Developing and Implementing a Whole-School Behavior Policy

A Practical Approach

Don Clarke, Anne Murray

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781134087730
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First Published in 1997. This book gathers together some of the experience of a group of Tower Hamlets SLS teachers who have worked in collaboration with mainstream colleagues to develop whole-school behaviour policies. It aims to present key issues related to developing behaviour policies and to provide useful materials and ideas which can be used by schools as starting points for their own projects.

1. WHY HAVE A BEHAVIOUR POLICY?

‘Schools can and do make a difference…’

Schools are places of learning and it is important that behaviour is managed so that the aims of the school can be achieved. The purpose of a behaviour policy is to support this process through:

• The creation of a positive and orderly atmosphere where teaching and learning can take place

• The creation of a safe environment for pupils and staff through the clarification of expectations, roles, rights and responsibilities

• The reduction of teacher stress through the identification of effective systems and practices

• Addressing the demands of changing conditions and approaches

CHANGING CONDITIONS AND APPROACHES

This section outlines key issues which schools should bear in mind when developing a behaviour policy:

1) Negative or Neutral approaches → Positive approaches

2) Individual discipline → Collegial approach

3) Control → Cooperation

4) Behaviour management as a personal issue → A ‘procedural’ approach

5) Severity → Certainty and Predictability

1) Negative or Neutral approaches → Positive approaches

It is increasingly widely recognised that schools which actively promote good behaviour rather than just respond to misbehaviour are likely to be effective schools. Such a positive approach is likely to include a recognition that:

• Pupils’ behaviour does not occur in a vacuum and that the ethos of the school and the professional practice of the teachers has considerable influence on the way pupils behave in school.

• Having explicit expectations and procedures increases the likelihood that pupils from all backgrounds and cultures can adopt and support them.

• There is a need for teachers to model the kind of behaviours expected from pupils. Pupils are likely to learn as much from how they are treated by staff than from what they are told to do. Of particular importance maybe the way conflicts and disagreements are sorted out.

• It is important to engage the commitment of all members of the school community – pupils, teaching staff and non-teaching staff, parents and governors, so that all groups see the policy as being beneficial to them. An approach which recognises that everybody has both rights and responsibilities is likely to achieve this.

• Effective acknowledgement of appropriate behaviour needs to be planned rather than left to chance. This recognises that it is much easier to give attention for inappropriate behaviour than for appropriate behaviour. Even when appropriate behaviour / improvements are recognised, the amount of teacher attention given to this is frequently much less than for misbehaviour.

• Being in a school, the learning process itself and growing up are not necessarily easy or comfortable processes and that the school can address these issues in different ways. The school needs to have ways of addressing the ‘affective curriculum’ – of acknowledging that pupils have feelings. Schools that don’t find legitimate opportunities to acknowledge pupils’ feelings will find that pupils will demonstrate them anyway – frequently in a disruptive manner!

• Appropriate behaviour mangement styles can minimise or prevent much difficult behaviour. This would include sensible routines as well as clear roles and expectations. It should be recognised that behaviour management is no substitute for well-planned and stimulating lessons. Pupils that are stimulated by the work tend not to be disruptive.

• The management of behaviour can be planned, in a similar way to the curriculum, particularly with reference to repeated behaviour difficulties. This is particularly important because managing behaviour can be personally stressful as well as challenging at a professional level.

• Pupils self-esteem will be enhanced if they are encouraged to take responsibility for themselves and their learning. This would include encouraging pupils to take responsibility at a personal level as well as contributing socially, perhaps through a School’s Council

2) Individual discipline → Collegial approach

Over recent years there has been a change of culture in education where discipline was seen very much as an individual’s responsibility. This has sometimes meant the use of, or threat of, physical punishment or at least a ‘dominating’ approach. Such threats are no longer possible and schools are discovering that the strengths of these approaches can be replaced by the effective use of a collegial approach.

These changes therefore include:

• A closer involvement and teamwork with colleagues in the teaching situation through team teaching / use of support teachers / development of departments / year groups

• A need for clarity of roles

• A need for a consistent approach to behaviour congruent with the values of the school

• A need to link with the SEN Code of Practice / IEPs

3) Control → Cooperation

There is increasing recognition that it is not possible to ‘make pupils do things’; that it is not appropriate or practicable to attempt to control them. (It is of course important that teachers have control over the teaching situation). The positive approach is concerned with developing the relationship between pupils such that they see their needs best being met by cooperating with the school. McGuiness ⁽¹⁹⁹³⁾ discusses how in the process of developing a relationship with pupils, it is important to communicate to them in such a way that they feel valued.

There are behaviour management styles which make a cooperative relationship more or less likely. Bill Rogers ⁽¹⁹⁹¹⁾ discusses a Decisive / Assertive style of behaviour management which aims to avoid the pitfalls of an Aggressive / Dominating style or an Unassertive / Indecisive style (which can trigger-off inappropriate behaviour themselves).

A teacher may have little power as an individual teacher but working with others as a team can set and enforce acceptable limits of behaviour. This view links in with the use of a progressive or a stepped approach to responding to misbehaviour at the classroom / whole-school level. These elements contribute to a predictability which not only enhances pupils’ sense of control but also reduces anxiety and uncertainty. It means that pupils (and teachers) will feel that they know where they are and what is going to happen next.

4) Behaviour management as a personal issue → A ‘procedural’ approach

Schools need to agree behavioural expectations, limits and responses. Many teachers feel that they can only act decisively if they have reached the limit of their personal tolerance of the situation – I’Ve had enough! Apart from making it difficult to have a consistent whole school approach, this makes behaviour management a personal issue – I’m sanctioning you because you’ve pushed me too far!’ rather than ‘Because you have broken the agreed rule.’ In this way it also encourages the shift of responsibility for the pupil’s behaviour back to them – encouraging the view that their behaviour was a matter of their choice.

By making responses to behaviour ‘procedural’ rather than personal, the emotional temperature can be kept down and pupils can find it easier to cooperate with the process itself and ‘take it on board.’

A procedural approach to dealing with disruptive behaviour includes:

• Even when managing behaviour, where at all possible, keep the focus on the learning.

• Having the possibility of many steps up the ladder of response. McManus ⁽¹⁹⁹³⁾ discusses how schools who refer quickly to senior members of staff also tend to be high excluding schools.

• Minimising the amount of overt attention given to dealing with misbehaviour. One method is to use something like the Incident Sheet in the examples section of this book which would mean that that pupil has to focus on the behaviour causing concern without necessarily having the teacher’s attention.

• Making sure there is a minimum of pay-off in terms of, teacher or peer attention / entertaining teacher response / avoidance of work.

5) Severity → Certainty and Predictability

Bill Rogers emphasises that it is the certainty of the consequences rather than their severity that is often the effective element in responses to misbehaviour. If the pupil knows the teacher will catch up with them sooner or later, the ‘See If I Can Get Away With It’ game will seem a less interesting proposition.

If staff can act in consistent, predictable ways which aim to restrict intervention to the minimum necessary, it is more likely to mean:

• A reduction in anxiety (teacher’s and pupil’s) and other powerful emotions

• There will always be the possibility of a stronger response next time as well as the pupil being more likely to accept the consequence as legitimate – ‘It’s a fair cop guv!’

• There will be little ‘pay-off’ and a minimum of testing-out behaviour.

BELONGING

A. H. Maslow in his hierarchy of human needs indicates the importance of the ‘need to belong’. Dreikurs ⁽¹⁹⁸²⁾ focuses on this within the school situation and identifies two key ‘student goals’ as needing to belong and needing to have attention. He discusses how pupils who fail to achieve these goals legitimately can resort to increasingly disruptive behaviours to achieve them. What these views emphasise is the importance of the relationship that the pupil is able to achieve with the school. One difficulty that a behaviour policy needs to address is that schools can react to disruptive behaviour (or acts of disaffection) with increasingly controlling methods. Such responses can be experienced by the pupil as increasingly rejecting of them not just their behaviour, thus causing a vicious circle.

Certainty and Predictability

Certainty and predictability are more likely to occur if:

1) Schools have clear rules and consistently reinforced limits.

2) There is previous discussion with pupils about fair and related consequences for misbehaviour (and appropriate behaviour).

3) Pupils are warned (where possible) before the imposition of a consequence.

4) Staff act firmly and confidently, as well as in a respectful manner.

5) Staff make consequence as small as possible to allow for stronger responses to be made if n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• About this book
• 1. Why have a Behaviour Policy? – Don Clarke
• 2. What Needs to go into a Behaviour Policy? – Don Clarke
• 3. Planning for Change – Peggy Gosling, Anne Murray & Fiona Stephen
• 4. Involving the Whole School Community – Alastair Ross
• 5. Information Gathering – Francesca Gray
• 6. Developing a Primary Behaviour Policy – Alastair Ross
• 7. Organising Policy Development in Secondary Schools – Harry Ayers
• 8. Monitoring and Evaluating a Behaviour Policy – Peggy Gosling
• 9. Involving Senior Colleagues – Warwick Dyer
• 10. Selected Bibliography
• 11. Materials and Examples