Positive Behaviour Management & CPD News

On 5th March we are hosting our next live CPD* on ‘Positive Behaviour Management.’ This course will be facilitated by a highly experienced teacher and head of year. Tickets have sold out for this event, but we have further training available including our next behaviour management session on April 13th.

The course will show you practical classroom management strategies, how to forge strong relationships with students and staff, and how to maintain a calm learning environment. Our past events have often involved being active discussions with many questions answered by our facilitators. As we look forward to our upcoming CPD, we share with you answers to a few of the common questions we have previously received.

‘How should I approach school behaviour policies when I work in several different schools throughout the week?’

It’s important that all members of staff abide by the same policies. Some of the students you encounter may have experienced a lack of consistency in rules and routines at home. Students crave this structure in school (even if they don’t verbalise it!). Some students when greeted by an unfamiliar face (e.g. a supply teacher) may feel unsettled by this potential change in routine, or sense an opportunity to misbehave.  Consequently, clear and consistent use of the school’s behaviour policy is key!

A typical behaviour policy consists of a warning system (typically on a scale, e.g. C1 – C3 warnings) that escalate to sanctions to tackle disruptive behaviour. Policies should also outline any positive behaviour management reward schemes in place. That said, it’s advisable that you use your own behaviour management strategies within class to avoid ‘overusing’ sanctions, or ‘scaling up’ through the sanctions too early.

To illustrate this, compare the below two scenarios for the start of a lesson where a number of students are becoming chatty:

a) Praise students for making the right choices at the start of a lesson and remind talkative students of your expectations, before giving them a moment to correct their behaviour.

b) Issue ‘C1’ warnings immediately to the 4-5 students that are talking. If any continue issue final warnings and send the most disruptive students out of class to think about how they should behave.

Which would you choose? In an ideal world, option b could work well – showing the students you are not to be messed with! However, the risk you run by scaling up the behaviour policy sanctions early on is that you can end up ‘backed into a corner’: If you have issued final warning and detentions early on in a lesson you have fewer options later on and any positive praise can lose its power. We would advise keeping your options open by choosing a). It’s still possible to appear firm and fair without resorting to sanctions too soon.

Be positive but clear and consistent with your behaviour expectations.

‘I’m going to give you a moment to correct your behaviour and complete the task. If you choose not to, I will have no choice but to give you a C1 warning.’ Statements like this are clear, and also show that you are aware of the school’s behaviour policy and are not afraid to use it.

Throughout, use lots of positive reinforcement to remind the whole class of what they should be doing, ‘I can see MOST people have started brilliantly and have already completed the first task…’, but still make sure you put the warning and sanction system to use IF you need it. Sometimes a student will do something that requires the use of a warning, so make sure you do not let behaviour slip. 

‘How do you plan for a strong start to the lesson?’

We believe strong consistent lesson starts are absolutely key to behaviour management. If there is unwanted behaviour at the start of a lesson that goes unaddressed, this will only escalate as the lesson progresses. Practice maintaining a regimented start like the example below:

Be ready at the door before students arrive, managing the space and allowing students in one at a time.

Have a prepared Do Now or starter activity on the board – this should require minimal explanation or resources to focus on. The aim is for students to be active and busy as soon as they enter the classroom.

Limit resources and don’t hand out books until students need them. It’s hard to see who is not following if there are lots of items being handed out before it’s necessary.

Stop the flow of students if those in the classroom are not following Do Now instructions, and restate your expectations. Bring students back out to line up and start the process again if they are not meeting your expectations.

Display seating plan on the board at the beginning of the lesson, with ‘Do Now’ activity, for all classes. Students must sit in allocated seats – check they are sitting where they should be as they enter the room and pause the line if they are not. 

Hand out books/ complete the register whilst students are doing the Do Now or ask an early finisher to hand them out for you. The idea is that your statements at this stage are setting expectations and positively reinforcing good behaviour. You are not having to explain a complicated task until all students are calm and focused. 

Give the students time to copy the date and learning object if this is expected. But not too long. Have a second slide with the objective/aim displayed to show them that their time with the title/keywords is nearly up. This avoids any ‘go back a slide miss I’ve not written the date yet!’ related disruption.

Reveal the answers to the Do Now/Starter clearly on the next slide for students to self mark.

This entry routine should take around 5-10 minutes. Afterwards, you should be able to begin the main learning part of the lesson with a calm and responsive class. Bear in mind this may take time and practice to get right, but the results are definitely worth it!

The below offer solutions to issues that teachers have faced when trying to establish a calm entry routine:

‘I find my calm starts to a lesson get disrupted by students arriving late to class. What should I do?’

Have an open-ended ‘Do Now’ that links to the previous lesson rather than the current lesson. This means that students that arrive on time do not finish too quickly and start chatting, and those that arrive late are not disadvantaged for the lesson. Because the date and title can be written down and then the Do Now revisited, it gives the maximum time for the late students to arrive and not miss key parts of the lesson. It may be that some students arrive 5 minutes late every lesson due to attending booster sessions. This approach means you are not having to repeat instructions to the latecomer every time.

Examples of open-ended Do Now activities:

• ’42 is the answer. How many calculations that give this answer can you come up with?’
• Look at the image. Record as many descriptive phrases that we could use

‘Some of my students get stressed because they did not have time to finish the do now before I start the main part of the lesson…’

Again, an open-ended do now takes as long as YOU need it to take, and no longer. Aim for no longer than 8 minutes (meaning 5 from the time at which the students should be in your room). With practice, students will learn that they have an activity to keep busy with on entry but that shortly afterwards will be expected to shift their focus to the main learning portion of the lesson.

Thank you for reading this round of positive behaviour management tips, we hope you found it helpful. We hope to see you soon at one of our courses!

Further reading:

Positive Behaviour Management Part One

Positive Behaviour Management Part Two

*All of Prospero Teaching‘s CPD courses remain FREE to our registered candidates. Courses are subject to a £10 refundable deposit, which will be returned to you on the business day following the event providing you attend (unfortunately we are unable to refund the small Eventcube booking fee). If you are not a registered candidate at the time of the event, you can reclaim your deposit by arranging to register with Prospero Teaching.