Behaviour

[Daffy67]

Where have we got to? Rewarding pupils for sitting in their seat and listening to the teacher instead of rampaging around the class like usual. Whilst the always well behaved children have to put up with this nonsense?!

It's an absolute disgrace and is the biggest educational failure of recent times. I have mentioned many times before, how I am so lucky to be in a school with a brilliant Headteacher in his 60's, who allows us to shout, discipline, supports us with parents (they are told to like it or lump it, when they complain). This gets round and they stop complaining, there's no point, they get nowhere.

But I know it's the rarest of schools left. The children behave impeccably and we are in an inner city school. The children are punished. Yes, they are told off, made to face the wall if deserved etc etc. It works. Equally, we have lots of rewards too, but only if it's deserved. No fidget toys, no dogs, no calming rooms, just an expectation that they behave. Behaviour is excellent, they know they will be punished if they don't. When the parents realise what a great education their children are getting in a calm, purposeful environment, they come on board.

These Headteachers and leaders who have implemented this ridiculous "soft" approach that is failing everywhere, have a lot to answer for.

Badly behaved children in my school are given special privileges that the well behaved children can only dream.of.

I have no idea how we ended up here.

Yes, and I feel the expectations of what good behaviour looks like has deteriorated significantly since covid. I sent a kid out in a lesson I was covering because she was sat with her feet on the desk refusing to do anything and move to her seat on the seating plan. It took SLT 40 minutes to reply to my callout request and during that time she was literally doing cartwheels down the hall, dancing and even sticking twos up at other classes through their door window. SLT finally arrived, had a 30 second word with her and said she'd promised to do some work now, so she's ready to come in. When I called them out on it later in the day, I was told this student had missed too many hours of lessons from being in isolation or excluded so they didn't want her to miss more learning time 🙄. This isn't an isolated incident. Our school have got a record going of how many hours are missed, and once they've hit whatever the threshold is, they are no longer allowed to be sent out. SLT recently published figures to staff and the governing body that isolations and suspensions are on the decrease because we don't have a behaviour problem, apparently.

DD also notices it in her school. All the disruptive kids are getting star of the week for ridiculous reasons like not punching anyone this week. I guess they want it to be fair, but fair isn't the same as equal and fair would be the good kids who try hard consistently getting it.

5 years to retirement...5 years to retirement... 5 years to retirement... 5 years to retirement...

9 months to retirement. I can relate to all of the above. I’m 62 and I’ve had enough. Kids being allowed to trash a whole classroom and having to wait for them to calm down before ‘encouraging’ them to tidy up. Fed up with gentle parenting-old fashioned manners and discipline works best. I’ve gone full circle and don’t want to go round again.

I finally threw in the towel and left….its just too draining……

I genuinely don’t know what will become of these children in the future… They have zero understanding of how their behaviour affects others and are being rewarded for it. Huge amounts of 1:1 time with adults - given whatever they want to placate them. This is not real life - how will they fit into society in the future?