Good manners help behaviour and attainment

[Blandmum]

is anyone even slightly surprised at this?????

Err...no! Not suprised at all. It makes complete sense to me.

My Year 9 "class from hell" - which eventually led me to leave teaching, amongst other reasons, had no manners at all and had no concept of thinking about others, being considerate or throughtful, sharing, listening, etc. The behaviour of the majority of pupils was appalling both in and out of class, and as a result their attainment was poor and below expectations. No suprise!

duh

they are very big on fair play in Primary schools over here, very big indeed

No Poms were bashed in the streets when England won the Ashes either

And it's nice and sunny

No sh!t Sherlock!

Did they really need a 'study' to come to those conclusions!

Hulababy....I remember that class of your! I had my own at the time....thank god I was given more flexibility in how I was allowed to teach them.....I wrote them into submission IIRC

They were the same. We do a starter activity when we teach basic genetics. the kids are asked to list similarities and differences between them and the child sitting next....we try to get gender, eye colour hair colour, hocbbies etc. the kids love it, but I couldn't do it with that lot because they would simply have been abusive' I'm nice but she smells' sort of thing.

I find that 'bottom sets' who would gain most from group work can never do any, because they can't behave in an appropriate way

I'm continually surprised at the amount of time and money that is wasted on studies and surveys which are surely common sense. I am always telling mine how important good manners are. I read to children at Primary school (18 children in all) and I am lucky if one of them says thank you.

Nop, what surprises me is that manners are so forgotten that they have to do studies in order to bring the concept back

Sadly there are parents out there who don't.. Mind you, they don't are about studies and reserch either!

Agree with SuzyW.

In Oz people have a much better community mentality - from fair play down to recycling. They also have a global mentality - about as much of the news is about overseas nations as Australia.

It's one of the big reasons why I want to bring my DD up here.

The thought of them still brings me out in cold sweats and I know that I will NEVER teach in a school again. The school offered no support, despite several teachers complaining about them. An IT room was awful for them. I had no head of department as he'd left and we were in special measures. I had a lovely LEA Advisor who would come intot he lessons and even he couldn't get them in line - he actually had a heart attack followin one of their lessons. The kids thought it was funny Fortunately he was okay. And they were supposed to be middle ability class!

The thought of it all really does bother me still. It was a hell of a year and I am so glad I got out when I did. i think my health was at serious risk.

I think we should get some sort of manners manual with the information given after their first MMR, obviously is difficult for a mother (includin me) that her child could be becoming a little brat.

Obviously they don't misbehave they just express themselves
They are not out of control, they are just full of life
They are not mischevious, they are just children
They are very popular, not the heads of the bullying ring
And so on, the problem is that when we finally get to accept there is a problem, normally the problem is so ingrained within that they need this stupid studies to convince people that indeed we, as parents, have to educate our children better.

[

Smug High Five to VC

but the kids may get melanomas

(God I 'm so English)

Hulababy, I stopped teaching for the same very reason, however I was teaching at univeristy. What surprises me is how far parents get to blame the behaviour on the teachers, when is them who give them, most of the times, the arguments not to respect a teacher.

ie. I have some friends who have a maths academy (for children to catch up with school work) and, one of their children couldn't lack more respect for his teachers, but then, if he hears all day at home that all teachers are stupid; and when he misbehave their parents blame it on his children being too clever for his teacher, what can you expect?

I agree that it is often what comes from home. We have had parents refuse to allow their child to do any form of punishment if in trouble. They refuse to accept that their chil is behaving badly at school and don't do anything to stop it. Or they know they are badly behaved and are either at the end of their tether themselves or somply don't care. For that Y9 class - I did parent's evening ON MY DAY OFF and only 3 parents bothered to show up - says a lot IMO.

Not if we put sunscreen and hats on them suzyW. We are still winning here .

DD reads books that I bought over from the UK and whenever she sees an outdoor nursery scene she says 'but they're not wearing hats!!'.

Which news do you watch VC? We still rely on the BBC here for anything beyond the QLD borders .

Ds's v big on always hats outside and never shoes - will be a nightmare when we go back. Schools/kindys actively encourage barefeet at all times esp outside which is fab; so sensible.

Trying to reinforce to ds1 that manners will get him everywhere in life. He got a sticker for lovely manners in class this week which he was v pleased with.

Lots of team work. I like it here!

How is this a 'scheme'? Surely teachers DO encourage - where they can - good behaviour and good manners?

I have almost finished reading Marie Stubbs' book about turning round a failing school - it was ALL through good manners and reward and affirmation.

Our gvt always wants to be yet more draconian and punitive, before resourcing good beginnings

You have to start with the basics. this is the fundimental starting point for the Nurture Group 'schemes' They take the most 'unsocialied children out of school and work with them is a home 'style' environment....work on mannes, eating with a knife and fork etc. It has amazing results.

the cynic in me thinks that the government woul d rather 'get tough' as it is a quick vote winner at lower cost

Blu, you do model good behaviour always, but a whole school initiative can help to standardise expectations and that helps the kids. So not just in the class but between the classes as well.

It helps the kids if they see the behaviour is expected everywhere

I have lost count of the kids I have caught throwing food on the floor, who then refuse to pick it up as it is the 'cleaners job miss.'

They don't make that mistake twice with me!

Yes, I see what you mean.

Marie Stubbs had teachers in free periods doing their marking at desks in each corrido, and got 'parent ushers' to come and volunteer to do ushering the dinner queu and change-overs, also the arrival at school in the morning.

no, not at all surprised, and I think that British children are the worst behaved in Europe (sorry if that annoys people, but they are the worst Ive seen)
Ive seen individual teachers doing their best against a tide of uncivilised behaviour. Putting more emphasis on good manners and consideration can only be an improvement

NN, fuly agree, and Chandra hit the nail right on the head when she said that some parents are utterly blind to thir child's bad behaviour.

And the rules have to be totaly rock solid, or the kids will wriggle between the 'cracks'....as is the way with kids

parents often fail to realise that you have to be much tougher with classes of 30 than you do within the family. You even see this, dare I say it, in the nicest posters in MN

(sneaks in as a parent) I wish teachers at primary would enforce manners more. I've always insisted on please, thank you etc, but find it isn't enforced at school and that makes my job more difficult as the children 'get away' with not using manners at school and then expect to get away with it at home. At 8 & 10 they don't need reminding too often now, but I do think it would have been 'ingrained' a lot quicker if teachers had insisted on it as well. (although I appreciate that getting 30 kids to say please & thank you can take time) My pet hate is lunch time 'trays' with slots for food - just like eating in prison. I'm sure these positively discourage good manners at mealtimes.

I often think many parents expect the teachers make up for all what they fail to teach their children, ie. child running around with a snot out of his nose, his dad:-Oh that's horrible, of course, they don't care because the school didn't teach them.- What's the school? a nursery? or is there a class in the program dedicated to learn how to wipe your nose? (not about manners I know but I thought it illustrates my point

Probably you should organise a party with 30 children, sit them at the table and control that everyone is eating having propper manners, and... do it in half an hour? on your own? sounds like an impossible task?, it is, especially when everybody has to be feed in such a little time and before the classes resume. It may be possible though (they do it in expensive boarding schools, but then lots of parents also find those schools somewhat cold).

If we all, as parents, tried harder to educate our children regarding manners, the only thing teachers would have to worry about is to teach them well to help them enjoy their education and to get good exam results. However, as the saying say... it only takes an apple...