“You’ll never have a second chance to create a good first impression.”

This well-known saying has formed the basis of many a conversation between teachers and demotivated or disruptive pupils. The hope is that it will encourage a positive attitude to learning. I think it does the opposite.

I would argue that second chances to make a good impression are exactly what teachers should be offering their students. Indeed, doing so should be integral to every behaviour management policy.

The issue is the power of reputation and how it can cause, as well as be caused by, a student’s actions. How often have you used the phrase “He’s always like that” or complained about how “She constantly disrupts lessons”? Working in a secondary school, I am often saddened to meet individuals who have already given up on themselves; resigned to a reputation that they feel destined to carry for life.

Before we even meet a “difficult” pupil, we have read their file, examined their behaviour record and overheard the staffroom stories. Unintentionally, preconceptions begin to build and our initial meeting can result in wary glances and a general feeling of apprehension. The pupil, now on the defensive, may fulfil all expectations, thus validating our initial assumptions.

A perpetual self-fulfilling cycle then ensues, in which poor behaviour reinforces that reputation. Without a chance for redemption, behaviour deteriorates and learning opportunities dwindle. This is the cycle that I believe we need to break, and it can only be achieved through genuine forgiveness.

Before you start to think this is a soft approach to defiance, let me reassure you that a fresh-start strategy in no way detracts from the rules, sanctions and reward systems that are the mainstay of any good school. In fact, if anything, the consistent boundaries and consequences offered by such policies are essential for pupils who may lack clear guidance in other aspects of their lives. This advice is, therefore, not an alternative to traditional behaviour management, but simply a way of starting over with a truly clean slate.

Imagine the scenario: Tommy arrives to class 10 minutes late (as usual), throws the door open announcing his arrival and noisily takes his seat. Any pupil engagement you have achieved up until this point is wiped out and you are now competing with a 12-year-old boy for the class’ attention.

Despite your best efforts and most interactive teaching strategies, Tommy continues to defy all rules and disrupts the lesson to the point where he is eventually removed from the classroom following a tirade of foul language (from him, not you, hopefully).

Even as a professional, it is hard not to be affected in some way by this experience, and your pleasant facade could begin to crumble under the weight of these underlying emotions. This is where forgiveness comes into play. By making a special effort to start afresh with a pupil, you give them the opportunity to change their behaviour. It is amazing how disarming something as simple as a smile or a friendly greeting can be.

After a particularly difficult classroom experience, I make sure to seek out the pupil in question while walking in the corridor, make eye contact and initiate a basic “hello”. The shock is often clear on their face, but the gesture is almost always returned; you can feel their hostility begin to lift. Using this, or a similar strategy, proves just as effective on arrival to the classroom, where a genuinely warm welcome can facilitate a positive start to an otherwise strained lesson.

If it does not work, then you use the sanctions. But once the lesson is over, you wipe the slate and start again.

People often ask me, “How can you work with teenagers?” My response is always the same: “I try to take each day - or lesson, or minute, or second - as a clean slate and start again.” Otherwise you will remain stuck in the reputation reinforcement cycle forever.

Abigail Joachim is a higher-level teaching assistant in the English department at a secondary academy in Suffolk

This is an article from the 24 June edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here

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