I would like to offer some thoughts that, I hope, make sense to headteachers looking to establish a productive and positive ethos when it comes to behaviour.
The first thing I’d say to a headteacher is to avoid the mistake of thinking that “consequences” manage behaviour - they actually only manage misbehaviour. My golden rule is that the best resource you have to get the behaviour you want is the good behaviour you already get.
So, ask yourself first: what do I do, in my school, to exemplify the good behaviour I want to see from all pupils?
By that, I don’t mean rewards that some teachers give and some don’t, or “merits” (or “demerits”) that sit on computer systems gathering virtual dust. I mean the language every single teacher uses in every behavioural interaction to support the school values that, for many, only ever exist on a wall poster.
Do I, for example, have a commitment from every teacher to say, dozens of times a day, “your uniform today shows real respect for the school - thanks”, or “this task shows you’ve given me your very best effort; I appreciate it”? This is a foundational principle of behaviour management philosophies from both “sides” of the debate: Lee Canter calls it “catching them being good”, while Paul Dix uses the phrase “first attention to best conduct”.
Imagine five support assistants run ragged by wagging their fingers at litter louts: instead, have them say five times at intervals, “thanks for respecting the school by putting that in the bin, Callum”, and 10 times at lunchtime, “great to see you, Amrit - remember, respect the school and put that in the bin when you’ve finished”. That’s 75 positive messages supporting your values every day, 375 a week, 1,500 a month. Which approach will be more effective at curing littering and be more likely to benefit your staff’s wellbeing? And that’s just five support assistants.
Train your staff how to talk to pupils. Use scripts: they remove the emotion from a situation, and this ensures that every teacher - from the new probationer to the 30-year veteran - communicates your school’s expectations in exactly the same way. Teachers are reduced to tears - or to shouting or to drink - because they have reached the point where they don’t know what to say or do. So empower them with a mutually agreed language so that they never enter a situation without the words to handle it.
And encourage them to be truly restorative. This doesn’t mean giving them a set of cards that they shuffle through as a “miscreant” fidgets before them; restorative practices are a mindset, not a set of prompt cards. Train them to reframe conversations, because looking at problems from many perspectives offers the hope of solutions to young people and their stressed-out teachers. And it builds empathy.
Ensure your staff have time for those conversations. One hugely positive change I’ve seen managers make is around “on call” systems. Rather than roaming the corridors waiting for a Code Red on the walkie-talkie to pounce on Darren in S3 when he acts up again, arrive at the classroom, be a source of calm and sum up the situation. If, as is usual, it’s a relatively minor disruption (“he won’t give me his mobile phone”; “she refuses to move seat”), take the class while the teacher leaves with the pupil to resolve the issue. This is really what upskilling your staff entails: giving them confidence in their practice so that they can take charge of (almost) every situation they encounter- and being present when they can’t.
I wrote this response to challenge fundamental flaws in certain arguments about behaviour that were made in a recent Tes piece. For instance, the belief that accepting that behaviour is communication (it is) somehow “excuses” inappropriate behaviour (it doesn’t), or that “teaching behaviour” consists of making explicit what punishments a pupil can expect.
At a time when the Covid pandemic has focused us on the wellbeing of staff and young people, and when we’re having debates about modernising what we teach and how we assess it, we should not be seeing classroom relationships through the lens of policing “problem behaviour” - this only encourages us to hanker after approaches that we know didn’t work in the past and certainly don’t work now.
It’s time to think big, and to be more innovative about the ethos of our schools.
Raymond Soltysek is a teacher, former education lecturer and behaviour consultant
