Paul Dix and restorative justice

[TheletterZ]

My school is doing a behaviour management review as while the behaviour isn’t bad and is mostly good, some parts of the system weren’t working well.

Paul Dix has been mentioned and there is a push towards restorative justice. Which is making me a bit nervous.

Does anyone have any experiences of this (good or bad)? Any alternative systems that I could maybe look at/ propose? Finally, any good books on the subject?

We have just moved to this system. I am waiting to see what others say as first impressions are pretty terrible

Encourage you SLT to read Cresting a Culture by Tom Bennett and then find the OFSTED report on behaviour that was published on Wednesday last week.
There is a place for elements of Pivotal and elements of RJ but you have to find a behaviour system that creates the culture you want in YOUR school, not just replicating what has worked elsewhere. A culture of good behaviour and respectful relationships can't be 'off the peg' because it depends on so many factors such as your starting point- demographic, staff experiences etc.
Also, encourage them to consider ACEs (Blackburn with Darwen are good for this)

Creating not cresting

Paul Dix/Pivotal is a pile of wank that is ineffective and worsens behaviour while simultaneously massively increasing workload for teachers. I don’t think I’ve heard a single positive story on MN where his systems have turned a school around, although I’ve heard a few where the school has quickly turned to shit.

Here’s what you get if you search for him:
www.mumsnet.com/SearchArch?mustmatch=Paul+Dix&dontmatch=&nickname=&src_displ_option=s_m_d_m&fromDate=&toDate=&topicmode=All&availtops=-1
Even without clicking on the threads you can get the idea!

Tom Bennett did a load of work on creating a whole school approach to behaviour for the DfE, and he’s pretty good, so read his stuff instead.

It's utter rubbish. Behaviour in our place has gone from bad to worse. Senior Management are placing all of the blame on classroom teachers - it's because our lessons are boring that the children can't behave. Not sure how this is causing such appalling behaviour in the corridors though.

No one has yet been able to explain to me how to find the time to have restorative conversations - I estimate I have 5 or 6 really badly behaved students in my worse classes. That is 25ish students per week.

I have lost count of the number of times I have passed heads of house and behaviour managers pleading with students to come in from the yard after break and lunchtime long after the bell has gone. Students know how to manipulate the system and are given so many opportunities to 'amend' their behaviour and ' make correct choices.' The lovely, well behaved students are the ones who miss out as more and more of their lesson time is taken away from them as their teacher wastes time and energy coaxing better behaviour out of the badly behaved.

Absolute shite.
Massively increased work load and he is so stuck to the stupid script he csnt see anything else. I asked him in person what if a child doesnt comply after the final statement and he said it will work 🙄 refused to answer questions which weren't in sales pitch. Didn't work in my school.

Hasn't been successful in my school in my opinion. Behaviour has certainly not got better. I only teach sixth form though so certainly don't have to deal with as much as other teachers.

My impression from the whole day CPD was negative. He asked the staff of 90 teachers who taught my subject - only me. Asked me a subject specific question, which I got right, then told me I had it wrong. Massive intake of breath around the room. Two other teachers who I taught as students agreed with me. Poor behaviour from him. Also a very enthusiastic teacher who always contributes was "told off" again in front of all staff. He promptly "accidentally" fell asleep right in for t of him.

His name has not been mentioned in my school since. Although we still have his rules and RJ in place.

Thank you all, lots to think about. The behaviour management group has a big mix of people so hopefully won’t be steam rollered in one way.

The main thing I am struggling with is have only 1-3 “rules”. Such as be the best you can be. What does this even mean and how on earth can that be enforced consistently?

Be the best you can be isn’t a rule, it’s a cat poster slogan.

I get the idea that long lists of rules are off-putting but kids also need clarity.

Sometimes lots of mini-rules can come under one umbrella like ‘One Voice in the classroom’ and sometimes they can’t, like ‘no, you can’t leave the lesson to fill up your water bottle’ ‘but miss, I can’t be the best I can be because I’m soooo thirsty’.

I’ve banned water bottles in my lessons. The pupils can have a drink on their way to the next lesson and at break and lunch.

The only good thing I can see is that where I am they don't come back into your lesson until you've had a satisfactory restorative conversation. So if you ask them to come at lunch and they don't turn up you get a lesson that's a bit more peaceful

I second the recommendation for Tom Bennett instead. Although I do like the focus on 'relentless routines' in pivotal. We had training from them and it was quite a performance. It was impressive as a performance but it was very deliberate that there was no chance for questioning or any input from us the staff.

Routines yes.
Restorative can be useful with some kids. Not all.

Pivotal is just a company making big bucks flogging their "one size fits all" behaviour system.

Be very cautious!

Restorative conversations definitely have their place, but when the same kids are continually destroying lessons across the school then clearly they aren’t having an impact.

If you’re having restorative conversations after every lesson, then they aren’t working.

If the kid sees the ‘restorative conversation’ as merely an opportunity to argue with the teacher about how they’re being picked on, then it’s a waste of time.

It's a pile of shite designed to blame teachers for for not being caring / entertaining/engaging /push over enough.

Nobles posts are excellent on it.

Pivotal seems to be about being a pushover until the kids decide they like you and then maybe if you keep being likeable then they might consider behaving.

Picture this quite familiar scene from schools over the years:
Teacher is trying to teach. A B C arent listening, are talking when the teacher is and as a result the teacher has to keep stopping or compete with the noise. At this point every other child has had their learning interrupted by 3 students. Over time ABC learn they can hold court in class because nothing happens to them, and suddenly teacher starts handing merits/class dojo/reward points to ABC for so much as not yelling across the room (meanwhile the 28 other students haven't had more than 3 rewards all term because they do the right thing all the time).
The the class awards come round and suddenly ABC end up on reward activites for doing nothing more than not being a disruptive PITA for 3 days, meanwhile good kids lose out.
One day A is shouting in the playground about how they're getting Mrs Blogs sacked because when they went to the head for calling Timmy a "spastic", the head didn't reprimand them. No, the head had hot chocolate with them, encouraged them to explain what Mrs Blogs had done wrong that caused their disengagement with learning and said they would speak to Mrs Blogs about how she could better support (indulge) A's learning (wishes). Apparently it would really help A to be sat on a table with B and C because they learn best with their friends.

At break A continues to mock Timmy and his SEND needs and eventually Timmy has enough and tells A to leave him alone. Timmy is invited to a meeting where he needs to reflect on how the mere presence of his additional needs was a trigger for A's behaviour (bullying). The head suggests both boys have a restorative meeting to repair the relationship, which really means further bullying Timmy into taking the blame for being bullied. Mrs Blogs has already been spoken to by the head for victimising A (aka supporting Timmy and trying to educate the class) so she'll not be present for the meeting, or she'll be there having been told she must not say anything that could invalidate A's perspective.

“Be the best you can be isn’t a rule, it’s a cat poster slogan.”
noblegiraffe this just made me snort out loud.

I had never heard his name until a teacher friend of mine at an independent school spoke very enthusiastically about him. I went on mumsnet, and it’s quite a different story.

What I can’t understand is: why is he so popular? Is he amazingly charismatic? I work in a very challenging SE London primary, and I just cannot imagine his suggestions working at all...

@LolaSmiles. Have we been in the sane school .... it’s the hot chocolate!

syden
I think some SLT buy into the idea of pushing behaviour back onto teachers.

Others have taken the decent principle that relationships matter (and they do), but have fallen victim to Paul Dix who suggests they come before anything else. So whilst most schools will build positive relationships and have a good behaviour system working hand in hand, he proposes that until staff have positive relationships then there's no reasonable expectation of basic behaviour being met.

Some people are more predisposed to certain philosophies too, so if you're the sort of teacher who never gives detentions and likes spending more time "getting to know" the kids than teaching them (generally viewing staff who teach content well as robots etc), then you're going to be more easily seduced by this approach because it confirms what you already do.

We (secondary) have moved over to a RJ system and to be honest it hasn't really changed behavior that much , although it does seem fairer in some ways.
We are lucky our school has pretty well behaved students (in general) and therefore the bulk of kids don't really misbehave what ever system is in place .
The more tricky individuals are very similar to the old system , although there have been some individual student successes.

What's nicer is that students who a rare mistake now receive a very quick chat and it's done, where as more persistent offenders get a more in-depth conversation. The old rules didn't really fit this - it was either a break detention or not.

What is really important is that we have 10 minutes directed time per day during break which is specifically set aside for the conversations - and whilst that doesn't really cover it, it does really help.

He's a fraud. He's a trained primary school teacher who's actually been in the classroom very little. He's looking to make as much cash as he can. He went to an elite private boys' school himself and has no real experience (say 5 years at the chalk face in a comp) of the daily grind and trying to drag bottom set maths to a 5 whilst dealing with relentless backchat, demoralised self-esteem and rudeness. A fucking hot choc in the head's office on a Friday afternoon isn't going to help.

Now now ourkid you're never going to inspire the kids with that attitude. Get yourself on a fun handshakes course and build some relationships and positivity will you? It'll solve all your woes.

Our place went full Pivotal a couple of years ago....the AHT who was the driving force is no longer with us and we have had to put in place a full reversal to try and get back control

We had the Pivotal training. You were supposed to shake hands with kids as they entered the class. That died a death after a week... SLT have retained the restorative conversations after a student has been removed for poor behaviour but a lot of the rest is wishy washy, subjective and very difficult to sustain consistently. However I was having a chat with someone today about how teachers, esp new staff, should tackle widespread low level disruption. You can't give so many offenders all warnings and have them in and out of the room every few seconds. Needs to be a stricter, more robust system in place. Look at the results of the stricter schools: Michaela at al. Surely that speaks volumes about behaviour to learn.