What can you do next lesson, next week, long term to help our young people with behavioural needs?

12 days of Christmas [educational] inspiration - from 2023

Having now heard at least five keynote addresses (including two at my own school) from Adele Bates , it is always wonderful to see the delegates' reaction when the author of Miss, I Don't Give A Sh*t, launches in and immediately takes everyone slightly out of their comfort zone. This was certainly the case in April at a conference hosted by the brilliant Claire Robinson FCCT at Holme Grange School .

What is so relevant about Adele is that her research and expertise comes from a place of being a teacher herself - in a range of settings:

"I've had juice poured on my head, been whacked by a skateboard - and have taught a Year 7 pupil who has experienced severe trauma how to read their first ever word..."

The practical advice she imparts to teachers, at a time when we all need to reflect on how we support students which a range of needs and behavioural tendencies (perhaps even more exacerbated and pronounced in our classrooms post-covid), is both down-to-earth and achievable.

Her book consists of ten chapters, all of which touch upon real-life examples of behaviour in classrooms that so many teachers will have come up against. She provides context to the behaviours alongside some really useful practices that we, as teachers, can try to implement. All are written through lived experience, and so, with consistency of approach, they have every chance of working to the benefit of the student, the rest of the class and to the teacher. Teacher training only scratches the surface in terms of behaviour strategies, supporting neurodivergent children (another article on this will follow) and managing a range of horrific contexts that some of our children come to school amidst, and so it is beholden on teachers and schools to use experts like Adele to guide us through an area that is so much more nuanced than an overarching school behaviour policy could ever provide.

Herewith six strategies from Adele which I believe to be particularly helpful. These come within the guiding framework that we should never give up on any child; learning opportunities for everyone in the class is important; teachers need the space and time to 'teach' and constant behavioural concerns should not undermine this.

1. The big behaviour rule: As a teacher you are responsible for your class, and therefore know them (and should make it your business to know each individual student well) best. In this setting, you are the expert. Override any advice you receive if it does not work for your student(s). Our job as teachers is to take any advice we receive and find out what works.
2. As teachers, we have a responsibility to work with every single young person in our care - this means being as patient, as understanding and as human we can be with each of them. However, we also have a responsibility to look after ourselves. Adele makes a point to hold your boundaries 99% of the time (she encourages us to leave behind that 1% so we remain flexible!). She also passes on advice from the Red School, to set aside five minutes fairly regularly, to dream up what your teaching life and personal life could look like if you put yourself first. Then establish what 1% of this change would look like, and try to follow that. It is about making small changes which can made a big difference to our lives. What has any of this got to do with behaviour, Adele asks? "When you take radical responsibility for your own behaviour, you can make a bigger positive impact for others - your pupils".
3. Consider the pupils who have particularly challenging behaviour in the classroom. Find out three things about their home lives - who they live with, where they live, which environments they enjoy and struggle with, what they enjoy doing out of school, what they are particularly good at, who their friends are. By knowing that child, they will in turn feel safe and it will lead to the building of a long-term investment in building secure relationships. All of these are important for learning.
4. If a child who can be challenging (and therefore receives a lot of negative attention) does something genuinely positive, then a quick email home (or phone call if appropriate) can go a long way. It will be appreciated by parents who might be exasperated, and it will show the teacher that whatever interventions that are in place are working. Do this on a Friday and you are sure to end the week on a high. Everyone loves praise, even the most challenging children. Explicitly recognising positive behaviour contributes to teaching pupils how to behave in a certain way.
5. Be a team player: use your TAs in your classroom (it is such a waste using these incredible people for photocpying, displays or marking - they are at their best used proactively with children). Observe other teachers who might have some good strategies. Take it upon yourself as a teacher to train yourself up. There is a wealth of free resources online to support teachers with behaviour. Just as a surgeon would be expected to research, so must teachers. Ignore the usual "well, he/she's fine with me" and find teachers who are willing to share good practice.
6. Don't take it personally. This is easier said than done for a challenging lesson can be so very demoralising. Even the most experienced teachers need support and can feel isolated without this. Know that there is life beyond the school gate, the child's behaviour is highly likely not to be targeted and asking for help is a very powerful response.

Adele ends her excellent book with a powerful question:

"What can you do next lesson, next week, long term to help our young people with behavioural needs?"

Tomorrow's inspiration (coming later today): Takeaways from the IAPS annual conference.