An effective approach

Having had over a decade's experience in the classroom, I can confidently say that effective behaviour management is absolutely crucial to the success of the students in my care. This applies to students that behave well, as well as those that don't.

Behaviour management is one of the biggest challenges that teachers face. It's not easy to manage a classroom full of students, especially when they are all at different stages of development and have different needs.

Behaviour management is generally defined as collection of tools and strategies that teachers might use to help students to behave in a way that is conducive to learning. The word behaviour sounds quite negative, but behaviour management is not just about stopping students from misbehaving. It's also about encouraging students to behave in a way that is positive and productive.

It's not a one-size-fits-all approach. The tools and strategies I use will vary depending on the setting, situation and the students involved. I might use a different approach with a student who is misbehaving for the first time than I would with a student who is a repeat offender. I might use a different approach with a student who is disrupting learning of others than I would with a student who is only disrupting their own learning.

Behaviour management policies

There is a reason why my #1 rule is about consistency. During my teaching career, I saw many different behaviour management policies, and I found that the ones that worked best were the ones that were clearly defined and consistently enforced.

Where I saw behaviour management policies fail to be effective, they tended to be where teachers only occasionally followed the policies, leaving students unclear about how they were expected to behave.

As for the contents of the policy, I found that the most effective policies were the ones that were clear and concise. They didn't need to be long and complicated, but they did need to be clear about what was expected of students and what the consequences would be if they did not meet those expectations. I would suggest that an effective policy might include the following:

• Clear expectations - what is expected of students in terms of behaviour, attendance, punctuality, uniform, etc.
• Clear consequences - what will happen if students do not meet those expectations.
• Clear rewards - what will happen if students do meet those expectations.

Finally, the school leadership team needs to be clear about how they will support teachers in enforcing the policy. If teachers are not supported in enforcing the policy, then it will not be effective. Practically speaking, this might mean that the leadership team is more visible around the school and available for escalations where a student is unable to behave within the classroom environment.