What’s your school behaviour policy like?

[noblegiraffe]

My school has the old C1, C2, C3 and you’re out style of policy, but from reading threads on here, and from the news (Michaela, Great Yarmouth, Plymouth) there seem to be more and more schools heading down the really strict route.

Then you’ve got schools that aren’t the full Michaela, but much stricter than before where you’re booted out of a lesson for mucking around and put in isolation all day instead of lunchtime detentions and the like.

Is the trend towards being much stricter? What does your school do?

We give negative comments - 4 in a week leads to detention. 4 in a lesson would get you sent out and you'd also have a day in isolation. We can on call if we feel it's necessary so any major issue would lead directly to isolation. I think it works in the main but mostly because we are a small school so can be a bit flexible, behaviour is mostly good and slt back us.

Highly recommend checking out Ross Greene’s work if a school is really interested in dealing with behaviour issues.

My school is 3 comments then you get sent to another classroom for the rest of the lesson and a detention. 8 comments in a week gets you into isolation for a day plus a detention.
We're trying to be strict because we have a 'challenging' intake.
But it's not suffocating like you read about some schools. Plenty of room for banter.

One warning only then a full day in isolation plus an hour afterschool detention. It's been amazing - behaviour wasn't awful beforehand but it did impact on learning and I would often have 2 lesson plans in mind for certain lessons, depending on which pupils were present. I now plan my lessons entirely based on the learning outcomes required and the activities I think will best help pupils to get there, rather than the activities I thought I could "persuade" pupils to do or would cause the least resistance.

I know of several schools that have started off down this route but not done it "properly" so not had the same result. Everyone needs to be prepared for the initial resistance to the policy from pupils (and some parents) Isolation for the first month of our implementation was in the hall to cope with the large numbers of pupils isolated. So long as the policy is consistently applied by all staff, isolation is unattractive enough (working in silence; high expectations) and management support the staff it can transform the culture of a school.

Now that I've seen it in action, I don't think I could work in a school that didn't have a similar policy. I now love teaching again and while I'm still knackered by the job (despite being part time) it's because I spend so much time planning my lessons and developing learning resources that I know will have impact.

Also the majority of our pupils appreciate the clear boundaries and the fact that they are learning without disturbances and making so much more progress.

@LegoClone I wish more schools were like this. The shocking lack of respect from parents towards teachers is awful and is a clear indicator for where disruptive behaviour is learned.

I'm looking into becoming a primary teacher at the moment so am stalking The Staffroom to try and understand the challenges, I can't believe how many students get away with completely ignoring the rules!

Lego do you get the same students in isolation day after day? I think people are nervous about those sorts of policies because they’ll hit students with ADHD - how have you found it in that regard?

Our policy is 3 strikes in primary. Even then it's just not appropriate for many children. About 3/4 of my class respond to it but 1/4 just can't: if i am consistent with it some kids would be on a 3 and out within 30 minutes! I think it's because there are so many needs in my class. They are on a separate system. But then that creates division: how come he isn't on a 1 when I was etc.
I know that many of my exceptions won't go on to mainstream so it won't be an issue, but some will and I worry for them. I now have too many students who are in need but echp-less because they can't meet the threshold. I am concerned how their behaviour will be dealt with at secondary.
That said, I'm a pretty easy going teacher. As long as the work is done to my expectation i'm happy to forgive a lot.

3 strikes and you are out. You spend the rest of the lesson in the isolation room an then the following week have a 2 hour after school and go on report. (this is just disruptive behaviour)

8 strikes over a week (which includes being late, forgetting equipment, homework as well as behaviour if you got to one or two strikes) and you get an after school for 1 hour the following week.

It works well, have about 5-6 children a day that get to the third strike and we are a school of around 2000!

About 10-20 in each year group end up in the 8 strike detentions each week.

As we have discussed noble mine gets softer by the Paul Dix minute...

Dep Head :Yes.. but he didn't actually say 'motherfucking motherfucker' at you dear staff member...so, on reflection five days after the incident we in SLT think you should personally set him a break detention, have a bit of a chat and maybe phone home. And perhaps I'll pick him up for a cup of tea chat in a few weeks no way will I

We've got a three stage (like three warnings) in a lesson policy then the child is removed to isolation for a day. It is often different for SEN kids who might have a different plan (eg. One of my ADHD students has two lessons in isolation not all day).

We've lost a few pupils who couldn't adapt to the policy and we have a few regular visitors to isolation who are receiving a lot of support. It's been surprisingly positive for some of the pupils who we were concerned would find it difficult. One of our pupils who has ADHD ended up being moved out of the "bottom" set and is currently flourishing in a higher ability set - the clear boundaries and lack of distractions have really helped him. It's also been great for our pupils who are on the autism spectrum.

I do feel for the pupils that we've lost, however I don't believe that we were doing them any favours with the previous policy - they weren't learning and they were seriously disrupting the learning of the other pupils. It's difficult because there aren't good provisions in place in the area for the pupils who can't cope well in mainstream education. Our head wants to be able to offer good alternative provision on site but we have other issues to sort first so we're several years off that happening.

Out of sight, out of mind, Lego

Our policy is fine, wishes it was implemented.

In schools where there are all these processes, don't teachers spend all their time on computers logging things, rather than- y'know- teaching??

And out of curiosity, who admininisters and supervises the detentions?
At my school, they have to go through about 4 layers before they get anywhere near SLT. Don't go through the layers, no SLT intervention. Which slows things up a lot somewhat.

I seem to spend a lot of time emailing parents, chasing up detentions and the like. I would bloody love it if someone took that job off my hands as it’s a serious workload issue.

I think the Plymouth Academy was in the news for advertising for a behaviour manager to administer detentions and deal with behaviour? Think they were looking for a Sergeant Major type.

I haven't set a detention for about 20 years. I recommend it!

We have to log it all electronically.
So when SLT tell you to set a break time detention for little potty-mouth, do you just not do it?

Well, that example would either a) be set by my HoF/ HoD, or , if it was in the corridors ignored by dealt with by HOY.

Or , I would stamp my feet and protest until it got dealt with appropriately.

For more minor offences- yup- never set detentions!

Oh in my school that would probably be set by the class teacher.

What , somoene calling you a motherfucking motherfucker would be a class teacher detention!?!

You now need to imagine me looking a bit like the figure in Munch's Scream.

I’ve not had that specific pleasure but possibly, yes. SLT like teachers to deal with behaviour themselves. Paul Dix again.

Paul Dix doesn't believe any child would do this thing , I guess. becuase of botheredness and stuff.

I thought Paul Dix had worked in a PRU?

I think I’m going to have to read his bloody book.

You should. It isn't entirley his fault. The issue lies with SLTs who have read only the first two chapters ... selectively.