Managing behaviour - part 3 of several

Names on the board

A slight digression. I used this technique in a school where behaviour was poor. A teacher of music was having great difficulty controlling a year 8 class. As always, not every child was misbehaving, but very few, if any, could learn anything. Noisy and disrespectful behaviours. You probably can get the picture.

The school used a system of restorative justice. It is a system that works but not to change systematic poor behaviour across the school. The senior leaders’ classes were reasonably well behaved, and some teachers, who ‘allowed’ some misbehaviour to let the misbehaving children almost “do what they wanted” if they did not disrupt “too much”.

The headteacher was not particularly supportive of me as she and I had very different views about changing school behaviour. She believed that restorative justice would do it. I did not subscribe to that belief! A year after I had worked with a few of the teachers, she was replaced, and the new head took a very different approach. The school is now working well and has an effective behaviour management system.

For three of the teachers I worked with, after observing their lessons and discussing planning etc I introduced the system I call “names on the board”.

Basically, if a child misbehaves, their initials are put on the whiteboard. This is done so the child knows their name has been noted. The misbehaviour is pointed out, but no discussion of that misbehaviour is countenanced. Arguing after being told to stop would be noted with an X against their initials. Initials plus 2 X’s mean a sanction, detention or note in the class report.

With the music teacher, 3 lessons were enough for the class to totally change their behaviour for the better. The previously harassed teacher was able to calmly teach, and the class were able to learn. At no time in any of my work with the three teachers did any of the senior leadership team visit the lesson. They knew these teachers were having difficulties with their classes, but the culture was one where teachers who could not manage a class needed to be able to sort the issues themselves.

In my own school, I used the same system. When I visited classrooms, any child whose initials had one X against their name had a chat with me outside the classroom. More of that process later. Next blog post, probably.

Look around for the previous posts on this subject.

Appreciate any comments or questions.