All Year 9 and 11 pupils at Hartshead Sports College, which is in special measures and improving, were offered iPods, mobile phones, DVD players, meals for two at Pizza Hut and shopping vouchers for good behaviour inside and outside school.
When the pilot project was launched in January, there were four incidents of public order and race hate crimes every week in and around the Ashton under Lyne school. Since the scheme has been running, there have been none.
Complaints to Greater Manchester Police of youths causing nuisance and general anti-social behaviour in the Smallshaw and Hazelhurst areas have been slashed by more than 40 per cent.
Hartshead recorded its best-ever GCSE results earlier this year, with 46 per cent of pupils achieving at least five A* to C grades.
Rewards
Six of the 260 pupils taking part scored maximum points collecting top-of-the-range iPods and one collected £150 worth of shopping vouchers for JD Sports. Other pupils picked up rewards, ranging from a rollerball pen - for the lowest number of points - to vouchers, tokens and clothing.
Pupils collected points daily for attendance, punctuality, contributing to school life, class work, homework and revision. Children involved in anti-social behaviour outside the school day or caught misbehaving in school were disqualified from the scheme.
Sid Rao, 14, who was presented with a DVD player, said: "Everyone knew what you had to do to get points and it stopped a lot of people from doing bad stuff."
Simrat Bala, 14, who picked up £150 worth of shopping vouchers for JD Sports, said: "The scheme was good because it changed the way a lot of people behaved."
Katie Walker, 14, awarded £100 worth of shopping vouchers for JD Sports, said: "I was doing the best I could to get points and I knew I would if I behaved perfectly."
Dr Bulvinder Michael, deputy head at Hartshead said: "The rewards scheme has done more than we thought possible, and both students and the community have benefited.
"The record pass rates are attributable to lots of improvements we've made but the rewards scheme is certainly one."
Pc Steve Hodgson, community beat manager, said: "This scheme has had a significant impact in the community."
The housing association New Charter piloted the scheme at Hartshead and it has now been expanded to cover the whole school.
Hartshead Sports College and Stamford Community High School will be brought together as the New Charter Academy in September 2008.
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Why should kids be bribed to behave well with goodies and treats? They should learn to behave well in the first place then they wouldn't need to be punished/locked up/remanded in custody etc NOT BE BRIBED BY THIS DOGOODING SOFTIE SCHEME.
Is this bribary to get kids to behave themselves or is it rewarding good behaviour? I would like to think its the latter - its better than what the loony liberals have done over the last 25 years, rewarding bad behaviour. Not only that but it is having positive results - may be it works!
I agree that it's a shame that it's come to this, but as per the previous comment, at least it's having positive results.
Thanks to Thatcher, children and young people today are driven by materialism. Rather than criticise it (it's too late), people need to accept it and adapt, which is what seems to have happened here.
At first I thought why should the council tax payer be paying for I-pods and mobile phones for these kids but we have been coughing up for years for the kids who can't bahave to go on trips and get all sorts of treats while the kids who do well get nothing. I hope this works and it's about time the good kids are rewarded for their efforts.
i think it is a good idea although there are similar schemes in jobs these days. i.e. in some companys they reward staff who don't phone in sick for a year with a bonus.