In my NQT year I had a pupil who would shout “BORING” at the top of his voice whenever I was demonstrating a skill I wanted the class to practise.  

My husband still laughs about it and likes to recreate it whenever I ask him to do something he doesn’t want to do, like take the bins out. 

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Funny at home, but in the classroom it was a real nuisance, causing mass disruption to my Year 7 class who were usually watching to see how I would react.

However, my plan was not to react. I ignored it. I just continued teaching.

It would go on for a few minutes, with each “boring” almost acting like punctuation, but he eventually grew bored of the lack of attention and stopped. With each one of these outbursts, they lasted less and less time.

While this seemed to work, there is definitely a fine line between a teacher using deliberate ignoring as a tactic to control a situation and just hoping it will go away. Plus there is always the risk it encourages more - possibly worse - behaviour.

After all if the pupil feels that they have just managed to get away with behaviour that you do not want to see in your classroom, and no attention has been bought to them, they may be tempted to up the ante - go big or go home - perhaps literally.

It is a tough balance but if you are going to try a tactical ignore strategy, here are five ways to give it the best chance to succeed.

1. Plan for it 

If they’ve done it once, then they will probably do it again, so get a plan in place, and let the class be a part of it, too. In my case, I asked for the head of year to facilitate an opportunity for me to talk to the class without the pupil.

I was able to explain to them the need to help him learn by not getting involved. This also gave them the chance to tell me their frustrations and be heard - and therefore get on board with my plan.

2. Respond during the lesson 

After ignoring any outburst I would, after setting a task, go and talk to the student and in doing so have a quiet word to let him know that I had acknowledged what he had done, even if it seemed like I hadn’t noticed, and it was neither needed or acceptable - allowing me to dictate when I was addressing his behaviour, not him.

3. Follow up after the lesson

Furthermore, at the end of the lesson I would speak to him about why they felt the lesson was boring, was there anything I could do to make it more interesting?

Was there a more productive way that he could tell me that he was struggling with the lesson? Could we use his red, amber, green pages instead and display a red so I could come and see him? What other non-verbal cues could we use? 

4. Involve home support 

Talking to home about the incident and asking for their involvement in making clear such actions as not acceptable is a must. This also underlines that to the pupil that while you may have ignored the behaviour in the lesson, it was noted and will lead to consequences.

5. Unacceptable actions

During all of this, we should always re-enforce the message that certain behaviours are unacceptable during lessons. While it is important to be nurturing of their needs, I also think it is imperative to set out your guidelines and boundaries. 

All in all, as long as you are able to use tactical ignoring along with all of the other tools that go with it, it can be a very robust and useful part of your behaviour management strategy.

Unless it’s when you’re asking your husband to take the bins out - then you should expect obedience.

Nikki Cunningham-Smith is an assistant headteacher in Gloucestershire