Junior school - behaviour

[SeeSawDaw]

I work in a junior school and feel the behaviour has deteriorated in the last couple of years so I'm interested in what it's like at yours.

Do you think behaviour in your school has deteriorated? Can we still blame it on Covid? What kind of sanctions are given and do you feel they work? If not, what do you feel would work better? I'm finding that it's the same kids in time-out at break and lunch and some even brag about it. Some just tell you to f&@# off or refuse to do the sanction. Is it like this elsewhere?

I originally posted on AIBU but was accused of being a journo - I'm not I've just changed name so it can't be traced to my other account.

When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour amzn.eu/d/boHyt74

Paul Dix is well worth a read

I thought God and his dog had come to the conclusion that the Dix bloke was full of rubbish?

Thanks. Today I've been told it was none of my f&@£ing business when I asked the child why they had taken a ball and bounced it continually in the corridor whilst I was trying to teach. Child is in year 4.

Another child refused to come to lessons, instead they decided to meet with a friend in the loo and then run up and down the corridors.

Another one, again when I was teaching kept standing up and telling the others the lesson was boring, then moving round the classroom taking pupils' books/pencils. When asked to stop said it was just a joke. 20 mins later they repeated the action.

There are very few TAs - like gold dust - so no-one available to supervise or support.

Parents say all the right things, but nothing changes and we just go round in circles.

How do I balance teaching the class and meet the needs of the more challenging students? I'm just finding it so hard.

I don't know. I think there's a lot of crap written about it both ways - and a lot of it seems to be by people who haven't even read the stuff never mind done the training.

From our perspective it's made a big difference. High expectations of good behaviour by all staff, praise given where it's due, simple school rules, not shaming pupils who aren't behaving - lots of it is just good common sense but backed up by staff having bought into a consistent approach. And the best bit of it all - scrapping the bloody sun and cloud behaviour charts!!

Maybe Dix works at primary but he is basically a dick at secondary, promoted by people who don’t teach and don’t have to manage the behaviour of 300+ different kids every week.

The theory behind the majority of Dix's ideas is valid (and not new nor groundbreaking, rather just a rehash of old concepts). But, in practice, it relies on a series of assumptions that hold in a theoritical vacuum but are not necessarily true in reality. For example, some aspects rely on the idea that, when they understand the choices, all people will choose to do the right thing simply because of the intrinsic desire to 'be good' or there's the notion that the school and its staff are the primary behavioural influences on the pupils/students and can therefore override everything else happening in their lives.

In our school we have two P7 boys who stroll around in and out of classes doing as they please. They will be leaving tomorrow but already there's another pair waiting in the wings to take over. SLT have restorative conversations nearly every day which make no difference and they're always being encouraged to "make the right choices". They laugh in the faces of PSAs in the playground and know they can get away with anything.
I can't see the situation improving any time soon.

As a Supply Teacher I think behaviour has deteriorated in most schools. Younger pupils in secondary seem the worst. (I don’t do primary). I think COVID restrictions have a lot to do with this. Quite rightly, children have been given a lot of leeway over the last couple of years. Being expected to behave seems a shock to many…

I have just finished my QTS at a school that followed Paul Dix's recommendations to the letter. I have read the first book. I like some of the aspects of it but I have also seen it done repeatedly with some children that do not respond but the school continues on this path.

I don't get where this perception that he advocates that children should just be left to roam doing as they please with no consequences other than a conversation. That seems to be one of the biggest misconceptions. In our training he talked about giving consequences for behaviour etc. He also talked about this misconception of his approach being all fluffy and just chatting.

What I think is great for primary (and the OP was about a junior school) is trying to remove the adult emotion from situations. Primary teachers (and particularly TAs in my experience) can be very emotional about these things because they have the same class day after day and the same behaviour challenges from the same individuals. Changing the way TAs deal with things has been a huge shift for us.

I also like removing all the praise that is heaped on bad behaviour. I've spent too many years sat in primary school assemblies where the worst behaved kids get all the house points, stars of the day, pupil of the week, special rewards, trips etc.

Anyway, I wasn't planning on turning this into a Paul Dix push - I don't agree with or do everything! I just said to the OP that it's something to read.

I am a cover teacher and have 4 primary classes I work in. 1 of them has a few particularly challenging children in it and was just yesterday given some of Paul Dix's behaviour management tips to put into action starting from next week!

Tbf, I already do a lot of the things he says, mainly with my 2 KS1 classes. But they don't seem to work with this other KS2 class. I think they just hate me because I'm quite new 😟

How's it going @Meredusoleil? Have you been able to put things in place and have the pupils engaged positively?

I've had another crap day with some kids just being disrespectful to staff. One child was swearing and shouting whilst I'm teaching, then got out of their chair and sat cross legged on their table whilst a handful laughed at them. I try and ignore as much as possible as I know some of it is attention seeking but it's so disruptive to the flow of the lesson.

@careerchange456

What would you do in the scenario above?