones, depending on whether they are naughty or not.

Children are ranked according to their conduct, with pupils displaying excellent behaviour given “super zone” status, good behaviour “green zone”, running through to yellow, orange and red for the really badly behaved youngsters – a step before total exclusion from school.

The headteacher of the school, Margaret Thomas, said it is a “positive system” which is well received by parents.

But because those in the orange zone lose their dinner break and must have a packed lunch – because they are not allowed into the dinner hall – the set-up came under fire from one parent who thinks the action is too strict.

The parent, who did not want to be named, said: “For some children who are on free school meals, that might be their only hot meal of the day.

“What right have they got to say that?

“Even prisoners are entitled to a hot meal.”

Pupils are automatically put into the orange zone when they have been in the yellow zone three times in one half term.

Name-calling and telling lies or unkind, unsafe or disruptive behaviour will earn pupils a “yellow”, whereas fighting, stealing and being rude to adults will land them in the orange zone straight away. The punishment handed down for “orange” is losing breaks and lunchtime breaks for one or two days.

Mrs Thomas said the zoning system sees pupils’ names put on a card and placed in a coloured area.

She added that the system “acts as an incentive” for pupils to improve their behaviour and that most pupils are “consistently well-behaved”.

She said “The education and well-being of our pupils is always paramount and I am confident that there is widespread support for our approach.”