Choices

How to empower our pupils to make the right ones.

Photo by Malcolm Lightbody on Unsplash

Thoughts and musings

Behaviour management. Such a prominent part of my teacher training experience. Something that I have always performed strongly in on my lesson observation feedback sheets. An idea, that at times, is presented as a tick list of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. Experience, however, has taught me that behaviour management is so much more than this.

My teaching career has been varied. I have had short stints out of the classroom, been a supply teacher, taught all Year Groups in Primary as a class teacher, led a core-curriculum subject across 3 countries, managed year groups and coached and mentored over 100 educators covering the UK, Spanish and Arabic curriculums. I have valued every single one of these experiences. One of the most important things that the variation in these roles has taught me, though, is that embedding positive behaviour management systems is not a piece of cake!

I think we can all identify those teachers (and they may even be ourselves) who have a natural affinity to understanding and implementing positive systems for their pupils to follow school and class rules which allow for everyone to learn. However, if this is not a natural skillset for a teacher then routines, ethos and progress can rapidly decline.

It is my hope that today’s ‘glimmer’ will reignite and revive any previously embedded sparks or may provide some ideas which could support colleagues who you have either identified in a leadership or coaching role, or perhaps those who have approached you with difficulties that they are experiencing in their classrooms, which may be remedied by a redirection in approach.

Ideas and practical suggestions

So how can positive systems be embedded in daily routines and environments? Below are two suggestions which I hope can be actioned with minimal time spent preparing. Think of these more as a shift towards intentionality as conversations, actions and use of language and approaches are identified, implemented and reviewed.

1. Continually return to choice

One of the biggest shifts I have witnessed in my 16 years as an educator is the move away from identifying children with behaviour difficulties to labelling the behaviour of these children, not the child. A welcomed change. Again, a part of my learning journey has been my ability to pick up on the language that is used around behaviour (as I am sure many of you will have also noted). The word ‘choices’ is one that I believe to be most empowering. Choice brings the responsibility and autonomy back to the child. Now, choice only works if systems are tight, consequences are clear and consistency is embedded. Choice also comes with intentional time given to making this choice. For some children, a reminder of the choices they are making is enough, for others a plethora of other emotions which they may be experiencing can make landing on the correct choice rather complex.

• So, what needs to be in place to ensure a child is in the position to make the correct choice?

  • Firstly, the language around the choice needs to be clear. Once again, this comes back to taking away any blame or emotionally loaded vocabulary. Addressing the child directly, making it clear to them what they are doing which, when in tandem with a clear set of rules, is going against the agreed positive choices. Saying, “Bob, you are swinging on your chair” rather than “Stop swinging on your chair, Bob”.

  • Having a tight, memorable, shared motto around what constitutes positive behaviour choices is also highly recommended. My favourite being, ‘ready, respectful, safe’. What this allows is for all choices to be brought back to these agreed ideals. So to add to the above reminders for Bob, “Bob, you are swinging on your chair and that is not safe”. What this means is that Bob doesn’t get the sense that you are ‘nagging’ him but instead reminding him of our shared set of positive choices, which in this example is your intention to keep him safe.

  • I have always loved the idea of ‘showing the child their behaviour’, as on a number of occasions the child may not actually realise they are ‘doing the thing’. A common example of this is, “Bill, you are shouting out”. I couldn’t even put a number on how many times a child has responded to me, “Sorry Miss! I hadn’t realised.” Sometimes the children are just so eager to share their ideas or potentially their home environment is a busy and bustling one where the one who shouts the loudest is the one that is heard. A small reminder of the fact that they are one of 30 (plus) children and it is respectful to put our hands up so that we all get the chance to be listened to, is often all that is needed.

  • Once a child has heard this reminder of, or a signal to, the choice that they are making they may need time to internalise the consequence of this. If there is more to this choice than a simple mistake, there may be more at play. In my previous post, ‘Walking the talk’,¹ I discussed the importance of reflecting your classroom ethos in your environment, both the physical and the emotional. Having areas, zones and resources available for a child to take some time to reflect on and make their choice is favourable here. This may be a Zones of Regulation interactive display, a quiet reflection corner or another more individualised resource (perhaps paper-based) where a child can either calm down, reflect or consider step by step the consequences of a negative choice and what they may need to make a positive choice.²

  • My final point here is consistency. For children to feel secure, they will often test boundaries. Innately, they want to check cause and effect. Below, I will explore how teachers can (and should) still exercise their individual ethos for cultivating positive behaviour choices in their learning environments but having a collective, consistent approach across school is ultimately key. A fair system, which every adult (no matter their role in school) follows, tightens up expectations. It also promotes the feeling that we, as an educational establishment, are a team. We are all on this proverbial ship together, we all belong. Back to the shared motto, this is easily actionable for all adults and instantly recognisable for all children. Last, but by no means least, ensuring that no adult ever turns a blind eye to an incorrect choice is imperative. Children will look for chinks in the armour and this is a sure-fire way for the system to began to crumble.

2. Elevate responsibility

Such a simple technique to exercise but one that will reap the rewards. Responsibility can be embedded at a whole-school, class and individual level. It works best with the tight expectations previously mentioned and strengthens the idea of positive choices.

• I am going to jump right in on this one, below are some ways in which you can assign, acknowledge and celebrate responsibility:

  • Firstly, responsibility should go hand in hand with the whole-school ethos for positive choices. To use my previous example, ‘ready, respectful, safe’, awards and rewards centre around these positive behaviours. As above, just as a negative choice is identified and time is given to remedy this, the positive should be put on a pedestal. However you reward your children, team points, Class Dojos, sticker charts, bringing these rewards back to your shared moto strengthens this. It provides a model for what these choices should look like. These can be elevated even further, a certificate in assembly, a message home, a special table for these children to sit on at lunchtime (perhaps even with a member of the teaching team). It’s something positive to aim for and doesn’t overcomplicate things. The most important consideration is ensuring that your school’s vision for behaviour choices sufficiently embodies the choices that children make and that there is a positive spin on these, as well as a negative.

  • Now to the classroom. On another NQT course, I learnt about creating shared classroom rules. I have used this idea for every single class I have taught. I am sure many of us allocate at least one lesson at the beginning of the new term to exploring the school and class rules. However, are these always created by the children? An added extra I would like to present is splitting these rules into the following categories:

    1. Adults in the classroom

    2. Pupils in the classroom

    3. Both

    I have always done this with my own prepared rules which the children have to sort. They may need a bit of guidance on this. There is of course opportunity for children to add to these. The children are then required to sort these into the above headings. What they find surprising is that the busiest column is ‘both’. It is our shared responsibility to: turn up to school and be prepared for the day, to try our best, to keep the classroom tidy, to walk through the corridors (notice how all of these behaviours can be classified as ready, respectful and/or safe). It is also important for the children to see that the adults also have specific rules to follow: looking after the pupils, creating interesting and engaging lessons, providing purposeful feedback.

  • Finally, to the individual. This is where your ethos really kicks in. Alongside the consistency of your school rules and reward systems, what do you value? This is where getting to know your children is imperative. What motivates your current cohort or the individuals who you know find making positive choices tricky? The individual also operates on the collective. Table points is a system which I have found empowers positive choices in the class, even more so when they can name the table themselves!

  • Another idea for the collective, which I am going to suggest tentatively, is a class pet. Just over 10 years ago, I stayed with my Year 4 class into Year 5. They SO wanted a class pet and honestly - I didn’t, and they knew this. However, I really wanted to keep our journey together fresh. So, we got tropical fish! My tentative suggestion is due to the fact that this was funded by myself and was quite a lot of extra responsibility, time and effort on my part - to begin with. The pay-off was incredible. We used our collective responsibility rewards linked to our new fishy friends. The class worked towards gaining extras for the tank through the positive choices that they made and we had a rota for cleaning the fish and feeding them. The sensory, calming element of 6 other living beings in the classroom was also not lost on the children. Sometimes, when they were reflecting on their choices, they would have 5 minutes staring at the tank until they were ready to re-join the class. Perhaps the best decision I have made for my class in my career.

  • Finally, roles in the classroom. It never fails to surprise me how much the role of ‘book monitor’ or ‘pencil sharpener’ has on a child’s self-esteem. More often than not, they are fiercely protective of their role and they take pride in it. I would like to add in another responsibility which goes hand-in-hand with the sensory needs of a child. When making a positive choice seems to be presenting as a challenge, maybe the child need a movement break. Perhaps loaded down with some exercise books. This, once again, only works if your school systems are tight and the trust is there between you and the child that a “note you need taking to another teacher” or “10 Maths books which need delivering to Year 3” are actually going to make it there and monitored (and hopefully celebrated) by other adults in the corridors (“Wow Lucy, you are walking so respectfully through our corridors with those Maths books for Year 3. I would like to reward you with a team point for being so ‘respectful’).

For further reading/listening on positive choices I would highly recommend:

• Every single book by Bill Rogers!

• Explore the ideas presented by Tom Bennett in ‘Running the Room: The Teacher’s Guide to Behaviour’:

• For a handy Zones of Regulation help sheet:

For further Substack reads, you may want to revisit my post from last week on professional ethos (1).

I would also highly recommend pairing your exploration into curating positive strategies to support self-regulation with an excellent post by ‘SEMH Education’ (2).

1. Walking the talk

2. ✨Sensory Rooms in Education🪷