Schools are incredibly busy, complex places. They are communities - with hundreds, if not thousands, of pupils, along with hundreds of staff in some larger schools - and there is a lot happening at any one time.
And among all of this, staff have the vital role of managing, supporting and improving the behaviour of those in the building.
Thankfully, technology is increasingly offering ways to assist with this process. When done well, it can handle a lot of the groundwork, freeing up precious time and resources. So, how could you be using tech to improve behaviour in your school?
Better visibility of issues
Need to know how many uniform issues you have? There’s an alert for that. Need to know how many detentions have been set on a given day? There’s a report for that.
A lot of behaviour management software can be configured to meet a school’s specific needs, and by engineering your system to work exactly how you want it to, you can allow the technology to alert you to trends as and when needed, meaning that rapid and appropriate action can be taken.
Better analysis of incidents
Behaviour management technology also allows for greater analysis of incidents, including through presenting live data about what is happening on any given day.
Having access to this rich data means that the professionals working on behaviour can make use of their skills in analysing what is happening and plan deliberate and targeted steps for improvement.
Better pattern-spotting over time
The longer that schools are able to use technology, the richer the data becomes and the better for spotting patterns over time.
It can be incredibly useful to look at a breakdown of behaviour incidents across an academic year, for example, and see where hotspots were. You may not be able to go back and change these, but you can use this information proactively to make informed decisions and plan strategies for the next one.
And this doesn’t just have to be on an annual basis, you can explore patterns on a termly, half-termly or even weekly basis. Getting technology to do this leg work for you means you don’t have to use your time on endless data trawls.
Better ability to be reactive
Tech can help to empower school leaders to work proactively, but sometimes we also need to be reactive. Things can change quickly in a school and a positive culture can be undermined without prompt and effective responses. So being able to see where issues are occurring and react swiftly is key.
Of course, there are no panaceas in education and improvements take time to become embedded. One of the major benefits of using technology in this way is that it can help with this when you can’t see the wood for the trees in your interventions.
Its greatest strength is in taking away relatively straightforward jobs, allowing the professionals in schools to get on with using their skills in a way that will impact more pupils. It isn’t technology that will change young people’s lives, it is the work that is done with them by dedicated professionals in schools. But it certainly can help.
Amy Forrester is an English teacher and director of behaviour and futures at Cockermouth School in Cumbria
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