The model has become so widely spread - schools across the country have taken the diagrams and models, but not the training that goes with it,” he says. “And actually, the training is really important because it’s the language, the attitudes and the approaches behind positive discipline that make it work. Sparks customers are sometimes offered a free treat such as Percy Pig sweets, a box of chocolates or a candle. I found] children weren’t engaged, challenged and had no aspiration,” says headteacher Sam Done, who joined the school in 2016. “It was a culture of these children can’t achieve anything, whether they’re EAL, or white British from a council estate.”

But do you know what? To start off with you have to be like that. If we don’t sort out standards, attitudes, aspirations, routines and a culture of rigour in Year 7, we’ve had it.” These prospective employees do mostly understand the impending workload, agrees Christopher R Di Fronzo, associate director of the Tufts Finance Initiative at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US, which helps place students in finance, consulting and entrepreneurial jobs. However, as graduates across these fields reconnect as alumni, he’s noticed some have underestimated the hours. “Once you live it,” says De Fronzo, “some find out it’s a really hard life to live.” Secure your app via fingerprint or face ID with the most advanced technology integrated into our app. The themes of Adler, Dreikurs and Nelson’s work - mutual respect, consistency and community - have similarities with TGAT’s policy. Sir John would not respond to questions about the similarities, but he had previously made it clear that it was he and a team of his teachers who, in 1998, created something unique for schools in the form of a distinct policy of Positive Discipline, based on trips to Canada and Scandinavia.

Holding the line

Marks & Spencer’s Sparks loyalty scheme allows shoppers to get personalised offers, donate to charity and access sales early.

Some students have been living the lives of ‘Elvis Presley: the Vegas Years’, and then suddenly when they arrive at our schools, a lot more is expected of them,” says Sir John. “They think they can do what they want to do, on their own terms. It’s not an adversarial thing, we don’t want to be like that. All supporters who create a Wolves Rewards account by 23:59pm on Friday 19th January 2024 will be entered into the prize draw. When visiting Canada, we learnt that if you don’t have complete consistency in schools, you have a recipe for disaster,” he says. “From Scandinavia, we learnt the importance of an uncomplicated, simple, clear structure that can be understood by all.Our previous benefits platform offered practically nothing in terms of communications, customisation, data analytics or reporting. In fact, the user experience was so clunky that we didn’t even feel comfortable shouting about the initiatives we had in place. That’s when we knew something had to change.” He recalls an incident that involved a group of students at one of the trust’s schools, a bullying incident and a ‘major rewards’ trip. If after the winner has been sent a notification of winning they don’t confirm acceptance within seven days, Wolves reserve the right to redraw another prize winner. From his vantage point, Keenan also remains sceptical that change is possible. It’s simple economics, he says: supply and demand. As long as there more are driven, hungry graduates than there are positions for them, Keenan believes there may not be enough incentive to change culture, no matter how public complaints become. And in 1981, Dr Jane Nelson, an American therapist and counsellor, wrote and self-published Positive Discipline - a guide to behaviour for parents and teachers.

You sign into your account when you shop online or scan your card in-store. Each time you shop you collect “sparks”. It’s a boot-camp mentality,” says Cohan – simply part of the process of succeeding at a high level. So, could this uncharacteristic boldness – even if led by only a few employees, all protected by anonymity – mark the start of meaningful transformation? Perhaps a new cohort of values-centric workers could pressure a seemingly ingrained culture to budge – something that Di Fronzo says his graduates increasingly desire. Nectar users are also given special offers to earn more points on specific items tailored to their buying habits. The details of the training were not divulged when more information was requested, but what Sir John did say was that an integral lesson was learning how to hold the line. The major rewards trip

Turn your bank points and other loyalty points to BIG Points easily. Receive your BIG Points instantly when you convert via BIG Xchange – no need to fill up forms! In 1998, we set up the original pyramids for ‘zero-tolerance’ behaviour - the concept is called Positive Discipline and Behaviour,” he says. “The two ‘pyramid’ structures work up in a hierarchical sense, one for reward and one for punishment. It was only when the school joined the TGAT in 2015 and implemented the positive discipline model that everything changed, he says. However, just because these entry-level workers have some sense of what they’re going to be up against, it doesn’t always mean they’re adequately prepared, or that their expectations match their eventual reality. Influenced”, according to Sir John, by Canadian and Scandinavian approaches to behaviour, Positive Discipline and Behaviour is, he says, a “clear, tight model for punishing and sanctioning behaviour that is absolutely not open to discussion or negotiation”. Behaviour management approach