Behaviour in all boys' school, absolutely horrendous

[Jorisbohnson33]

I'm working in an Islamic boys' school, granted it's the first day and I'm new to them but my lessons and form so far have been terrible.

Had heads of year and SLT members coming in. Obviously it's harder as I don't know the names etc. Yet but I'm really hoping it'll improve.

I'm not sure being a young female helps too? When their head of year and deputy head came in (both males) they cacked themselves. Well one or two still talked but mostly went silent.

I kept some behind at break a bit and spoke to them about behaviour and expectations. I've decided to give them a new start next lesson.

I guess they're trying it on a bit, I can't understand how pupils can be so disrespectful to an adult who's teaching them.
Appreciate any advice and support.

Peer pressure can work.

So the advice above about stopping mid sentence - waiting - and starting again can be really effective.

Especially when you add in a bored voice "I need to deliver this lessons constant. The more you interrupt the longer we'll have to spend together at break/lunch/after school getting through it and I'm sure none of us wants to spend any longer on this/ in each other's company than necessary".

It has the firmness, the threat of punishment alongside a lighthearted touch that can be really effective.

And then you get the ones who also don't want to miss their break etc taking your side!

I can't understand how pupils can be so disrespectful to an adult who's teaching them

with that mentality you will get eaten alive in teaching. They couldn't guve a fcuk about you-understand that.If they can act like shits and get away with it they will.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better!
I was really surprised that my year 11 classes were the worst.
There's a male teacher next door who's also new and on supply. I walked past one of his lessons and it looked quite disruptive, and he told me the children were being difficult. He's older and also an Arabic speaker so I thought maybe they'd relate more to him?
I later walked past another new male colleague who's quite young, very softly spoken and has a very gentle sort of manner and the entire class was silent. Just depends I guess.

I had this when I first started teaching in an inner city school.

My first day I was approached by a muslim boy and asked if I was married, when I said no he asked me if I was a virgin, because if not I was a whore and he didn't have to do anything I say.

I made quite a lot of use of the school behavioural policy before it clicked that I was not there to play!!

Stick with it, OP. Let them know where they stand, make it clear there will be consequences for any and all disruptions and follow through on your word and, most of all, get to know them and show them you care.

Give it a few months & you'll love the lot of them.x.

I later walked past another new male colleague who's quite young, very softly spoken and has a very gentle sort of manner and the entire class was silent. Just depends I guess

it's all in the personality and their ability to handle it. I worked with men with loud voices and shouted who were 6 foot tall and couldn't control the class whilst their 5 foot 1 female colleague next door could control the lesson no bother.

I taught for years (only left because of illness in the end) and was terrible at it so I feel your pain but it's a marmite profession, you either have the knack or you don't. Your age,gender and physical size is much less relevant than people think. Also people here and slt/behaviour mgmt books etc will give you 1000 bits of behaviour mgmt advice but this will generally fail if you aren't cut out for the job.

Ofcourse you could always try different schools or try primary and see how you get on there. But it's a battlefield profession I tell you.

I had this when I first started teaching in an inner city school

Many schools in the suburbs and in rural areas are shit with behaviour too, inner city doesn't necessarily mean the behaviour will be worse.

I made quite a lot of use of the school behavioural policy before it clicked that I was not there to play

Stick with it, OP. Let them know where they stand, make it clear there will be consequences for any and all disruptions and follow through on your word and, most of all, get to know them and show them you care*

Only in many schools, the behaviour policy is crap and is a paper tiger and if you keep using it you'll have parents moan etc and you'll be seen as the problem.

Give it a few months & you'll love the lot of them

oh how i wish this was true, cliche more like.

Definitely didn’t have to mention what religion these boys predominantly are, did you expect us to say oh yes thats just muslims for you. I doubt you would have written the same if it were christian or predominantly white school, you would have just written “boys school” which the main word is boys.

They’re teenagers, regardless of religion, not sure what you expected but teenagers aren’t exactly the most mature respectful members of society.

*One of my trainee teachers would get them to come in silently.
If they started talking he’d take them straight back out and line them up and try again. Sometimes it took most of the lesson.

I said are you not worried about not getting the lesson done and he said no because once you’ve cracked the behaviour side the learning comes easy*

advice i followed once and it didn't work, i made them line up for like 3 classes, in the end i had to stop as the other teachers were complaining about the noise.

A lot of their attitude may be copied from their dads at home, sadly

and so do misbehaving girls at school only do so because they copy it from their mums? And yes I have worked in all girls schools and there is misbehaviour and attitude there.

DH went to an all boys school (state- early to mid 90s) and he says that if the discipline hadn’t been strict it would have been chaos.

Some of the teachers still had their canes though they weren’t allowed to use them.

They would wave them around and tell the boys that this is what they would have got a few years ago.

Detentions, missing break, copying out the dictionary, lines and picking up litter were the standard punishment.

That said, DD’s mixed state primary takes a softly softly approach to discipline and the behaviour is excellent…

One year when I was at school, my class was very messy and a disruptive.

One of our teachers was a little snobbish, spoke quietly, and was a little odd.... anyways, if you made some noise, she would like at you like you'd just committed the most horrible crime and complained at you in a low voice at how you weren't allowing your colleagues the opportunity to learn 😅

Everyone was super quiet in her class!!!

(She also made us get inside the classroom 3/4 students at a time, have a minute rest/meditation in the beginning of class, and dictated date, lesson number and summary of lesson very slowly for us to write down)

Sadly I think you're right about boys (of any religion/race) respecting men more than women. I know my own teenage ds is far more likely to listen to his dad than me and far more likely to be cheeky towards me.

I work as a teacher for Star. Behaviour is generally excellent and our parents really supportive. I work at a girls' school but the boys' schools I've visited have been even better- they are so polite😀

Sorry, that was unhelpful to OP. I thought I was replying to one person.

Sadly I think you're right about boys (of any religion/race) respecting men more than women

i disagree with this on the basis that most of the scary teachers or ''the best ones'' I worked with are female.

This is such a strange thread - you've said that the behaviour is absolutely "horrendous" - but given no further details. What are the boys actually doing, and what is the pastoral structure like?

This is why we didnt bother encouraging ds to sit for the boys Grammar school test. We felt an all boys school might be toxic.

They couldn't guve a fcuk about you-understand that

Some students might care/respect you, in time, especially if you can build relationships through trust rather than fear.

Clear rules/ expectations and follow the schools discipline process - you don't want to threaten an after school detention for some cocky little so and so to turn round and tell you that's not allowed.

Be cool and calm and work on 'the look'. Do not let them talk when you are talking. Every time one starts you stop give the look and wait. Give it a couple of lessons and they will soon settle down for you.

Is being female an issue with them? We once had a boy start mid term and his father came in to complain that he didn't want his son in a woman's class, that he would not be able to obey a woman! I, as HOD, said he could go into Set 2 which had a male teacher but this wasn't good enough, I ought to teach Set 2 and let the man teach Set 1 so his son could stay there. This was all 20+ years ago but I thought that the Senior Management listened to him far too much.

Despite my other reply, I have taught in mixed, all boys and all girls schools and found all boys the easiest. Maybe more scraps but less toxicity.

Before they enter the room, write on the board

"Any boy who misbehaves in class will write his name on this board then stand outside the door. His parents will be informed. "

Take as look at some of the books in the library, particularly one titled “the road to perdition leads between ……”

but I thought that the Senior Management listened to him far too much

yea this is recurring problem in schools, the slt bend over backways to appease them.

I'd start with a very stern message: I am your teacher. You will respect me and respect Allah by paying attention in my class, talking only when I ask you to and allowing fellow pupils to concentrater. Failure to show this respect to me and to Allah will result in an immediate phone call to your parents. Do you understand? I would even take time to get each one of them to repeat back what my expectations of them are while I'm learning their names. Once you have their respect you can relax a bit. But they need to see you have steel first.