Behaviour management charts in primary school

[foggyoutside]

My child's school uses behaviour management charts (a rainbow, sun, cloud type system or traffic lights with kids moving up and down throughout the day depending on behaviour) and the more I read about them the more I would like the system to change.. I wondered if anyone's school has moved away from them and what they do instead? I want to talk to school about it but be able to suggest alternatives and not just articulate why I think the chart is wrong!

My child's school doesn't use the colours but flying high, there's no 'negative ' just the base ground level and they don't go backwards just rewarded for good behaviour. The star of the week though is a joke and its the same kids all the time, one pupil has been awarded it 3 times so far this year, that's demoralising to kids not gaining it.

My DC's school have moved from this to a points system, with certificates when they get a certain number of points (usually about once a term). There are consequences for bad behaviour but it's not so public. My ND child has a separate plan again, as I suspect a lot of the SEN children do.

Lots of schools use Class Dojo now.

Public humiliation is a crap way of disciplining children.

Not sure how to get some schools to see this though.

I'm a teacher and refused to fully use the shame-based system when it was our behaviour policy as I was very uncomfortable with the fact it was always the same children on red. And the children going out to their parents telling them who got a red card that day leading to parents blaming those children for things that went wrong even on days those children were absent.

Luckily we've now moved on from that, the children who are behaving inappropriately still get 2 warnings then a time-out (usually sat near to a teacher who can support them to think about what they've done wrong and how they can make it right) and it's logged on a piece of paper that's for staff eyes only so we can spot any patterns of times or events that children struggle with. This is alongside all the positive public stuff we have always done. In the years I wasn't using the system when the rest of school were I didn't find that the behaviour in my class was any worse than other classes.

What will the other 29 children be doing while the teacher is talking to the pupil about their behaviour?

Our school does dojo points combined by table or class for a treat, eg no homework, extra trip to park etc.

For behavior issues restorative justice is used. Parents who were sceptical are now fully on board. It teaches consequences while allowances are of course for childrens individual challenge.

It doesn't take very long to talk to a child, just a quick "Remember to use your walking feet" isn't going to take any longer than "Yellow card for running" and if it's a major incident it takes a long time to deal with whether you're publicly shaming them or not

My DD's class has a similar system but it's class not individual oriented. She's furious about it and thinks the girls and boys should have separate charts as it's always the boys who lose their points 😂

It doesn't take very long to talk to a child

Telling them off doesn't take very long, however the poster was suggesting that the teacher should be having a conversation with them about why they were pissing around and trying to 'identify triggers'. That definitely takes time.

Why do we feel behaviour has declined? Agree positive behaviour rewarding takes far longer, like a lot of great education ideas they're staff time intensive.

I don't know what the answers are but I'm sure it's very hard work to get a group of children to behave so everyone can learn.

The teacher should set the children off learning. If it's carpet time - learning in pairs / talk to partner about a given question on the IWB etc etc. If it's time at tables e.g. older children, they do their independent learning tasks, children are still working. If it's early years, children are set off in continuous provision. The teacher then speaks to the child quietly to establish what happened and to have a restorative conversation. If the school is lucky enough to have a TA for the class then the other 29 children are supported by the TA while the teacher speaks to the child.

Whatever is appropriate at the time. It doesn't take long to have these conversations about behaviour.

The teacher should set the children off learning. If it's carpet time - learning in pairs / talk to partner about a given question on the IWB etc etc

Right, and as the teacher's attention is taken up with talking to Lucy about why she pissed around, Billy and Charlie are also pissing around. So when the teacher finishes with chatting to Lucy, she now needs to have similar conversations with Billy and Charlie. How long are the class supposed to wait for the teacher to actually get on with teaching them?

I think there's a world of difference between managing behaviour that is low level disruption and ones that require a conversation. I imagine parents would understand this and not expect a "Why were you calling out?" conversation for every little disruption.

Are you calling this @LittleMaoms child 'perfect LittleMaom' in a nasty way, while trying to pretend you are kinder and superior?....🤔

This.

Also, if you sat next to a child who constantly stole your pencils and rubber, whispered insults, interrupted the lesson, etc, and you never saw any public acknowledgement that this behaviour is wrong and unfair... you would see no point to being 'good'. Misbehaving gets you special attention from the teacher.

I would like to get on with the maths lesson, not conduct a restorative justice session while the kids are struggling to start their fraction work and need my help.

Some behaviour management systems can take a big chunk of staff time.

@noblegiraffe it's obviously another aspect of 'make the teachers responsible for everything, but make sure you blame them for everything too remember' !

If LittleMaoam has been the victim of the misbehaving child, it's very much LittleMaoam's business. And often much of the class is the 'victim' - their learning is interrupted.

While I can see why people don’t like the ‘public shaming’ aspect of these charts. It doesn’t have to be done that way. They can be used just for praise and a child can be left on neutral if they aren’t earning any praise that day. I don’t think it’s that bad, and we shouldn’t only be thinking about the children who struggle to behave. The ones who constantly make the effort to behave well deserve to be recognised and have their motivation kept up.

Children already know who the children who get told off the most are regardless of a chart on the wall. If it’s public shaming to have a name put on the red spot or rain cloud or whatever then surely it’s public shaming every time a child is told to modify their behaviour in front of others. So are teachers never supposed to say anything remotely negative to their students unless it’s in private? Because that isn’t going to work.

No, simply an example, often used would be 'Little Johnny' or 'liytle Joe Bloggs'. I might question whether you are attempting to spin it in a nasty way though.

*Little

It wouldn't be up to a parent to propose an alternative.
However, these type of charts are old fashioned and I would certainly voice your concerns.

You're the one with the usage of 'perfect little maom' though.

I think the sentiment behind removing the charts is good.

However i am able to say from first hand experience (in a school with an average no. of students struggling with behaviour issues) that there isn't generally enough staff to properly use the 'Talk the child though their behaviour' method without impacting on other students learning time.

In short - the softly softly approach they are trying at the moment is applaudable in theory but is resulting in low level chaos quite often during class.

'the same children on red all the time shows it doesn't work' -

No, not quite. It's not working for the ones who are on red all the time obvs - but it might be working for the ones who stay on green or go down no further than amber.

Is being on red making their behaviour worse? That would be down to individual children.

The ''ones on red all the time'' are usually children who are on some kind of other behaviour intervention path already (as well). if that makes sense.