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?

CheesecakeAddict

That’s great stuff. The problem is, with at least ten kids I taught last year, 10 minutes into that process I’d have been told to fuck off about three times. SLT would do NOTHING.

I had to email a Deputy Head during my last week before I left, cc-ing the HT, to describe just such an incident. A child told me to fuck off. No particular reason, just me asking her to put her bag on the floor. Reported it as I was meant to. Followed it up. Followed it up again. She had been given a 20 minute break time detention. I told the HT that was completely inadequate, and luckily she agreed. But I shouldn’t have had to do that. What sort of Deputy Head of a secondary school thinks a 20 minute detention is an adequate response to a child telling a teacher to fuck off?

I am giggling away into my beer at the thought mentioned upthread that the chantelles of the world are wordsearch junkies.

What slt and behaviour consultants don't seem to grasp is that half the bastard class are probably different variations of a chantelle. If it was just one the job would be be a doddle. I would have no qualms about bribing her with haribo for an observation if there was just one.

Convenient that Chantelle has her head on the desk being quiet and isn’t roaming around the room kicking a football, or loudly singing and getting the class to join in.

I agree with @noblegiraffe with a lot of these systems it is the teacher who has to record on SIMs, set detention, contact home, chase detention. Then next lesson comes along and they are exactly the same but you are still chasing last lessons non attendance to detention and on it goes. My frustration is it seems to stop with the teacher and unless you chase it and push nothing happens.

I have had parents email me to say stop emailing about child's minor behaviour issues as they are behaving in other lessons and it just this lesson. No just other teachers are not recording the behaviour as per the policy.

Next year will be better (I am not an NQT forever an optimist!)

I would love one of these behaviour consultants to come and teach my Y10's for a week and show me how it's done 😂

Ps. Thank you for all the great ideas.

Yeah but the depressing thing is that kids love a bit of novelty and would behave for a larger than life full of energy consultant for a one off lesson or two.

I was going to laugh and say in what world would you only have one Chantelle in your class and half a dozen with much worse behaviour?! I see you’ve had similar experiences with me. Unless it was out of character, I’d address the whole group and not allow Chantelle to disrupt things by demanding attention for yet another of her strops. “Are we all ready to learn?” “I’ve given a clear instruction that I need everyone sat up, eyes forward and ready to learn.”

And “not” half a dozen that should say!

Most of my classes would eat them alive. They do NOT like new people.

Sureitwillbegrand
I would love one of these behaviour consultants to come and teach my Y10's for a week and show me how it's done 😂

If it ever did happen, we all know that the school would put together a class of the best behaved pupils just for show.

Easy when a student is not being disruptive, less so when they are.

A class needs clear and unambiguous rules which are the same for all and the teacher needs to follow them. IMO individual needs are dealt with outside lesson time. Prioritise those who want to learn.

So Chantelle gets with the program or leaves the classroom. Ultimately she will also respect this far more than being pandered to.

And many SLT are SLT because they could not cope with regular classroom teaching..

scripts

Oh dear lord, what fresh he’ll is this. I’m not even a teacher yet but even I can see that’s a stupid idea.

Pivotal sounds awful.

...and they're coming to my school. Fun times.

@herculepoirot2 yup then it becomes an SLT problem and you need to be up in arms about it. Swearing at a teacher at our school is an automatic 1 day exclusion from school and a 2 week subject exclusion. I think in the past 5 years, 3 kids ever have sworn at me. With the right school leaders, it just doesn't happen.

I could actually cry with relief that other teachers are seeing through this crap and are talking sense.

@noblegiraffe PMSL at the kicking a football around and singing loudly. If a girl with her head on her desk is the worst problem in a classroom, the school is doing well. Try it when they are somehow (how??) streaming music via the classroom whiteboard speakers and making paper aeroplanes out of handouts five seconds after entering the classroom.
Nothing a friendly handshake won’t solve

I could actually cry with relief that other teachers are seeing through this crap

It’s bad that no one seems to be talking about poor behaviour. I mentioned it in this thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3628850-82-of-teachers-surveyed-say-pupil-misbehaviour-is-widespread-at-their-school that someone I follow on twitter who is always posting resources and talking about how teaching is great mentioned that she struggled with behaviour this year and that was a revelation to me. She also said that she found it difficult to talk about poor behaviour.