Copyright 2014 Pivotal Education

Whole School and Whole College Behaviour

Paul Dix

PivotalEducation.com/podcast

Whole School and Whole College Behaviour

In this episode, we look at key ideas to tweak your school or college
behaviour system, policy and practice - what are the things that we
can do to make a real difference and what are the best schools and
colleges using in order to manage their learning, to motivate them
and to deal with some of the behaviour wobbles that they might
experience?
What makes the difference between a good, an outstanding or a not
so good school? Is it obvious as soon as you walk through the door?
Its obvious as soon as you meet the adults, when you watch for how
the adults behave. At the core of great behaviour management and
modification is the behaviour of the adults. You cant control,
necessarily, the behaviour of the students when they come to you but
you can control yourself.
Thats what you can look for - how does the adult interact with people
who theyre working with?

How do they deal with them in the corridors?

Are they rushing pass them on their way to somewhere else?
Do they smile at them, interact with them, stop and talk to them?
Are they nervous about being in groups of young people
congregating in the corridors?
Are they quite happy just to approach them, then move them on?
That dynamic really sets the scene. Some institutions that have had
a fortune spent on them are hugely impressive. The buildings shout
outstanding at you but the behaviour of the staff doesnt quite
do the same thing. So a good place to start with institutional
transformation is the behaviour of the adults. That can start to give
you clues about how well-managed the students are and how consistent
the practice is on a daily basis.
How is the tone set for this by the staff and management of the school?
Is it something that is written in documents or does it have to be
a lot more active than that?
The best schools and the best colleges dont rely on a behaviour
policy stuffed into a filing cabinet thats only brought out when
theres a problem. A really nice idea is to condense your daily
practice into a single, A4 sheet. It is the song sheet that everybody
sings from and it might include very simple descriptions of your
values and truths, the way that adults behave.

The single A4 sheet

Write down 5 ways the adults will behave in your school and
college
Describe what happens in a critical incident
Record what you do to recognise appropriate behaviour
Add what you do and what your processes are on a day to day basis
for sanctions
Consider writing on the reverse some strategies that lots of
people use and find effective or perhaps steps that you use to
deal with children when their behaviour does wobble
That single, A4 sheet is a really powerful document. Its not stuck
up on the wall behind the teachers desk. Its in every students
planner. Its a part of the induction for staff and students. Its
on every parents fridge. It is referred to in conversations about
behaviour. Some of the best schools and colleges have actually taken
it a step further and made small, credit card-sized reminders which
they hang from their lanyards. This means they are not just consistent
because they say we are, they are visually consistent and the students
can see that as well.
Too many rules
A lot of schools and colleges have 35 or 40 different rules in their
behaviour policies. Nobody knows what they are, nobody remembers what
they are and so there isnt any consistency in conversations. Slim
that list of rules down. Get it down to 3 things that are really
critical and 5 behaviours that we agree to do. Suddenly it becomes
doable, it becomes manageable, otherwise it is just a piece of paper
in a filing cabinet that we get out for the inspectors.
So try to slim the policy down to 1 side of A4 as a whole school or,
as a head of department, you might want to create one just for your
department. Make sure that all the stakeholders have a say in what
you are doing - avoid it being a top-down initiative.

One of the worst things you can do for tweaking and

improving behaviour in schools and colleges is to take an
idea and just impose it on everybody.
The best way to develop a policy is when its grown from the teachers
themselves and it comes from the bottom up, not from the top down.
Its about getting the teachers together and getting them to decide
what goes on the A4 sheet. That discussion can take a while but it
is so valuable. Suddenly, youve got something to refer to. Youve
got something to bring things back to.
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If you have some teachers who tend to be a bit maverick and go off
on their own, you can rein them in because that document is evidence
of a real agreement that has been thrashed out. It can be something
meaningful that sustains.

Paul: One of the things that I do very often is that I carry

a 20 note with me. I put the 20 on the table and I say,
Can you write down the rules of the school or college?
I still have the same 20. The staff look at me as if Im
insane. I say, If you dont know the rules, if the students
dont know the rules then were lost. In schools and
colleges, we cant dream of a pure consistency in behaviour
management without actually knowing what were being
consistent around. For many people thats a bit of a light
bulb moment. Theyd love to take my 20 from me, Im sure
but nobody has managed it yet!
Where a school is in crisis, the idea of having 2 sides of A4 must
seem like a distant aspiration. How does a school in crisis start?
You start by taking back control and that is a very difficult process.
It can be a painful experience and there are some things done in that
first transition from chaos to calm that you wouldnt do when
transitioning from good to outstanding. Retaking control can mean
having some very difficult conversations with young people. It can
mean finding different pathways for some of the young people who have
become disillusioned or who have become lost in a culture thats not
productive. The problem is, youve got to change the culture so you
need to make a big stand, you need to do something significant.

Paul: I remember when a new head teacher came in, we were

in complete chaos at the school I was working in. The status
quo had shifted. The children were in charge. The adults
ran scared through the corridors and it wasnt funny. It
was a horrible place to be and one of the things that the
new head teacher did was he demanded that every child should
wear black school shoes. He said that in the next 50 days
were going to make every child wear black school shoes.
We didnt like it, we didnt agree with it, we muttered
about it, we moaned but it was his honeymoon period so we
went with him. From the senior teacher, right through
teachers, teaching assistants, the learning mentors, the
midday supervisors, the site staff, everybody was at it black school shoes, black school shoes and it got worse
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before it got better. The children didnt like it, the

parents protested - they were buying brown shoes, they were
buying black trainers. We were having to tell them to take
them back to the shop. We went back to the head after 2 weeks
and we said, look, this is not working. Youre not going
to take control of this school again by insisting on black
school shoes. He said, No, you stick with it for 50 days,
every child in black school shoes.
Actually, what was happening was fascinating. We were all
managing our own workloads which were massive but we were
also contributing something to this communal focus,
something to this one thing we were trying to tackle. By
40 days we had 90% of the students in black school shoes
and the tide turned. Something fundamentally changed. We
had made the first step to changing that culture. Then we
had to deal with difficult families, difficult parents and
reluctant students and it took a lot of time but at the end
of the 50 day period and with lots of complaining, with some
very difficult conversations and confrontations, we
managed to get every child in black school shoes.
And a remarkable thing happened - the staff turned to each
other and said, What are we going to change next? And
suddenly the teachers had taken back control. We did it in
a very practical way, we sent a message to the children but
most importantly we sent a message to the community and the
parents that said, This school is changing. I think its
a very brave thing for a head to do but as a new head, walking
into a school where you are not happy with the culture, you
do need to take a stand. Some people are never going to be
happy with that but it is an essential part of moving that
institution forward. Sometimes you can tinker around but,
when the status quo has really shifted, I think you need
more than tinkering. I think you need something more
dramatic in order to shift back and switch the control back
to the teachers.
It doesnt really matter what the one thing is. It doesnt matter
if its shoes or ties or lateness, its just about how to shoot that
one rabbit. When you describe this 50 days to make a change to
some people, they say, Oh yes, you could do that because the school
was in crisis. Actually, we can all take something from the concept.
Your school or college may not be in crisis but what if we could

replicate the same kind of consistency that those teachers had in

that black school shoes example? What if in a good school or college,
we can have that same tightness of expectation and that same clarity
around the rules and how we conduct ourselves? If we can replicate
that, suddenly the teachers realise that the power of change is in
their hands, with their behaviour and that is remarkably powerful.
But of course its an argument that you will have to win and there
are always some people who would prefer to step out of it. If too
many people decide to step out and not do it, then it starts to
crumble.
I was working with a college in the West Midlands and they were fed
up with students sitting along the corridors eating food and making
a mess but in fact there was nowhere else for them to eat. So that
behaviour was actually caused by them changing the eating area into
a library. Everybody was signed up to the 50 days to make a change
idea around insisting that no-one ate in the corridors. Everyone was
consistent until someone saw an assistant principal walking past 3
students who were sitting in the corridor and eating. That went around
the staff like wild fire and suddenly it started to crumble. It wasnt
quite as tight as we wanted. It was because some of the senior leaders
thought that this was a strategy not for them but for the staff.
Consistency is the key
So any strategy must be implemented consistently by every member of
staff. Transformation comes when you accept that every adult has an
impact on behaviour and all adults are teachers of behaviour
regardless of hierarchy. It wont work if you are allowed to step
out and not take responsibility simply because you are a member of
the site team or you are a technician. Everybody is involved. Once
you accept this, you start to share responsibility.
In surveys of adults working in educational institutions we have
undertaken, 20% of teachers will stop and deal with behaviour in the
corridor every time and 80% will do it sometimes. So you find that
20% of the adults are doing all of the work. The other 80% are more
concerned with getting to their lesson or not getting involved in
a confrontation. As soon as that changes, as soon as the 80% are the
ones who stop every time, the students start to change their
behaviour, their expectations change, the culture changes and
suddenly you get the wind in the sails and the staff realise that
they can take school wherever they want it.

Behaviour management in Further Education

Hi Paul my name is Christine and I teach English to mixed
age groups in a Further Education College in the Midlands.
I know that rewards and sanctions are great strategies for
managing behaviour but do you have any advice on how to set
appropriate rewards and sanctions that are sensitive to the
needs and experiences of learners of different age groups
from 16 to 60 plus? Id really like to hear your ideas on
that, thank you.
At Pivotal, we have huge experience in FE. We work with more than
a hundred FE colleges and we have done so for a number of years. Ill
deal with the rewards first of all and if youve listened to the
podcast previously you will know I prefer recognition to reward
in how we deal with appropriate behaviour in an adult environment.
Just as with children, sincere praise works with adults - sincere
praise thats meaningful. You sit them down and you describe exactly
what it is theyve done to impress you. Deliver this with good eye
contact, with sincerity and a bit of humanity - that for me is at
the core of what you do with recognition.
Positive notes home
We talk about positive notes home for children but theres no reason
why you cannot have a positive note or praise card for a young adult.
They may not be living at home but that doesnt mean that you cant
give them positive notes. Actually, people tend to keep those cards
when theyre hand-written. You probably wouldnt get one of the
Pivotal-produced ones because they are more for younger children but
just a plain bit of card outlining what you are really pleased with
really means something. You might triangulate it by getting a tutor
to back it up with some additional reinforcement. If the student is
still young enough to be living at home, you may well send it home
but for adult learners praise cards still work brilliantly. I know
that at New College Nottingham they use them a lot with their adult
learners.
Student of the Week
I also encourage you to have students of the week and to have small
rewards within your class so that they feel appreciated. Recognise
the hard work of each individual student.
Praise cards
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 Sincere praise
Triangulating your praise
Student of the week
These are great ways to set up a recognition system that isnt
patronising and I think thats what Christine is getting at. She
doesnt want to use school rewards, she doesnt need stickers and
sweets, although Id always be a little careful not to reject an idea
simply because it seems to work with younger children. I know many
adults who would appreciate a sticker - I myself am quite partial
to a sticker and I dont mind a sweet either! If its delivered in
the right way, it can be appropriate.
Sanctions
Of course with adult learners we cant do detention. We dont have
that sort of pure punishment. So I think that a rule reminder is
important. I have a little, 4-step list of sanctions or consequences
for poor behaviour:
1. A rule reminder
2. A warning
3. A minute after the class just to sort out whats going on and to
see if theres a way there may be through it
4. Asking the adult learner just to step out, just to take a minute
out, go for a little walk, take a breather and as they come back to
the door just meet them outside the door and have that little chat
and just check that theyre alright
Very often with adult learners its not about your teaching its about
stuff thats going on outside or the day theyve had (if theyre
doing an evening course). I think that not having those punitive
sanctions forces you into developing relationships and leaning on
that relationship a little bit more.
Employability
Thinking about behaviour for employability is also a nice hook for
an FE college. Were not talking about rules but there are
expectations in terms of employability and I think making those
explicit and making it clear that were talking about behaviours that
prepare you for the workplace, or behaviours in a vocational context
or in a professional work environment are appropriate.

So how you frame your expectations in FE is critical and the last

thing I must mention is the rather damaging cause for concern slip.
These are a way of passing responsibility for the behaviour of a
student to a senior manager and they are destructive because they
tend to be given out quite liberally. They tend to be given out a
lot to particular learners. You start avoiding the responsibility
of talking to that learner and begin handing it to somebody else and
that undermines your relationship with them.
Now Im not saying that in an FE context you are expected to deal
with every behaviour issue that comes through your door on your own
but you do need your managers to stand next to you rather than to
take problems away and pretend to deal with them. Ask for support
that stands alongside you so the student gets the message that the
college is serious and the fact that you have brought a senior manager
or a faculty head in just places an emphasis on the fact that we are
consistent and this is the same message that all members of staff
would give you.
If you can reduce the number of cause for concern slips youre using
you can start to build up a level of understanding with your students
which says the buck stops with you not with a manager thats higher
up the chain.
One of the most difficult things in FE is that when the managers get
caught up dealing with the small stuff, the cause for concern, the
daily stuff that could actually be dealt with further down the chain,
it starts to clog the system up. Managers are running around dealing
with behaviour and theyre not dealing with their core business,
theyre not looking at teaching and learning, theyre not able to
support people in the classroom. They are taken away from their
coaching responsibilities and suddenly the whole institution starts
to wobble.
So, theres a very good reason why leading behaviour from the
classroom is an essential part of an FE lecturers responsibility.
I know that sometimes youre part time, sometimes you dont see the
same students every week but picking up your own tab, taking
responsibility for learners who have behaved poorly with you in the
first instance as much as possible is a critical part of the building
blocks for great behaviour.

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