Cast your mind back. When did you get in trouble at school? And what for?
At primary school, Mr Speed threw the board rubber at me for talking when I shouldn’t have been. A feature that appeared on many school reports!
At secondary school, an incident involving Darren Wiggs, a bull’s eye and more throwing meant that we had to spend alternate biology lessons outside the classroom, as we weren’t allowed in the same room at the same time.
And on a school trip to Wembley, I took a bite of an apple and then threw the rest of it down to my mate at the front of the coach - only to miss and hit the driver on the back of the head. Luckily, we were stationary at the time, but I still got an almighty rollicking from the teacher in charge… and the driver!
It wasn’t the time to say that, ‘In my defence, Mr Speed has taught me all I know.’
Why am I telling you this? Is it to prove I was a badass at school? Definitely not.
As well as thinking about some of the things that you got up to at school, I want you to think about the low-level behaviours that you see nowadays from children and young people and the effect that they’re having on your team.
Why are low-level behaviours a problem?
Teaching is stressful enough without having to deal constantly with people talking when they shouldn’t be (sorry, Mr Speed), shouting out, swinging on chairs, playing with phones, answering back, etc.
If left unchallenged, it can:
- Cause teachers to lose their flow.
- Lead to too many distractions and frustration for those who do want to learn.
- Encourage others to join in – leading to a lack of teaching and learning, which, if it happens regularly, can impact on life chances.
Most worryingly, as we have a recruitment and retention crisis, constantly having to deal with low-level behaviours is leading to teachers leaving the profession in their thousands. The numbers vary, depending on which research you read, but according to Teachwire, ‘62% of the teachers we polled said that they are currently, or have previously, considered leaving the profession because of poor pupil behaviour.’
It's annoying, it’s demoralising, and it leads to a lack of motivation to get up in the morning.
How can leaders help people to better manage behaviour?
As we all know, #Edutwitter can be a supportive place – especially if you’re posting cute cat photos. But when behaviour management strategies are discussed, it seems that people enjoy the sound of their online voice, making nasty comments and throwing virtual board rubbers at each other. Which is ironic, considering the topic…
There are, however, some measured and helpful people, such as @tombennett71 and @pauldixtweets. Their comments are always worth mulling on, whether your school policy is zero tolerance or restorative practice, silent corridors or ones where students can have a chat, excluding or not excluding.
Unfortunately, there is no magic wand when it comes to managing behaviour well. After all, people are unpredictable – children, young people and adults. But here are some ideas.
Listening to and acting on opinions about behaviour – that means everyone’s!
Don’t you love it when you think everyone’s on board, everyone buys into your vision, and everyone would do things in the same way that you do? And then you send out a staff questionnaire…
As a Head, I was always pleased that the vast majority of my team replied positively to how behaviour was managed in my school. However, there were always a couple of responses that said it could and should be better.
At this point, it’s easy to go with the majority - i.e. those who agree with you. It can be hard to hear a voice of dissent, and when my emotional brain was in full swing, ‘behaviour could be better’ read to me like they wanted small children to be hung, drawn and quartered for their misdemeanours.
Rationally, that’s not what people wanted (at least I hope not!), but according to TeacherTapp, ‘Firmer action when students misbehave’ is the action that most teachers think would improve behaviour.
As a leader, it may be that you’re confident in your approach, but it’s always good to self-reflect when you receive feedback:
- Is your behaviour policy still fit for purpose and meeting the school’s and your values? Is it time for a review?
- Is everyone applying the policy fairly and consistently? On days when folks are not feeling it, it can be hard to maintain the same levels of rigour. Leaders are under the microscope more than most if they react in different ways on different days.
- If you’re happy with what’s happening, there are still people who aren’t. Although questionnaires are usually anonymous, you will still have a good idea of who’s struggling. What can you do to help them more?
Providing the right support to help people manage behaviour well
In your school, who is brilliant at behaviour management? And how are you enabling them to help others?
I’m not talking about the divisive person who says, ‘But they always behave for me.’ I’m talking about the person who has been there, done it, got the T-shirt… and then had a bunch of teenagers rip the p*ss out of said T-shirt.
Different approaches will work for different people. An ECT (Early Career Teacher) might benefit from being coached, with opportunities to team teach and observe. Whereas someone with more experience might welcome a mentor, a person to run things by and check in with.
For teachers whose default is to send the student out of the class to a member of SLT, setting up action learning groups could help them to FLIP their thinking, problem solve with colleagues, encourage them to take greater responsibility and reduce the reliance on others.
Having said that we want to empower people to take ownership, having leaders who are available and present can provide the boost people need. There will be days when it is tempting to stay in your office – maybe because you feel tired or demotivated. Or there will be other days when you have a heap of stuff to do, and you need to lock yourself away. At these times, have you got your own support network who can tag team and walk the walk?
Clearly communicating information and decisions about behaviour
Communication eh! Another thing that usually crops up in staff questionnaires as ‘could be better’. And, to be fair, it often could.
- How often has a parent let the school know that an incident at home might affect their child’s behaviour today, but the information hasn’t got to the right people in a timely way?
- How often have the school team not fully been told, or understood, why they are being asked to do certain things in a certain way, leading them to do their own thing, e.g.
- Having their own rewards system – which often leads to a big bag of goodies at huge personal expense, but also sets up colleagues who don’t do the same
- Having their own sanctions system, which involves very little carrot but rather big metaphorical sticks
- How often have leadership decisions, particularly ones regarding non-exclusion, not been fully explained to the adults involved so that there is some disgruntlement amongst the troops?
Our Top of the League session can help leaders and whole school teams to improve their communication, to feel happier and more motivated and to build their resilience and coping skills.
We always arrive with squidgies and curly wurlys, and although we don’t condone students or adults throwing anything in classrooms, we might also rock up with a bag full of board rubbers, bulls’ eyes and apples – just for the fun of it.
If you’re interested in any of our INSETs or twilight staff meetings, get in touch with Doug, who will let you know how we can help - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Former headteacher Sarah Creegan’s wealth of experience makes her the perfect advisor, facilitator and consultant for our education programmes. She was instrumental in developing the Happy-Centred School wellbeing programme and has been a big advocate of getting menopause awareness sessions into schools. She also once over-hugged Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle, but the less said about that, the better.
