Since the pandemic the rise in challenging behaviours has been well documented.
In response many schools are revitalising behaviour policies to align with modern-day theory to try to reduce the impact on classroom practice and teacher and pupil wellbeing.
One approach that has become increasingly popular is the use of a “behaviour curriculum’. These aim to explicitly teach pupils how to navigate the complex social dynamics of school life, fostering a culture of respect, understanding and empathy.
However, while this can certainly be effective, there are three key steps that must be taken to ensure that your behaviour curriculum works - rather than it being merely a sticking plaster for a much bigger issue.
Getting your behaviour curriculum right
Stage 1: Be honest about your concerns
Creating a behaviour curriculum is not a simple task, not least because each school needs to consider what it needs its own curriculum to focus on and what it wants to achieve.
This means going through a reflective process that scrutinises your existing challenges, pinpoints the main issues within the school and identifies the attributes that you wish your students to embody moving forward.
For example, you may have concerns about corridor behaviour, low-level disruption in classrooms or uniform adherence - whatever it is, it is crucial that you are honest about the issues you want to fix and then think about how you can approach them.
One effective way to do this is by asking staff for their insights via a behaviour audit. This will allow staff to be honest about the issues they are experiencing, and it avoids senior leaders failing to emphasise or be aware of the concerns of classroom teachers
Once you have done this, you can then share the results with staff to help them understand the areas of concern identified and what the focus will be for the work ahead.
Senior leaders can build on this by considering not just what needs fixing but also the school’s aspirations for positive behaviours. Fostering these positive behaviours can help to reduce the need for the enforcement of behaviour policies.
Stage 2: Frontload your message and teach your routines
Once you have done the above, you can then put a timeline together for how and when the new work in this area will be rolled out across the school.
For instance, if the initial week is dedicated to improving corridor behaviour, begin by sharing key strategies and the rationale with your staff during professional development sessions so they are clear on what is expected.
Simultaneously, educate students on the identified problems and necessary improvements during tutor time and assemblies, so they, too, understand that this is an area of focus and will be being monitored.
Doing this can help both teachers and students move through this transition and it means the new requirement does not feel like an arbitrary focus on a rule that was never enforced before. It is instead seen as part of a clearly communicated new behaviour focus.
Ultimately, whether addressing a uniform infringement in the corridor or demonstrating how students should respond to sanctions, clarity in your methodology will help to shape culture.
Stage 3: Embed your curriculum into your culture
The fundamental mistake in teaching positive behaviour lies in setting expectations at the start of an academic year and hoping that these endure without ongoing reinforcement. This usually requires a “behaviour reset” assembly when things have deteriorated to a certain level.
Instead of waiting for behaviour to deteriorate, pastoral leaders aiming for lasting change should frequently review expectations in assemblies and tutor times to reiterate expectations and the reasons behind them.
Moreover, providing teachers with just a single behaviour presentation at the beginning of the year is simply inadequate.
The goal should be to offer continuous support and coaching to teachers. This involves coordinating the student pastoral programme with the teacher personal development plan.
Your expectations and the behaviour curriculum also need regular assessment and integration into your school’s culture.
This might involve consistent communication with students through assemblies and tutor times, or weekly quizzes to reinforce key concepts from the behaviour curriculum, ensuring that the material is actively experienced and underscored, rather than merely presented and forgotten.
Ultimately, the implementation of a behaviour curriculum is not a new phenomenon. However, its execution should be well-considered, focused on long-term integration and tailored to fit the unique needs and culture of your specific school setting.
Mohamed Ibrahim is a secondary school Sendco and former head of year in the UK and the Middle East. He tweets @Edunomics_
