Behaviour & Learning Management

Norwegian visit

A group of Norwegian teachers from Rothaugen skole, Bergen, visited our friends at Christ Church C of E Primary School, Wandsworth to see how succesfully the Assertive Discipline method is being used there. They were all impressed with the warmth and positive relationships between teachers and children, the ways teachers explained clearly to children what behaviour would help them be successful in all parts of the school and the intelligent use of reward systems. Our thanks again to Colette Morris and her staff for their generous hospitality.

Norwegian version - We can now provide the Three Teaching Steps programme in Norwegian. Please  contact us for details of materials and training.

TRE TRINN FOR BEDRE KLASSELEDELSE

• Trinn 1. Gi klar og tydelig instruksjon hver gang du har behov for endret atferd.
• Trinn 2. Gi støttende tilbakemelding gjennom positiv anerkjennelse av de som følger opp.
• Trinn 3. Ta korrigerende grep overfor de som ikke følger opp.   

Student Situational Self Leadership

During the summer vacation Geoff Moss and Elizabeth Floyer undertook training in this new programme, and are now accredited to train teachers in the method. We will be writing more about this new venture shortly.

How you can improve pupil performance, reduce teacher stress and save money – all at the same time? 

Despite all the recent hype about “incompetent teachers”, the major reason for student underachievement, to put it simply, is student misbehaviour. Major behaviour disturbances aside, it’s the ongoing low level minor misbehaviour in lessons that hugely reduces teaching time – with the inevitable effects on pupil performance. Get more time on task and you raise achievement. Better behaviour – better learning. 

One of the major stresses for teachers is the same thing – student misbehaviour, often those same ongoing low level hassles that stop teachers doing the job they want to do. The effect of that is to reduce teacher morale, lead to frustration, and cause a considerable level of teacher stress. Improve the skill of those teachers in managing pupil behaviour and they spend more time teaching. Show them how to take charge of their own classrooms and they become more empowered. 

Money is a fast disappearing resource in education. Can there be a school left by now that hasn’t used up a considerable part of its CPD budget on “behaviour management training”?  Was it money well spent? Are your stressed out teachers now coping? Are your students learning? Or did it all slide back soon after? The reality is that training teachers in behaviour management takes time.  Some teachers need more time than others. Some schools have bigger behaviour problems than others. But neither the time nor the money is there to skill these teachers to the level you need. 

Save money – train all your teachers whenever you choose.  The Assertive Discipline Training Pack of 5 CDs contains the complete “Master Class” in behaviour management. CD1 contains the complete Powerpoint presentation with commentary by Geoff Moss. CDs 2-5 contain the complete video programmes in Assertive Discipline presented by John Bayley, all in a digital format. All 5 CDs allow you to edit the materials as you choose to recreate your own presentation version to meet your school’s needs, because you also purchase a site licence with our permission to make those changes. 

For a one-off payment your school has a tried and tested training programme that can be repeated over and over again. Teachers who need more time to study and acquire the skills can have that time. New teachers joining you can go through the programme in-house whenever it suits. All this for the cost of sending one teacher on one training course. Now everyone can get the training but you only pay once. 

20% discount until end of September. In reponse to the round of education cuts, we are cutting the price of this CD pack by 20%. Save some money now – and save some teacher’s sanity for the future! ·         Primary 5 CD pack – was £295 (+ VAT); now £236·         Secondary 5 CD pack – was £395 (+ VAT); now £320 To order during the discount offer period phone 0870 241 8262 or email us at info@behaviour-learning.com 

Judging by the results of a survey carried out by the ATL, disruption by pupils is now routine in our schools. Nine out of ten teachers say they have dealt with an unruly pupil this year. Four in ten have dealt with physical aggression in the classroom. While most said this was towards another pupil, a quarter said the violence was directed at them.

The problem appears to be worse for younger children, with half of those dealing with primary age pupils reporting incidents of violence in the classroom, compared to a fifth of those working in secondaries.  Six in ten teachers believe pupil behaviour has worsened in the past five years, and nearly half believe it has worsened in the past two years.

However the survey does not tell us what preventitive measures are in place in these schools, nor what sort of training the teachers had received in how to manage today's children.

As an organisation we mostly find an absence of clear straightforward procedures in place for violence prevention, few teachers who have really got an understanding of how to be proactive rather than reactive in the face of confrontation, and even fewer who have the verbal and non-verbal skills to defuse hostile situations and take an assertive leadership role in the classroom.

Government at national and local level greatly underestimates the amount of time it can take to properly train-up teachers to be able to deal with today's pupil behaviour. Mostly teachers just receive a one-day INSET training which allows managers to "tick the box" but leaves many teachers still vulnerable and stressed out back in their classrooms.

 Early Years behaviour issues

Thousands of five-year-old children are already at severe risk of disengaging from the educational process when they start school, according to a new report. A study by think-tank Demos found that more than one in 10 children start school without the behavioural skills they need to learn or build relationships. Research among 15,000 young children found 10% of them displayed emotional problems, hyperactivity and difficulty making friends, all factors linked to under-achievement at school and risk of truanting and exclusion. The report author observes that "One in 10 children lack the tools to benefit from education before they even get to the school gate."

The report calls for early intervention to help these young children develop the necessary skills to prevent them becoming drop-outs from school. Just what we’ve been saying for years – but who listens to us? If you want to do something about it look at this link [click here].