Do you ever find your school reward systems are not working with a class and you enter a spiral of negativity and sanctions?

I wanted to reward the pupils for positive actions: I needed a currency.

Raffle tickets, I decided. When the pupils did something right they would get a ticket and the lesson would end with a draw for bags of crisps.

Pupils who misbehaved would still get some tickets and would hopefully not feel inclined to interrupt the draw.

One Friday afternoon I was armed... with books of tickets. Pupils who arrived in school uniform... ticket; equipment... ticket; hand up to answer a question... ticket; won the starter race... ticket; completed a quarter of the exercise... ticket.

They worked so quickly that I almost ran out of questions. I drew the raffle at the end; five prizes; five packets of crisps. Friday afternoon sanity had cost less then 50p Paul Ainsworth is deputy head at Belvoir High School in Bottesford, Nottingham