There’s a lot being said about behaviour right now and I’ve been delving into my archive for various posts on the subject. Turns out I’ve written quite a few so here they are in one place – for my easy reference as much as anything.
Discussing Behaviour, Inclusion and Exclusion: 12 considerations.
In this post I want to explore some issues that emerge from debates about behaviour systems. This is based on my experience in numerous settings, including some challenging schools alongside others that are/were much more straight-forward. It’s not a definitive list – please feel free to add ideas via the comments. 1. Context: Context is King…
Behaviour Balance: Assertive teachers; supportive system.
On my travels around schools over the years I’ve seen hundreds of lessons in various different contexts. Whilst a firm believer that school and college systems are necessary to support excellent behaviour, I have to say that, where behaviour is an issue in a lesson, a lot of the time I take the view that…
Compliance
Compliance. It’s another of those ideas in education that drives people into their camps. For some, compliance or systems that generate compliant children are an outrage; children suppressed, their natural creativity crushed, their rights and freedoms denied, victims of authoritarian power structures that have no place in the modern world. For others, compliance is a…
Behaviour Management: A Bill Rogers Top 10
Behaviour Management Strategies from Bill Rogers Without doubt the greatest personal challenge I’ve faced as a teacher was moving from the Sixth Form college in Wigan where I started teaching, to Holland Park School in London in my mid-20s. Having established the idea in my mind that I was a pretty good teacher, it was…
No Excuses and the Pinball Kids
Several recent blogs and twitter discussions have explored the idea of a ‘No Excuses’ behaviour policy. As ever, I have huge problems with discourse that forces people to adopt a position from a binary choice; for or against; with us or against us. I find myself agreeing with people on both sides of this debate.…
Solutions and reality checks in the exclusion/inclusion debate. #pinballkids
The RSA Pinball Kids Initiative. There has been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about exclusions from schools with a string of newspaper articles exploring the theme: The news of rising fixed-term and permanent exclusions is covered by The Guardian here. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jul/19/sharp-rise-in-pupil-exclusions-from-english-state-schools This report describes some responses – the ‘Wild West system of exclusion…
Bus Lane Assembly: We all gain from enforcing the rules.
The material in this post is the basis of an assembly I’ve given before about the need for enforcing rules. I’m about to use this particular preach again as we continue to push forward on our drive for impeccable behaviour. It’s been an intense few weeks as students learn where the boundaries lie, with literally…
The Timeless Wisdom of Sitting in Rows
Some of the strangest debates or memes about education that pop up now and then are about the idea of students sitting in rows. You don’t have to look too far to find people aligning this commonplace desk configuration along the axis of evil. Only recently I came across a tweet that mentioned children sitting…
Our responsibility for inclusion as a community of schools.
“If they don’t like it, they can go somewhere else. Parents have a choice.” I’ve read about Headteachers who say this. I’ve even used a similar phrase for dramatic effect with my students – if you want to belong to this community to have to follow our rules; if you don’t you’ll have to go somewhere…
The Disadvantage ‘Gap’ is a Chasm.
From a range of different contexts, working in education for over 30 years, I’ve learned a great deal about the complexity of the community that comprehensive schools serve. As an acting Designated Child Protection Officer for several weeks, I learned even more. The scale on the axis of advantage and disadvantage is extraordinary with consequences for…
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