Why do I have a points system with my students?

There is a very careful rationale behind my decision to award points for practice & achievement in my child students. It's all about the psychology behind it. For those who have 'got it' the results are wonderful!

All of my young students are assigned to a particular 'House' or team. The names of the houses are related to the cute animals or creatures from the Harry Potter stories. This is simply because its relevant to most of our children - they can relate to it. For the tiny ones who haven't heard of Harry Potter yet, I have carefully placed them in the house of the cute fluffy magic cat, or the wise brave owl. So they relate to the animal & it's positive qualities.

Each child earns points for their house by practising, achieving SMART goals, making other positive improvements, or displaying positive qualities such as 'Bravery', 'Keeping Trying', 'Thinking for themselves', 'Having a good lesson', 'Good concentrating' or 'Good listening'.

Some children are strongly motivated by being in the winning House, or being in the House who is working hard at overtaking the winning House. This is a source of great excitement for them as they excitedly check each week for the placement of their House on the scoreboard. At the end of the lesson, they love writing their own score on the scoreboard & checking to see how that impacts on the position of their House. The goal of the trophy at the end of term, & the title as 'winner', is a strong motivator for these children, who don't realise that the side effect of 'FUN' with their music is my real aim.

In other children, I've seen a second outcome, which to me is more exciting! These children have recognised that they can measure their own performance or achievement with the points, using a fun method. They LOVE to see how their individual points are stacking up each term. They like to see their term comparisons, & to see whether they are up in the top few individual points scorers. Interestingly these are the children who are often those who are individually motivated to achieve. They like SMART Goals, or setting a goal that takes time & effort to achieve.

During a lesson, my 'other' focus is on 'connecting the points with a positive behaviour'. It's important to me that the points aren't particularly the main focus over time. With the setting of a goal, or the trying something new, I connect a positive behaviour of 'Excited Anticipation'. This is the excited fun feeling of taking a risk.

With the achievement of a goal (or points), the positive behaviour is 'connecting the achievement with a sense of celebration & excitement'. Many of the children display behaviours that lead me to think that they are just as happy feeling the 'excited anticipation' or the 'celebrated achievement' as they are earning the points! In these children I often hear the phrase 'I just LOVE playing the piano!'

And isn't 'I just LOVE playing the piano!' the main aim anyway?