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behaviour

What do new teachers need to know about behaviour management?

2016-07-27T14:35:37+01:00July 26th, 2016|behaviour, training|

Full disclosure: this article appeared first on the Teachers Register blog. Teachers Register is an online solution for schools needing supply teachers without wanting the hassle of going through a supply agency. You can follow them on Twitter here. When I first resolved to train as a teacher – and worse still, a secondary school teacher – everyone I informed of this momentous decision would stare at me aghast and ask, with varying degrees of pity and horror, “What do you want to do that for?” Then they’d sigh and mutter something along the lines of, “Well, rather you then me.” Teenagers [...]

What I know about whether ‘no excuses’ behaviour systems work

2016-12-31T15:01:56+00:00April 25th, 2016|behaviour|

I read John Tomsett's account of his speech at Michaela School's Debate on 23rd April on why 'no excuses' behaviour systems don't work with great interest. As a speech it is well researched, well argued and kinda misses the point. He acknowledges this when he says, "If I’m against “no excuses” discipline, I must, logically, be in favour of “excuses” discipline" but then dismisses this as "nonsense". But is it? He says that "relentless rigorous routines, and consistent, and I mean truly consistent, implementation of behaviour systems were the bedrock of good behaviour management in schools". What's that if not 'no excuses' discipline? [...]

The role of teachers is not to make managers’ lives easier

2016-02-29T19:17:28+00:00February 29th, 2016|behaviour, leadership, workload|

"To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them." Benjamin Disraeli Questions about the purpose of education divide and bedevil: there's no real agreement about what education is for. But what about teachers? Surely, even if we disagree about what exactly teachers ought to teach we all at least agree they should be teaching children something? And - at least in theory - I think we do, broadly, agree that teachers should teach. Whatever your ideological stripe, you probably agree that the education of children - whatever that means - is the main thing. Everything else is peripheral. [...]

When planning fails… what to do when behaviour breaks down

2016-02-17T15:50:51+00:00February 17th, 2016|behaviour, leadership|

"There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring." Winston Churchill Lots of people who don't normally like the stuff I write seemed to approve of the post I wrote on responsibly planning for predictable behaviour to reduce exclusions, and some of those who are usually approving were less pleased. There's two things I might take from this: 1) I've occupied the centre ground and communicated a moderate message that confirmed readers' biases, or 2) I didn't manage to explain myself very well. I think there's a bit of both at work. My point is that we should plan [...]

Taking responsibility for predictable problems

2016-02-18T17:33:18+00:00February 16th, 2016|behaviour, leadership|

"All stable processes we shall predict. All unstable processes we shall control." John Von Neumann Let me preface all this by saying that I think refusing to accept excuses for low standards and poor behaviour is a very good thing. Here's what 'no excuses' means to me: Making an excuse is failing to take responsibility. The students most likely to be excluded from school are the most vulnerable. This may, in some circumstances, be unavoidable. After spending quite a bit of time looking into the work of Virtual Schools (Local Authority bodies with a specific responsibility for the education over children in the Local Authority's care) the [...]

What every teacher needs to know about…Zero Tolerance

2016-06-07T16:09:00+01:00November 21st, 2015|behaviour|

My latest column for the wonderful folk at Teach Secondary magazine looks at the ins and outs of "Zero Tolerance" behaviour systems. There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. Edmund Burke If you’re going to manage children’s behaviour you need a healthy balance of carrot and stick. Positive reinforcement is great, but at some point children confront us with behaviour that requires sanctioning. After many years of the education system tolerating woefully low standards of behaviour (we all have our particular horror stories) the pendulum has swung to the right. More and more schools are adopting a ‘zero-tolerance’ [...]

See it, own it: how to destroy a school

2019-11-10T15:44:05+00:00August 31st, 2015|behaviour|

I went for a coffee with a former colleague a few days ago and inevitably, after some small talk, the conversation turned to a discussion of his school. He started off by confiding that the GCSE results had fallen again, before launching into a tirade about how unbearable he found teaching. One of his biggest bugbears was the school's behaviour policy. This 'policy' has been rebranded under the heading 'See it, own it'. Essentially, this means that when teachers see students flouting the school rules they must then own the consequences and enforce the appropriate sanction. There are no whole school systems to [...]

20 psychological principles for teachers #17 Classroom management

2015-07-12T13:06:45+01:00June 28th, 2015|behaviour, psychology|

This is #17 in my series on the Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning and is the second of two posts examining how classrooms should be managed: "Effective class- room management is based on (a) setting and communicating high expectations, (b) consistently nurturing positive relationships, and (c) providing a high level of student support." It's an oft-repeated truism that nobody rises to low expectations. This is as true of standards of behaviour as it is for academic achievement; the more you expect, the higher you place the bar, the less children will expect to get away with. What we accept [...]

I fought the law and the law won

2016-09-14T11:01:09+01:00May 15th, 2015|behaviour|

There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet. Samuel Beckett Yesterday I attended a Speed Awareness Course. I wasn't sure what to expect but was mainly relieved not to get another 3 points on my licence. At worst it would a dull four hours, at best I might learn something. The course started with participants being asked about what excuses we might make for speeding. We came up with the usual suspects: hospital emergencies, first offences, "it's perfectly safe on this stretch of road", needing a clean licence in order to work, lack of [...]

What ‘no excuses’ means to me

2020-07-07T12:03:57+01:00May 13th, 2015|behaviour|

And oftentimes excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse, As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the fault Than did the fault before it was so patch’d. Shakespeare, King John Let's begin by defining our terms. The dictionary is instructive and offers several different definitions: an explanation offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation, promise,etc.: His excuse for being late was unacceptable. a ground or reason for excusing or being excused: Ignorance is no excuse. a pretext or subterfuge: He [...]

'No excuses' is no excuse

2015-05-13T11:31:38+01:00May 13th, 2015|behaviour|

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. Rudyard Kipling I was a bit taken aback at the vigour and vitriol with which some people condemned Michaela School's approach to behaviour. The argument seemed to go that if you refuse to accept poor behaviour then you simply pass on the problem to another school. As far as I can see, that's entirely up to other schools. Consider this scenario. A town has two secondary schools, New Free School and Old Comprehensive School. New Free School has just opened its doors and has made the decision that it [...]

Collective punishment

2019-10-24T09:56:38+01:00March 2nd, 2015|behaviour|

Collective punishment is the punishment of a group for the actions of an individual. The logic is that if one terrorist (or freedom fighter) launches some kind of attack on an oppressor, then reprisals will be visited on his or her community. The threat of such retaliation is intended to quell civil disobedience before it even occurs through peer pressure: if I know you are planning something the authorities will object to I will seek to persuade you not to carry out your plan so that I and the rest of our community will be spared the punishment which should rightfully [...]

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