B is for Behaviour

I have always been very fortunate that I have never taught at a school where behaviour was a whole school issue.  The great majority of children behave well and this makes for a pleasant learning environment for all.  But obviously some children have behavioural issues either due to the experiences they are going through, have gone through or their learning needs.  Frustration for many children drives them to display behaviours that are disruptive but it is normally a cry for help rather than a true intention to cause misery to others.

My school follows the Good to be Green behaviour management program.  Every child starts each day with a green card and depending on the choices they make throughout the day are rewarded with going up through bronze, silver & gold for good behaviour choices or going down through yellow, orange, red for the incorrect behaviour choices.  It is the behaviour that is bad NOT the child and the child is given every opportunity to display a good choice and start to move back up the colours.  We have found this to be a very successful system for most children but if a child appears to be going home with a red card letter twice a week or more for a couple of weeks then as SENCO I work with the class teacher and parents to look at the stumbling points in behaviour.  Often it is due to factors outside of school (parent break ups/violence/lack of parental control) and we try to work with other agencies such as our health team or local children’s centre to give support to those around the child in order for that child’s life to be less disrupted and for them to be able to control their behaviour within school.  Being given space and time to talk about the issues that affect them is also very important and all children know I have an open door policy to discuss anything.

Individual behaviour charts have been used in the past – with the focus on positive praise rather than cataloguing every misdemeanour as well as modelling through social stories of, “What is the correct behaviour when … ?”

For a lot of troubled children just having a clear set of rules and consequences gives them the assurance that everyone is treated the same and we care about everyone in our school. 

Younger children will need more guidance and 1:1 time to understand and learn to control their behaviours whilst many of the older children can work with peer groups to work through issues they have.  Two freebie resources for older children can be found at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Using-Cooperative-learning-to-prevent-behaviour-Problems-314741

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classroom-management-strategies-for-the-7-most-common-classroom-problems-298489

I'd love you to share your behaviour tips for use in the classroom so feel free to leave a comment.