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Richmond School Behaviour for Learning Procedures

Policy Established: August 2015

Policy to be Reviewed: August 2017, or sooner if legislation or

circumstance dictates

These procedures have been developed by North Yorkshire County Council in consultation with colleagues from schools across the County, through Network and Cluster meetings, with the aim of enhancing learning potential by embedding effective classroom practice that promotes positive behaviour for learning. The guidance comprises the following sections:

entry/settling in – promoting calm, structured entry routines and prompt engagement with the learning environment and activities

establishment – ensuring that students are clear of the purpose of the learning, what it entails and how it fits into the context of previous and future learning.

adult interaction or direction – maximising the impact of adult input

student engagement in independent or group learning activities – ensuring that students are able to consolidate, and to further develop, new knowledge, understanding or skills.

consolidation – reviewing learning in order to recognise progress and achievements and to inform future planning

exit – promoting calm, structured exit routines

managing low level challenging behaviour - promoting positive behaviour management skills

appendix: Techniques for managing low-level challenging behaviour

This guidance should be used in the following ways:

as an aide memoir for lesson planning

as a focus for learning walks

as a focus during lesson observations

supporting newly qualified teachers

supporting staff experiencing difficulties in managing low level disruption

as a focus for subject or whole staff discussion at staff meetings

as advice in the staff handbook

as an audit of whole school practice – perhaps RAG (red, amber, green) rated as a professional development audit

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Behaviour for Learning: Entry/Settling In Prompts

Aspect

Intended outcome

Setting the tone for purposeful and positive learning. Establishing entry routines so that students enter the classroom and are ready for learning as soon as possible and using this time as an opportunity to build positive relationships with the students. This phase of the lesson can also provide an opportunity for developing independence or, at the same time, a sense of team effort/responsibility.

Does the school have a senior leader who is responsible for policy, practice and outcomes in behaviour and safety?

Is the policy on the school’s website?

Have all staff established entry routines with students?

Where are you when the students arrive?

How do you meet and greet students as they enter the room and establish an ‘emotional check in’?

Have you prepared for emotional/behavioural needs of individuals, e.g. considered where they have been and what they have been doing prior to the lesson, returning from absence or in a heightened emotional state resulting from incidents prior to the lesson?

How do the students independently engage at the start of the lesson, e.g. engager activity or pre-determined routine activity?

Do the students have planned seating? If so, are these assigned to meet learning, behaviour or relationship needs? Are they changed regularly?

Have you got all the necessary equipment and the room layout organised?

Have you planned for how you will manage students who don’t have the required equipment/kit?

Can you use any start-up routines as an opportunity to develop leadership skills?

Is the temperature of the room comfortable?

Have you established procedures for collecting/checking homework? (may be now or later) Are students engaged in learning activities connected to homework? Peer response? Can you use this as an opportunity for praise?

Have you planned for latecomers and rewarded those on time?

All staff are clear in relation to policy, practice and are accountable for their roles and responsibilities.

All parents, students and others know the policy and practice of the school.

Students enter the room in a calm, sensible manner, and all feel welcome, establishing positive relationships.

All staff monitor students’ entry and exit to lessons.

Students settle quickly, both into seats and to work, organising themselves quickly, and motivated to self-start.

Routines are well established and regular registration ensures a proactive focus on attendance.

Any students who are late to the lesson are positively welcomed, do not disturb learning and staff follow up/re-set expectation or consequence.

The classroom environment is conducive to learning, and includes clear prompts for good behaviour.

All students are able to describe clearly the routines and expectations in the classroom.

All teachers have clear routines to manage students who, for example, lack the correct equipment or do not have the correct uniform.

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Have you considered how and when you will take the register?

Have you considered how you will follow up absence?

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Behaviour for Learning: Establishment Aspect

Prompts

Intended outcome

Setting the learning in context and establishing a positive ethos. Providing an introduction where objectives and expectations are shared; the lesson is located in the context of previous and future learning.

Have you established clear objectives/activities/success criteria for the lesson? Are they related to learning, and to skills and to behaviour?

Are all of the students aware of these? Are they communicated in student appropriate language? Do the students have an opportunity to shape their own learning?

Do you try to develop a sense of excitement/anticipation about the learning? This is what we are learning – how will we know?

Have you identified key vocabulary and developed students’ understanding of this?

Are the learning objectives differentiated so as to support and develop different learning skills/styles/ability of students?

Have you located the lesson in the context of previous and future learning? Are the students involved in this?

Have you explained how the lesson is going to be structured? With suggested timings? Do students understand their role in this? Do they have a variety of opportunities to learn in different ways?

Would it be useful to use a key question? Can the students generate this? Hypothesise?

Are support staff clear about their role? Have they been involved in planning/briefed beforehand? Do they have a copy/knowledge of the lesson plan?

Do support staff have a specific role to support learning and to foster independence?

Do support staff reinforce understanding through questioning? (Bloom)

Students have a good understanding of the learning to take place, where it fits into their learning over time and how this is to be organised.

Good staff/student relationships and levels of engagement.

Students are clear of success criteria and what they need to do in order to make good progress.

Support staff have a clear understanding of their role in checking students’ understanding and in moving learning forward, with individuals and groups.

Students with a range of different and additional needs, including G&T, are actively engaged in their learning

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Behaviour for Learning: Adult Interaction or Direction Aspect

Prompts

Intended outcome

Ensuring that adult input at different points of the lesson has maximum impact and enables students to develop their knowledge and understanding.

Are the students motivated enough to ‘tune in’

independently – what signals for attention have you developed as a routine?

Have you drawn on a range of strategies or techniques to engage students? (Questioning - Bloom’s Taxonomy, modelling, explaining, use of ICT, VAK?)

Have you considered the age and maturity of the students when deciding the length of teacher input?

Have you planned specific questions that promote higher order thinking skills? Do you use probing questions to encourage students to extend their answers?

Does questioning involve the whole class – both formulating questions and responding?

Have you considered how you respond to student answers, both correct and incorrect, and how you praise/reward?

Have you developed routines for whole class teaching, e.g. listening, for answering questions? Consistent with whole school routines?

Do you model what students are expected to do? Do you expect students to model the same behaviour?

Have you planned your movement around the room during this part of the lesson?

Do support staff reinforce understanding through questioning and mapping? Have they had an input into planning?

Are you mindful of when to intervene to maximise learning rather than hinder it?

Have you considered how you move around the classroom for maximum interaction +/or intervention?

Have you considered how you manage the transition into and out of this phase (or phases)?

Students respond quickly to any adult

(teachers and teaching assistants) interaction or direction and are consistently on task.

Interactions with any adults or peers are focused, enthusiastic and move learning forward.

All staff and students model good behaviour, with a clear dialogue which is focused on learning

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Behaviour for Learning: Student Engagement in Independent or Group Learning Activities

Aspect Prompts Intended outcome Appropriate, planned activities at different points of the lesson, give students the opportunity to use, reinforce, and to further develop, new knowledge, understanding or skills.

Have you chosen activities and resources that are suitable for the group/individuals (ability and level of engagement) and will enable the learning objectives to be achieved?

Have you considered what needs to be recorded and how?

Have you considered how you will use written and oral feedback to help students to improve their learning, including working in different ways to develop different behaviours for learning?

Have you developed routines and expectations for: communication, noise levels, getting adult attention,

working with a partner/group? movement around the room, access to resources? mutual respect, problem solving, conflict resolution?

Have you considered arrangements for seating and grouping, ability, mixed gender, level of engagement?

Have you built in the opportunity for meaningful peer and self-assessment?

Are all support staff clear of their role in moving understanding and learning forward?

Does the teacher support the learning of all groups, including vulnerable learners?

Has planning included the identification of key, higher order questions? Are support staff aware of these/shared planning?

Have you planned your movement around the room?

Have you planned for how you will deal with off-task behaviour or any other need for student correction? (Techniques to redirect behaviour/consistent reference to rules, routines, consequences)

Have you built in opportunities for praise and reward? (linked to learning and to positive behaviour)

Have you considered how you will time each activity, draw it to a close and move between episodes?

Have you considered how and when you will set homework tasks?

Students are enthusiastic in their approach, they settle quickly into tasks and remain consistently engaged throughout the lesson.

There is good pace to the learning.

Students work collaboratively, all members of the group take an active role.

Whether students are working collaboratively or independently, they are able to explain, describe and clarify their learning.

Students can articulate what they have learned in the lesson and describe the next steps in their learning.

All students have opportunities to take responsibility for and lead their own learning.

Students’ books/files demonstrate progress over time

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Have you planned extension activities for early finishers?

Have you clarified success criteria with students and do you, and they, refer this in order to determine progress throughout the lesson?

Behaviour for Learning: Consolidation Aspect Prompts Intended outcome Ensure that learning is reviewed in such a way so as to celebrate achievements and foster positive relationships/engagement. Provide students with the opportunity to review learning and to reflect on the learning process itself.

Have you built in on-going opportunities to review learning? Does this focus on the lesson’s objectives and link to the outcomes/success criteria of the lesson as a whole?

Does review provide opportunity to draw together the learning of the whole group and to recognise the progress of each individual?

Does review consolidate and extend learning, and identify the next phase?

Do you provide opportunities for peer review of learning?

Are students aware of their own personalised learning targets within the context of the lesson, and do you provide opportunity for them to develop these and recognition within feedback?

Does review highlight not only what has been learned but also how it has been learned and behaviour for learning e.g. independent and/or collaborative working??

Do you encourage an expectation of attendance at the next lesson by setting up that lesson in such a way that ‘it must not be missed’, e.g. cliff-hanger ending?

Have you considered the range of whole-class interactive teaching skills that could be used to review learning and to ensure that no opportunity is missed for learning?

Do you encourage the students to connect new learning to things they already know and/or links to other possible areas of application?

Do you need to use a single review of learning at the end of the session or a series of reviews at different points of the lesson?

Students have a clear understanding of, and can discuss good behaviour, their own progress and what is required to move their learning on.

Students have the time & opportunity to reflect and respond; they are willing to share what they have learned and what they think will follow.

Students have the confidence to question any aspect of learning they remain unsure of and are keen to share with, and learn from, each other.

Students also have the confidence to give feedback to the teacher about the lesson and the learning process.

Students can link new learning to the bigger picture and to other applications as appropriate.

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Do you encourage, and support, students to give you reflective feedback on the effectiveness of the lesson for their learning?

Do you review and reflect on the learning process in each lesson in an unbiased way?

Do you have a clear understanding of progress and next steps for the group as a whole, and for individuals, which in turn, you use to inform planning?

Behaviour for Learning: Exit

Aspect Prompts Intended outcome The lesson should end in an organised and controlled way that encourages students to move on to other areas of the school in a calm manner. Opportunity is taken to consolidate positive relationships.

How do you communicate to students that the lesson is ending?

Have you developed strategies to manage student response to external signals to the end of the lesson, for example the bell, other students on the corridor?

Do you round off the lesson or review the lesson with any acknowledgement of the student behaviour?

Have you allowed time to develop clear routines for the end of lessons and are students aware of these routines: packing up equipment? coats and bags? leaving the room?

Do you encourage independent following of expected routines by all students?

Have you planned for the role of support staff within and at the end of lesson routines?

Do you ensure that any rewards gained are recorded? Ditto consequences?

Where are you when the students leave?

Have you developed a script to use as students leave the classroom, e.g. recognising their input into the learning?

Students know clear expectations and routines at the end of the lesson and how to exit the room.

Students pack up quickly when requested and leave in a calm, controlled manner.

Students are clear about any homework tasks.

Positive relationships are evident between different groups of students, and between students and staff.

Students’ attitudes indicate that they are eager to return for the next lesson.

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Managing Low Level Challenging Behaviour

Aspect Prompts Intended outcome Adults have developed strategies to manage low level challenging behaviour.

Does your school policy encourage staff to adopt creative approaches to managing the different and additional needs of individual students?

Do you have, broadly speaking, good relationships with the students in your class, if so how did you achieve this?

Do you know the students in your class well enough to know who may have different and additional social, emotional and behavioural needs and who may require different and additional adult approaches to those needs?

Have you considered learning needs, as well as social, emotional and behavioural needs?

Do you know what the challenges are most likely to be, and when they are most likely to occur?

Have you considered the best use of any additional adult support, e.g. teaching assistant (TA) time?

Have you developed early intervention approaches, plans and ‘scripts’ to maintain the focus on engagement, learning and progress?

Does your verbal ‘script’ for managing low level challenging behaviour include responses which maintain the dignity and relationships of all concerned, but also maintains the control of the member of staff?

Does your verbal ‘script’ continue to focus on shared responsibility and learning rather than challenging behaviour?

Have you had the opportunity to access good continuing professional development, e.g. paired teaching with a colleague in your school?

Staff feel empowered, confident and supported by school policy.

All staff model and reinforce expectations.

All students in the class are a powerful and positive influence to ignore challenging behaviour, continue learning and support the member of staff.

All students have their broad range of needs met, maintains their confidence to engage in learning, even when challenging circumstances occur.

When staff know the likelihood of challenging behaviour occurring, they are more able to plan a range of different and additional approaches.

Staff can identify a range of different and additional approaches, they are more likely to remain confident and calm to manage challenging circumstances.

The good use of, for example, focussed TA time, provides a broader range of learning opportunities in or outside the classroom.

Staff know the best verbal ways (‘scripts’) to approach a student, which are most likely to de-escalate challenging behaviour and maintain students focused on learning.

Staff and students are able to maintain their dignity and are more likely to engage in learning behaviour.

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Do senior/middle leaders provide opportunities for staff to share their concerns, create solutions and provide practical support?

All staff are able to maintain an atmosphere of shared concern, co-operation and learning which is more likely to de-escalate challenging behaviour.

Staff feel confident and competent to teach and meet the needs of a range of students who present social, emotional and learning challenges.

All staff (including TAs and MSAs) report that they are confident that whole school systems are in place to support them in managing challenging behaviour.

Managing Low Level Challenging Behaviour (continued)

Aspect Prompts Intended outcome

Is the school’s Behaviour Policy and Code of Conduct shared and reinforced with students in ways which they understand?

Are students given a role in shaping the above?

TAs and mentors who are providing small group

or alternative provision can accurately describe student needs, expected learning outcomes and progress over time.

The school maintains good systems to monitor data in relation to attendance, bullying, behaviour and internal/formal exclusion.

Data is used to inform all staff, identify vulnerable groups, improve attendance (both OA and PA), reduce poor behaviour, reduce exclusion and improve attitudes to learning.

Senior leaders can demonstrate improvement in behaviour and safety over time.

School makes good provision for all students with social, emotional and behavioural needs.

All students report that isolated incidents of bullying and challenging behaviour are dealt with effectively by all staff.

All students report that they feel safe & make good progress.

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Appendix Techniques for Managing Low-Level Challenging Behaviour

Choice Gives students some control over a situation and is less likely to initiate point-blank refusal. Examples include: ‘I want you to get on with your work or (consequences) it’s your choice.’ ‘Are you choosing not to follow our rules on_______?’ or ‘Sit over here or next to Peter (implicit choice).’

Take-up time Allows students not to lose face. Watching and waiting is, in a way, issuing a challenge. We need to be clear and confident about expressing expectations. Follows an instruction with a pause to allow students time to comply.

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Examples include: ‘Could you open your book and start work now Jane? I’m going to see Bill who needs some help but I’ll come back in a minute if you need any.’

Partial agreement Deflects confrontation with students by acknowledging concerns, feelings and actions. Examples include: ‘Yes, you may have been talking about your work but I would like you to…’ ‘Yes, it may not seem fair but . . . ’

When - then direction Avoids the negative by expressing the situation positively. Examples include: It is better to say, ‘When you have finished your work, then you can go out’ than, ‘No, you cannot go out because you have not finished your work’.

Privately understood signals

Draws the class together and builds in sharing times. Examples include: ‘Clapping your hands gently twice; or standing next to a ‘learning zone’ poster in the room. An individual student may recognise a gesture from the teacher as a reminder to concentrate on work.’

Tactical ignoring May be appropriate for attention-seeking behaviour. This could be an example of secondary behaviour so try to focus on the primary behaviour by concentrating on the student and not the behaviour. Ignore the ‘target’ student but praise the nearby student. If target student changes their behaviour, praise them. Examples include: The teacher may say to a nearby student. ‘Well done. You have remembered to put your hand up to answer a question.’

Redirect behaviour Reminds the students what they should be doing and avoids getting involved in discussion about what the students are doing wrong. It may be possible to focus their attention on the required task. Example include: ‘Okay Maria and Mark. We’re looking at the extract from Tennyson on page 23 of your books.’

Consequences and sanctions

Needs to be in line with school policy, and be implemented clearly and consistently. Examples include: ‘Remember the school rule Phil. If you are late for lessons without a staff note you get a C1.’

Deferred consequences Deals with a student who is misbehaving later, and therefore removes the ‘audience’, that is the rest of the class who are watching the drama unfold, and also avoids a possible confrontation. Dealing with a student in a one-to-one situation is more likely to have a positive outcome. Examples include: ‘I’d like to sort this out Amy but we can’t do it now. I will talk with you at 10am.’