Meet Chantelle......sigh

[Sureitwillbegrand]

Don't post very often but this arrived in my inbox today and just had to share. No tips about what to do when she tells you to F off. SLT reply would probably be - ah but did she swear AT you. 🙄😂

Chantelle throws the classroom door open at the end of break, dramatically collapses, head on her desk, coat on and hood over her head. Before you are tempted to open 'Pandora's box' it is worth reminding yourself that:
• The rules are a long way down on her list of priorities
• Chantelle is unlikely to be thinking rationally
• You are unlikely to be able to solve the situation in an instant
• A calm and caring enquiry. 'Are you ok?' is your best chance of opening a dialogue
• You may need to leave her and return periodically, breaking down your requests, providing clear choices and easing her into the lesson.
• The ability to control emotions is a skill that develops with age; teenagers' brains are not fully developed.
• Children's emotions are fragile. Problems can seem insurmountable, all consuming, life and death and switch in an instant - remember being a teenager?
• You are an adult helping a child to manage their own behaviour
• If Chantelle blows, what comes out is raw emotion, not necessarily directed at you even if you take most of the initial blast.

So how would you deal with Chantelle?

Erm, give her a few minutes and ask if she's ok?

Sounds just like my 13 year old niece. Heaven help you!

Not a teacher but I was often ‘Chantelle’ at school! From my perspective I would say, leave her alone. Don’t let the class get distracted, get on with what you’re doing and ignore her. At the first free chance, ask her if there’s anything you can help with or if she wants to go to the medical room.

I would think "thank goodness! A secondary school that is focussed on children as people, and not just as data producers! How lovely that they are continuing the hard work we put in at primary level to support children in developing their emotional and social wellbeing, and don't just throw them to the wolves!"

Well to be fair I don't actually disagree with any of that.... how would you prefer to deal with her?

What are you supposed to do with the rest of the class while you are dealing with her?
I agree with everything that is says but it is incredibly difficult to implement in real life with a full class of other potential chantelles.

I wouldn't 'deal' with her. But I'm not a teacher anymore. I became a teacher to help kids get through (and maybe like?) my subject. I was never a 'social worker' teacher...

Is she being disruptive to the lesson? Is not engaging with her and just getting on with the lesson for the sake of the other 30+ children in the room an option?

'Good morning, Chantelle.' Address rest of class and get them working. Talk to Chantelle.

Exactly what Lougle said.

If she was quiet and not interrupting your teaching, I would initially do nothing apart from greet her. When the rest of the group are working, ask her quietly if she's ok as you sense she's upset about something then send her to pastoral/ medical/ wherever you send them at your school before she can get into a strop and wreck your lesson. Kids get on, Chantelle gets the attention she craves, you look compassionate. Wins all round.

She will get up half way through your lesson, claims that she doesn’t understand anything and starts being disruptive.

Teachers are there to teach. It is actually in the name of the job. They are not there to deal with or worse, take the blame for someone else’s behaviour. If they can support the pupils in other ways then it is a bonus, not an expectation.

The emotional drain of dealing with situations like this every lesson, every day is one of the reasons teachers feel tired, want to quit and they do. Who will lose out?

If you were my child's teacher I'd want you to concentrate on teaching the class. Chantelle needs to learn that in school she follows the rules.

Did they really email all that to you? They told that you are an adult dealing with a child etc? Presumably you knew that already. It sounds incredibly patronising to me.

What would have been more helpful would be to know what support and consequences have been put in place for Chantelle. Does she have a place/person she can go to to cool down? What is the line on her bending/breaking the school rules? What are the ongoing issues she is having causing this? What other staff/ professionals/family/ pupils are involved? What motivates her?

What an incredibly unhelpful piece of writing.

Tbh if she's not being disruptive I'd just greet her and leave her be at the beginning. Give her a breather and then ask if she's ok and if I can help.

The thing is Chantelle could be behaving like she is for many reasons,some under her control,some not. Her background would influence how I deal with it more than anything else.

I'm in primary and a TA so my opinion is probably irrelevant.

We receive this patronizing bollocks from SLT every week.

What people dont realise is that Chantelle does this every day, in most lessons, and wants to get away with doing no work. What I would like to do with Chantelle is ask her if she is ready to learn and when she says no, has a strop or swears, send her to behaviour recovery.

What I actually do is ignore her as much as possible and get on with the lesson, with the hope of engaging her after a few minutes.

What people dont realise is that Chantelle does this every day, in most lessons, and wants to get away with doing no work. What I would like to do with Chantelle is ask her if she is ready to learn and when she says no, has a strop or swears, send her to behaviour recovery.

And as a parent of a non-Chantelle that's exactly what I'd like you to do too. Not indulge Chantelle's teenage strops for a 45 minute therapy session while the rest of the class twiddles their thumbs.

Chantelle coming in dramatically and theatrically collapsing at her desk is attention seeking. If you leave Chantelle alone it is likely that she will start upping the stakes with loud sighs, huffing and perhaps throwing any worksheet you offer her on the floor.

If teachers are all expected to dance around Chantelle checking up on her and easing her into the lesson then that’s a colossal amount of time that could be spent actually teaching being spent on her.

It’s manipulative. Chantelle would be better spending her time out of the lesson dealing with whatever is going on in her head.

I generally would try a bit of bright and breezy ‘come on Chantelle’ and then suggest that as they aren’t in a fit state to be in the lesson they need to go and talk to their mentor.

donkey I am also a parent of a non-Chantelle and believe me, not being able to do this immediately drives me crazy. It's easy to tell whether the situation will escalate or not from the word go, but there are procedures that must be followed.

There is a lot of assumptions that there is some where else for Chantelle to go. In my old school all these people were made redundant.

I’m a teacher and if she wasn’t being outwardly disruptive I would probably ignore her to be honest, especially if this kind of thing happened regularly. I’d do the register and start the lesson as normal. I’ve had a few like this over the years and sometimes they seem to come round on their own given time - sit up eventually and take their coat off etc. I’ve got a responsibility to the rest of the class. If I had chance once everyone else was working I’d ask her if she was ok. If she was visibly upset or her behaviour was very disruptive I would call SLT so someone who wasn’t teaching a whole class could talk to her. SLT at my school would be supportive of this. She’d likely end up in our pastoral support base and be helped from there.

I'd greet her like all the others and then I'd leave Chantelle alone and crack on with the lesson I'm there to teach. If she wants to take her coat off and get involved - great; if not - as long as she remains quiet and lets the rest of the class get on with the learning, also fine. If an opportunity presents itself to speak to her quietly while the others are working, then I'll take it.

Apologies I did not mean to post and run, got side tracked.
Yesterday I had 5 Chantelle's in my lesson along with my 6 sen students and the other 10 students in the lesson. It is really draining trying to cajole/encourage/beg (!) students to work.
And you are right I generally just try to ignore and deal with once class are working but I was trying to have a 'nice' constructions lesson and was battling because why do they need to use a compass and 'I know what to do', only for me to set task and then protest they didn't know what to do and then that arrived in my email from a behavioural company (Not from SLT).

Was Just having a bad lesson 🙁

Is the behavioural company Pivotal?

How did you guess 😂

Of course it depends on the situation - but for an average bog-standard Chantelle who does this every day, I would just start with a bit of humour, "Another good day, then, Chantelle?" or variations on a theme.

The stupid thing about these 'behaviour scenarios' s that it all just depends, doesn't it? It also depends on my mood and the sort of day I'm having. One day I might make a joke, another I might have no patience and tell a child who is being overly dramatic to buck up quite quickly or another day, I might be Mrs Social Worker Teacher and solve everything with patience and kindness.

That's the best thing about our job - different every day.