Whether you’re a battle-hardened stalwart who has been in the profession for decades, or a wide-eyed new arrival taking your first tentative steps into the classroom, managing behaviour can often be a source of huge anxiety as a new academic year begins.

Post-pandemic, those anxieties may be even more pronounced, with reports of increased instances of behaviour disruption at all phases of the sector.

While managing the behaviour of certain individuals can be incredibly complex - with SEND and mental health, as well as poverty, often factors - I do think there are common, successful approaches teachers can rely on in many situations.

Likewise, while whole-school policies - such as phone bans, centralised detentions, coherent behaviour policies and a strong and supportive SLT - are vital to ensuring a safe, calm and productive environment, not every school has those things in place yet and we need to help teachers in those contexts while school leadership teams work to remedy that.

Even where those things are in place already, teachers still need tools to use day in, day out in the classroom.

As I outline in my new book, The Behaviour Whisperer, classroom teachers’ communication with students has perhaps the biggest influence of all approaches to behaviour. As such, the basis of this piece is fine-tuning communication techniques.

What follows are five common behaviour scenarios and ‘mini scripts’ to tackle those scenarios.

They are subtle tweaks to how we speak to pupils, shifting the message given and with careful implementation plans. A little can go a long way.

These scenarios can provide the basis for more generalised communication techniques for behaviour management that can help you get through the next school year with calm, happy classrooms and anxiety-free teaching.

1. The student who misbehaves in your first lesson

No matter how long you’ve been teaching, meeting a new class for the first time can be a nervy experience. You compose yourself with a deep breath, greet them and allocate their seats. All seems to be going well…

It soon becomes apparent, however, that one student is straight into a disruptive stride. With this student, there will be no behaviour honeymoon period.

What’s the best way of showing this student that you mean business?

Avoid saying:
“[Student’s name], I’m going to have my eye on you from now on.”

Reframe for success:
“You’ve not made a good first impression. I want you to show me the real, polite, hard-working you.”

How to put it into action:
Anxieties about making a strong initial impression can lead to overreactions and rash statements. In an effort to prove our authority, we can make public threats that create a hostile environment from the outset.

A more effective way of dealing with a student immediately pushing boundaries is to get the class started on a task and then have a very quiet word with the wayward individual.

Phrased positively, it’s possible to communicate that you’re not happy with how they’ve behaved so far but there is the chance for the student to alter your view of them.

This approach makes clear that you won’t stand for any nonsense, but that you’re also willing to give second chances rather than jumping to conclusions about a student based on a poor first impression.

2. The class that talks over you

You’re in the middle of explaining a complex piece of information. Looking around, you see a few groups of students indulging in off-task chatter. They’re not listening to you. With this class, private conversations are happening all the time.

How should you deal with this vexing problem?

Avoid saying:
“Stop talking while I’m talking. It’s so rude!”

Reframe for success:
“A reminder that when I’m speaking, nobody else speaks.”

How to put it into action:
It takes time to improve the listening habits of a chatty class. Some students will need frequent reminders of your expectations before they modify their behaviour. Publicly displaying your annoyance and directing it at individual students tends to lead to an escalation of the unwanted behaviour.

If, despite your pre-warning reminder, students continue to chat, then appropriate consequences will be necessary. But this depersonalised, unequivocal yet non-confrontational stance usually leads to quieter classes much quicker than sanctions alone.

3. The class that claims your sanctions are unfair

With this class, whenever you make key behaviour management calls, it feels like you’re a football referee surrounded by gesticulating players. Every decision is questioned, with opinionated classmates chipping in loudly and unhelpfully.

How can you tackle behaviour and maintain control of the class?

Avoid saying:
“My decisions are final. I don’t care what you think.”

Reframe for success:
“If I get things wrong, I will happily change my mind. But my expectations are really clear. Let me remind the class what behaviours I need to see.”

How to put it into action:
Teachers sometimes make mistakes. Misreading situations. Cases of mistaken identity. Scattergun sanctions. For this reason, it’s always worth buying yourself a bit of time to think about whether you made the right call. A rigid refusal to perform a U-turn can lead to a teacher/class breakdown, fuelled by feelings of injustice.

With some classes, of course, even reasonable decisions are challenged, simply because some students refuse to take responsibility for their actions.

Being able to quickly evaluate the fairness of our sanctions is an important skill for any teacher. Once we’re sure we’ve made the right call, we can stand firm behind our decisions.

Our calls won’t always be popular, but by offering a general reminder of precise expectations we can prevent the break of new mutiny.

4. The student who is a persistent pen-tapper

As you begin your instructions to the class, all is calm. But halfway through your second sentence, your thoughts are interrupted by an abrupt break in the silence.

Having deconstructed their pen, a student is now using the component parts to tap out some indecipherable Morse code on the table. By now, the noise is more than an irritant: the class is losing focus and, against the backdrop of the nib’s repetitive beats, you’ve forgotten what you were saying.

How can you stop this fidgeting percussionist from derailing your explanations?

Avoid saying:
“Can you please stop doing that!”

Reframe for success:
“A reminder that all pens need to be down while I’m speaking.”

Why does this work?
For some students, pen tapping is deliberately disruptive, displaying their reluctance to pay attention. In this case, the noise is designed to annoy, becoming a gradual test of your patience.
For other students, however, pen tapping is unintentional, a natural ‘fidgety’ movement that they aren’t always aware that they’re doing.

Either way, publicly reprimanding the student is unlikely to improve the situation.

Those disrupting purposely will gain social kudos, while the unintentional disruptor will feel unfairly treated. Instead, depersonalise your reminder of expectations to the class in a clear and calm manner.

Follow this up by having a discreet word with ‘fidgety’ tappers, discussing inaudible alternatives - like a finger tapped on the palm - that don’t get in the way of other students’ focus.

5. The class that doesn’t do homework

In lessons, the class does their best and works hard for you. Completing work outside of school is, however, a wholly different situation.

Whenever it’s time to collect the allocated homework, all you tend to receive is a litany of excuses. Any work that is submitted is usually rushed or copied verbatim from a webpage. Detentions and phone calls home make little difference.

How can you get them to complete homework?

Avoid saying:
“Hands up everyone who hasn’t done homework. Right, you’re on my detention list again.”

Reframe for success:
“I’ll be coming round soon to collect homework. I’m looking forward to seeing work that’s really going to help you improve in this subject.”

How to implement it:
In the short term, detentions and other sanctions might boost homework uptake. But to build and sustain a culture of homework completion, you need to work on students’ intrinsic motivation.

In other words, you need to convince students that homework is not just a chore to be done to avoid missing break time or something to be done to get a reward, like a nice shiny gold star.

Instead, you need to help them come to realise that homework is something that students finish because it is a vital component of academic success, valuable in its own right. They need to see that doing homework enhances their knowledge and leads to them feeling more confident about their progress in the subject. ;

Tell students you won’t be giving them homework just because the timetable demands it. Let them know that every piece of work you set will be vital to their progress.

Show how homework completion boosts progress by making explicit links between success with tasks in class and work that’s been done at home. This will motivate them to complete further homework. Finally, take away the social rewards for non-completion. Collect homework discreetly and don’t advertise who is on the detention list!

Broadening the techniques

These subtle tweaks in messaging can work in so many different situations. And because they shift the emphasis from negative to positive, you will feel more comfortable and confident using them.

Through a carefully planned communication reboot that includes a focus on implementation, you’ll see a shift in students’ negative attitudes and create a greater desire to learn. As the teacher, you will feel more in control and that confidence will reap huge rewards.

Yes, it may seem simple, but often the simple shifts have the largest impact - and we are never too experienced for a reminder about the basics and a jolt out of any bad habits we have accumulated. Good luck!

Mark Roberts is director of research and English teacher at Carrickfergus Grammar School in Northern Ireland and author of books including The Behaviour Whisperer

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