Behaviour

Attendance

Classroom Management

Advice on dealing with a known aggressive and violent student

Providing advice and support for KS3/4 teachers and support staff in dealing with known violent and aggressive students. This video features a short dramatic reconstruction of an angry outburst from a student with identified anger management problems. In this scenario, the teacher manages the situation, preventing it from escalating and disrupting the class. Raising the question what did the teacher do that was so effective in dealing with the aggressive behaviour? A panel featuring senior education psychologist Tina Rae and working teachers talk through the scenario, discussing what the teachers could have done differently and offering clear and straightforward advice on how teachers might handle challenging situations like this.

A Known Aggressive Student

Bayley advises a secondary music NQT on class management

This classroom-management resource follows a newly qualified teacher (NQT) who finds the practical side of music lessons very difficult to control and is easily distracted by behavioural problems or children going off task. Behaviour expert John Bayley films Patrick Martin teaching his Year 9 lesson and, watching the tape back, he's struck by the seriousness of Patrick's approach. Key points: John notices that the secondary pupils seem keen to applaud the music but Patrick doesn't encourage it. Secondly, John feels that Patrick should replace comments like "another reasonably effective performance" with something more positive. Third, he wants Patrick to seek more departmental or pastoral support with his pedagogy when he knows he will be teaching a troublesome pupil. Teaching another Year 9 group at Chiswick Community School in west London, Patrick is a different teacher and his class is visibly more contented and positive. The pupils seem to get more from the practical experience and the lesson flies past. Patrick's own verdict is conclusive: "I really enjoyed that!"

A Lighter Note

A new peer mentoring scheme helps disruptive Year 8 pupil Andrew

Year 8 pupil Andrew, at Heritage Maths and Computing College in Derbyshire, has been identified as a candidate for a new peer mentoring scheme after notching up 50 negative behaviour points. Andrew?s parents did not know what to do as disciplinary letters were arriving at home for causing persistent disruption in maths and dance lessons. Deputy head Andy Knowles paired Year 11 Gareth with Andrew in the project set up for pupils who were finding it hard to access learning, and were the main perpetrators of low level disruption. The pair worked together to set targets and identify strategies that would help Andrew to stay focused in lessons. Andrew tells his story of becoming the most improved mentee on the scheme as his progress is monitored regularly using the behaviour tracking system.

A Personal Journey

See teachers give full-time education to excluded KS3/KS4 pupils

This whole-school video on safeguarding KS3/KS4 children shows Alternative Education Service (AES) staff promoting inclusion in full-time education for pupils excluded from South Tyneside's mainstream secondary schools. Some of Britain's most economically and socially disadvantaged families live in South Tyneside. The AES has the challenge of providing full-time education for the area's excluded young people, as shown in this video addressing behaviour and other issues under Every Child Matters. Teachers at the Secondary Pupil Referral Unit are not only trying to improve pupils' behaviour so they can be re-integrated back into school, but they're also acting as an important support for vulnerable children. One of their key aims is to help pupils develop the emotional and social skills necessary to cope with growing up in an area of great poverty. Although education has a clear and prominent place in South Tyneside Council's priorities, this video shows staff doing remarkable work with pupils in conditions which are often quite unsuitable for boisterous, lively adolescents. The staff aim to provide these young people with a safe place to learn.

A Safe Alternative

Sir Alan Steer looks at improving practices in behaviour

This video was filmed before the May 2010 general election, and may not reflect the policies of the current government.The Government's behaviour advisor, Sir Alan Steer, talks to Mike Baker about strategies to improve behaviour in schools. Sir Alan Steer explains that there is no single key to good behaviour but fluid practice, shared between primary and secondary schools. Using seating plans, diagnosing children with special needs and a good support system for pupils and staff, is very important. He also talks about the necessity of a teaching and learning policy.Sir Alan published a series of reports on pupil behaviour, culminating in "Learning Behaviour: Lessons Learned in April 2009".

Alan Steer's Keys to Better Behaviour

How best to deal with a student behaving in an angry manner

Advice for teachers and support staff on how best to deal with a violent and aggressive student having an angry outburst in the classroom. A short dramatic reconstruction shows an angry outburst by a student at the beginning of a lesson., the teacher takes firm, calm control of the situation preventing it from escalating and disrupting the class. A panel featuring senior educational psychologist Tina Rae and working teachers talks through the scenario, and discusses what the teacher did that was so effective in dealing with the aggressive behaviour. They also offer clear and straightforward advice on how teachers might handle challenging situations like this. The discussion focuses on relocating pupils, calming body language, and how best to deal with the situation once everything has calmed down.

Angry Outburst

Pupils learn alongside rehabilitated animals in New York

A look at the teachings of Green Chimneys in New York, where children learn alongside rehabilitated animals. Green Chimneys is a special school 65 miles north of New York City, catering for children with emotional, behavioural, social and learning challenges. Central to its ethos is a belief in the therapeutic power of interaction between children and animals. Over half the pupils board, and as well as being a school, Green Chimneys has a residential treatment centre, a 165 acre farm with 200 farm animals, and a wildlife rehabilitation centre. Assistance-dog training classes are one example of the way animal-related activities are woven into daily life. The dogs learn new skills, while their trainers - the pupils - learn how to bond with other living things. At the wildlife centre, pupils help to release a red-tailed hawk back into the wild. They are learning that, just like the bird, they too will be one day healed and return to their homes.

Animal Healers

Using the carrot and stick approach to improve attendance

When Jill Hislop arrived at Haywood school in Nottingham as the new headteacher, attendance and punctuality were poor and many children felt school was not for them. Today, thanks to an American programme called Consistency Management and Co-operative Discipline (CMCS) the school has one of the fastest rates of improvement in the country. This turn around has taken three years and involved changing the whole school ethos with CMCS. A whole school approach to attendance and punctuality is now in place with careful use of carrots and sticks. In this programme Jill Hislop explains the system and the need to create a positive environment to attract and engage pupils. Electronic registration, first day calling to parents and a "late gate" have all made a substantial difference. Furthermore, an improved curriculum has helped engage less academic pupils and a system of reward cards has proved popular. However, despite the improvement, Jill Hislop is constantly on the alert and aware that there is still a lot more to do.

Attendance and Punctuality: Carrots and Sticks

How the Karrot Rewards scheme improves attendance in Southwark

The Karrot Rewards scheme was set up in 2001 after a police report said that truanting kids in Southwark, London felt bored, unappreciated and saw school as irrelevant. The Karrot scheme is funded by the police and Southwark Council, and it distributes rewards for good attendance to the local secondary schools. In this programme Lisa Cole, the scheme's manager, explains how it works and why they are trying to reach a wider range of pupils by awarding improved attendance and good citizenship. Karrot also runs an internet bus. This visits deprived pockets of Southwark each night to get young people interested in education and help improve police relationships in the community. The deputy head of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic School, Sergei Cefai, also talks about the success of the rewards scheme and plays host to their end-of-term awards ceremony. Pupils get the opportunity to give their views during the programme and Lisa raises the issue of getting all her schools to follow the scheme consistently.

Attendance and Punctuality: Rewarding Attendance

Bayley helps a Year 7 French teacher manage disruptive behaviour

A part-time secondary French teacher is struggling with a disruptive Year 7 modern foreign languages (MFL) class. Behaviour expert John Bayley offers advice in this classroom-management resource. After years of teaching in France, this is Jane Wright's first year at Drayton School, an improving community comprehensive on the rural outskirts of Banbury, Oxfordshire. The disruption is frustrating and concerning Jane that she can't teach the Key Stage 3 pupils who are interested in learning. John suggests she try to reduce disruption by displaying her vivacious personality and changing to an upbeat teaching style with a lot more praise. He tells Jane the disruptive pupils want her attention and he encourages her to replace negative with positive attention. Jane tries this in a follow-up lesson and is surprised to find the pedagogical techniques engage the more difficult pupils in the class, allowing much more learning to take place.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

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