best book on behaviour management?

[cheezy]

or your no.1 tip.

for Secondary.

am struggling.

TIA

Have you already got Getting the Buggers to Behave ?

A good book.

However, no individual tactic will work in the end unless SLT have your back.

Do they?

Read anything by Tom Bennett (was the behaviour advisor on the TES forums, now government behaviour tsar). You don't have to fork out for a book necessarily, he's got loads of stuff online.

Here are his top ten tips:
www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/new-behaviour-tsar-tom-bennetts-top-ten-tips-maintaining-classroom

And there are links to his videos and blogs at the bottom of that article.

If I'm struggling with a class, a new seating plan is a good way to signal a fresh start.

Liesl, when I saw the thread title I thought, and I'm not making this up "someone's going to suggest Getting the Buggers to Behave, and it's rubbish for people who aren't confident, because stuff like that dog food trick is just cringey."

You're much better off observing people teach. Don't ape others though. Find your 'persona' and stick to it.

Plan for good behaviour. How will they come in? Seating plan? Something simple they can do immediately.
Clear consequences. Look over your school policy. Ask for support. Observe others or get someone to observe you.
Smile when they arrive. Always look be calm and in control.

Bill Rogers offers good, non confrontational advice I think. (He is also doing training sessions in the UK over the next month or so, they are pricey, but it might be worth seeing if your school would invest)

My main tip is to be consistent.

Get it right from the start of the lesson: have date and title ready on the board; greet them at the door; point out ties that need doing up, shirts that need tucking in etc as they arrive; make them stand behind their chairs until you let them sit down; stand them back up again if they start talking...

Then follow your school behaviour policy, and if that is unclear then set up your own. I do one verbal warning, name on board for second offence, sent outside for third. At that point, I judge if the child is going to settle if they come back in or if they need to go elsewhere.

Oh, and remember to praise! "Thank you Lauren for sitting in silence", "Eddie's already answered questions one and two. Brilliant", "oh, great idea. I'd not thought of that"

Speak in a low slow firm voice
Keep your head still.
Use "we" and "our" classroom etc
Try to keep all comments to the class positive
Wherever possible, discipline individually outside the door away from others