The supply teacher I job-shared with had, I was told, gone. And she wasn’t coming back.

So suddenly, in my NQT year, I unexpectedly had my own class, five days per week.

I spent the night panicking, and behaviour was my biggest concern. So the next morning, I sought out the wisdom of a hugely experienced teacher in the staffroom. She was kind enough to patiently talk me through a few nuggets of advice that not only meant I safely navigated that first year, but that have also assisted me with a wide variety of classes since.

Quick read: Should we use humour in behaviour management?

Quick listen: The importance of routines for learning, with Doug Lemov

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Do we do enough to keep this wisdom of experience alive in schools? Are we too often reinventing the wheel?

Here’s what she told me. How many do you use?

1. Noise Levels

Pinterest and other sites are full of clever little home-made accessories you can use to help your class know how loud to be at certain times of the day. You can write the levels on lightboxes, have them on a “barometer of sound”, whatever you like.  

I have always found that simply spending a week or two at the start of term putting energy into “training” yourself and the children is well worth it.

Two fabulous teaching students who I was lucky enough to have in my class for a term came up with their own levels. These ranged from 1-5 and went from “ninja mode” (total silence) to “outside voice”, and everything in between.

2. Non-verbal cues

A great friend of mine once had an African rain stick, which he used to ask children to stop and listen. The effect was mesmerising (the old ones are usually the best).

Another teacher I know used a metronome (the ticking was like Marmite, but did the trick).

My personal choice is calming, uplifting music, which gradually increases to a comfortable volume. This signals the end of the learning period and tells us it’s time to tidy up and get ready for lunch.  

3. Organise the ‘stuff’

OK, this bit is not rocket science. But in your class, are the resources easily labelled and accessible for the children? Because if they are, it will save you an awful lot of time.

Invest some trust in your class to gather their own resources (within reason) and it will pay back dividends.

In your class, is the equipment you need for your lesson readily to hand? Will groupings affect what children use, and if so, is it ready?  If children finish work early, can they independently access a learning activity at the right level for them? Are the rules for self and peer assessment clear so that they can get on with that without lots of teacher input?

4. Routine, routine, routine

I always think if your “cornerstone” routine is in place, then many things can go wrong and your class will be resilient enough to survive it.

When I became a parent and got involved with all kinds of new stuff like weaning (not dissimilar to lunch on a school trip) and sickness bugs (again, we’ve all been THERE in class), I realised even more how important routine is to children.

If, like me, you work with a high proportion of children with SEND, you need this to fall back on.  

But it’s flexible. So, if we know that every reading session there are monitors to hand out the comprehension cards, and monitors to tick off everyone’s name in the folder, then it’s OK if the fire alarm goes off, we’ll just pick it up later. And while we’re lining up for that fire drill, we’ll use the skills we’ve been practising all year. So we know how to line up, and who stands where. We know to listen because it’s a transition time.

5. Spoken cues

Keep these few and far between or they will lose their effectiveness. Many teachers smirk at colleagues who use “One, two, three, look at me!” type cues, and it’s true - these can be overly repetitive, meaningless and annoying.

However, if you and your Learning Squad (or whatever pet name, if any, you give your class) like a catchphrase or two then that can help everyone feel part of a team and give the children something to listen out for. Ideally spoken (not shouted) above “working noise” level, these can be as simple as “And pause…OK go!” to let them know to stop and tidy up.

These cues can also be handy if you need to do a skills check, mini plenary or just check in with your class. Some cues have children answering back, so if the teacher says “zip it, lock it…” the class say “put it in your pocket”.

Too twee for some I know, but having been faced with bringing many an unruly class around, I find these sometimes change the pace and avoid lots of shouty orders.

However, if you find yourself yelling “tootsie roll, lollipop!” to your class who then shout back “we’ve been talking, now let’s stop!” you may have taken the idea just a little too far.

And if you ever reach the day when you can merely clear your throat gently and find 30-odd pairs of eyes immediately frozen in your direction, please feel free to buy yourself that expensive whatever-it-is you’ve been eyeing up; you’ve made it to the behaviour management super league.

Lucy Moss is a key stage 2 leader in an inner-city primary school