I stood proudly awaiting the children’s arrival. My first assembly as headteacher felt like the moment I’d be setting the scene for the temple of educational excellence which I would surely build. The music (calm yet stirring) – check! The carefully crafted PowerPoint littered with inspirational messages for both staff and pupils – check!

The children bundled into the hall shouting and running.

The staff did nothing to stop them.

A little taken aback (was this this current norm for entering for assembly??), I thought I needed to make an immediate correction to the prevailing culture.

“Excuse me,” I said to the loudest and most bawdy of the passing Year 6 boys, using my calmest, yet most assertive tone. “I would like you to walk in quietly.”

The boy looked me dead in the eye and smiled.

“Fuck off!” he replied.

A blog about behaviour: What we know about getting it right. And the phoney culture wars on Edu-twitter.

This is a blog about behaviour.

I am not a behaviour specialist/ guru/ consultant/ snake-oil salesman.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. For about a year I worked as a consultant with South Gloucestershire LA to try and bring down the mushrooming exclusions within our small county. I succeeded.

I have also been a headteacher for some time in a school with children with a wide range of needs, including those within our fabulous Resource Base for children with language and communication needs (mainly autism). In total over 10% of our 420 children have EHCP’s (almost all for Autism or SEMH). To be clear – I’m not suggesting Autism = poor behaviour (it absolutely doesn’t). But staff working with children with AS and/ or SEMH needs do need to have a very good understanding of why behaviours occur.

Behaviour at Blackhorse Primary, according to OFSTED, is Outstanding. We are the second most over-subscribed school in the county – something parents tell us is not the result of stratospheric SATs scores, but as a result of our ethos and culture.

So, whilst no expert, I think I’ve learned a few things in my 16 years as a Headteacher.

1. Start by listening to real experts – not amateur edu-bloggers.

If you really want to develop an understanding of how to create a culture within your school which allows all children to thrive, in my view, you need to start by reading three important books/ documents:

1. The Education Endowment Foundation’s no-nonsense ‘Improving Behaviour in Schools’ report. It’s short and cuts through the myriad of competing ideologies (more on this later) to condense behaviour approaches into six key points.
2. Paul Dix’s excellent book ‘When the adults change, everything changes’. Sadly, at this point, one faction on Edu-twitter will start foaming at the mouth, yell something about me being a ‘Guardian-reading liberal’, possibly ‘a communist’, and almost certainly ‘an enemy of promise’. And promptly stop reading this blog and write something pithy on Twitter. More on this later.
3. Tom Bennett’s excellent book ‘Running the Room’. Sadly, at this point, another faction on Edu-twitter will start foaming at the mouth, yell something about me being a ‘Daily Mail reading Tory’, and almost certainly a ‘child-hating edu-fascist’. And promptly stop reading this blog and write something pithy on Twitter. More on this later.

But if you REALLY want to reflect on how your school allows all children to feel safe and valued, then you need to read ALL THREE of these.

You see, there are a great many shrill voices on Edutwitter who will tell you that, when it comes to approaches to behaviour management (and just about everything else) you must ‘pick a side’: Team Paul (Guardian Readers/ Enemies of Promise) or Team Tom (Daily Mail Readers/ Child-hating Edu-fascists).

Please don’t. Just read them both without prejudice.

You’ll learn far more from them than from me. Indeed, much of the rest of this blog is a list of examples of why they’re (both) right.

2. Culture eats strategy for breakfast: Behaviour norms are the stories which we are told and then tell ourselves.

We all know that the culture and ethos of a school has a bigger impact on behaviours and standards than anything else.

I could probably have told you this as an NQT (as we were known in 1996). But it was many, many years later that I (think) I truly understand what this means. I wrote a blog all about this subject about 4 years ago.

As humans, our brains make sense of the world by either learning stories about the world told us by others (the most common route to cultural understanding), then (having internalised these stories) making up stories of our own – our internal monologue which we use rationalise a chaotic world into a coherent narrative of our lives. Again – Tom writes about this more eloquently than I so go read his book.

At Blackhorse, we understand the power these stories.

In 2011, as one of the least popular and poorly achieving schools in the county, we took the decision to create a new vision statement: to ‘create champion learners’ (later extended to ‘To create champion learners through: Extensive Opportunities, Expert Tuition, Personal Practice and Personal Effort’). This was a proud boast for a school which patently DIDN’T create champion learners, given our outcomes and popularity.

But through repeating this story again and again, and by building a curriculum offer around it, our children internalise that they are all champion learners, giving them agency and a belief that they decide their educational destiny.

3. Create a sense of belonging to something important

Tom Bennett in ‘Running the Room’ writes about the importance of Durkheim’s ‘Social Identity theory’. In short, it’s our basic human need to be part of a gang. Preferably the most powerful gang. It’s a simple evolutionary advantage – and a fact not lost on even primary-aged children.

The young chap who greeted my request to walk into assembly knew it. As did all his peers.

In a dysfunctional school, counter-culture is the most powerful gang. Misbehaving is what the tribe do. Learning isn’t what the tribe engages in.

Whilst this is an extreme example, we all know it to be true. Once the majority have decided what the behavioural norms are, for better or worse, most children will either overtly or covertly fall into line. This is why it’s difficult to change an entrenched culture of misbehaviour, whilst relatively simple to sustain a positive behaviour culture. Group behaviours self-sustain.

If you’re looking to change ‘the way we’ve always done it here’ – whether that be walking into the hall quietly or not shouting out in class – the majority will resist this attack on the group norm. Leaders then need to overwhelm this negative prevalent behaviour code with what I’d describe as a totalitarian regime: strict enforcement and indoctrination in a new world view. It can take years to do this – but every school fights this fight as it speaks to the heart and soul of the community.

At Blackhorse, we aimed to create a majority which would become the most attractive gang to belong to. We did this through constant reinforcement of the benefits of ‘our way of thinking’. Even the school’s motto of creating ‘Champion Learners’ was an overt response to this. In 2011, the children at the school weren’t naughty – quite the opposite, they were lovely. But there were a lot of passengers who had low expectations for themselves. So we talked up every success: be it academic, musical, artistic, sporting. Every assembly, newsletter, interaction was littered with the message that if you work hard then you can and will succeed.

Over 11 years this message soaked into the brickwork until now this is the common group-think (the most popular ‘gang’), with the occasional negative mindset quickly repelled.

4. Explicitly teach the behaviour which you expect to see.

Again, this is no great epiphany – a teacher a hundred years ago would know this.

Both Paul Dix and Tom Bennett make this a central plank of their writing.

We cannot simply expect children to hold the same values regarding behavioural norms as we do. Some will – mainly because their life experiences will have been similar to our own (and we will quickly decide that these children are ‘nice’). Other children simply won’t know what the behaviours we are asking for look like (and we run the risk of quickly deciding that these children are just ‘naughty’).

Both Paul and Tom make the point that when a teacher asks ‘would you do that at home?’ they assume all homes are the same. And they aren’t. So we must be explicit with all the behaviours which we want children to display.

At Blackhorse, we noticed that (Post-pandemic) some of the behavioural norms which had been ‘baked into the walls’ were no longer evident in a large minority of children. Two years without having to comply with ‘the Blackhorse way’ meant that, upon return, some children didn’t know what ‘lining up for assembly’ etc looked like (some KS1 children didn’t know what an assembly was).

So we set about training them explicitly how we do things. We try to break down every task, however small, into three simple, easy to copy, steps.

As Brene Brown says: ‘Clear is kind; unclear is unkind.’

5. Routines are a teacher’s best friend

Every study, every behaviour tsar, every writer talks about the importance of routines as the method for codifying the positive behaviours which the school expects from all its pupils.

In the classroom, this means the teacher turning every expectation into a three step process. Instead of just expecting the children to know how to sit on the carpet for a phonics session, we must explicitly teach them the steps to be success: 1. Find your carpet square, 2. Sit with your hands in your lap, 3. Look at the teacher.

Whilst some may think this a bit OTT (and each school must decide for themselves the level of formality which matches their ethos and values), the principle is sound and will benefit the most vulnerable children most. For example, if you live in a house where you are used to sitting for extended periods and giving an adult full attention, then this will be easy. However, if you live in a house where this isn’t your norm, this will seem extremely alien. Again, this isn’t rocket science – and any Early Years teacher instinctively knows to do this – but often as the children get older we forget this need for explicit routines as we assume that the children should ‘just know how to do it by now’. Just because a pupil is 14, doesn’t mean they know what your expectations are (although they may be less easily incentivised by the chance of a gold sticker)!

When it comes to how the children interact in the wider school, leaders and teachers need to again reach a consensus on how basic things should be done. Just as every child’s home may not be the same, every member of staffs understanding of how children should walk down the corridor may also not be the same, and so routines which effect everyone need agreeing centrally.

6. Constantly call out good behaviour – but beware token economies.

Both Paul and Tom note that good teachers make behaving positively easy, and behaving negatively hard – something which requires effort.

Paul Dix talks about ‘catching the children behaving well’. Often we take good behaviours for granted and only highlight poor behaviours. Yet, by constantly calling out good behaviours, we are providing models and reference points as to what those good behaviours look like in everyday situations. At Blackhorse we aim for 80% of our comments about behaviour to be noting the good examples we see in class and around school. Indeed, our Positive Relationships Policy, is all about this.

That said, we don’t ‘kill [good behaviour] with kindness’. It is fine to mention the child who has walked in and sat ready to learn in your class – this highlights the expected standard to the class. It is not fine to immediately shower them with stickers. Worst still, rewarding the child who never comes in and sits ready to learn with a sticker when they happen to do it once says to the rest of the class that their best efforts everyday matter less than the occasional efforts of one of their classmates.

It may be necessary to differentiate behaviour rewards (more on this later) but, as both Paul and Tom point our, don’t ‘reward the minimum standard’.

7. You need to like and respect the children you teach (unconditionally).

Last year I had the privilege of working with a Secure Children’s home. This was the place where children aged 11-17 were sent when they had made catastrophically terrible choices.

Many of the young people were murders. Society demanded that a price be paid for their choices. If you want to know what the end of the road looks like – it looks like one of these centres.

However, what I found was a staff which, when confronted with deeply damaged, often violent, young people who would hiss abuse as a defence at the terrifying environment their choices had led them too, they responded with only kindness. This isn’t to say they weren’t firm and assertive – they most definitely were. But they had unconditional positive regard for every child (and they were children) in their care.

This is a simple lesson for every leader and every member of our staff. Some children will push every button and will require support and boundaries. However, we much never give up on them or pigeonhole them as ‘a problem child’. They may well exhibit behaviours which challenge, but this doesn’t mean we give up providing positive models of behaviour and demonstrating unconditional positive regard.

8. Behaviour Management is a ‘team sport’

Again, this is lifted from both Paul and Tom’s work and should be blindingly obvious.

And yet, many of us could point to that member of staff who likes to play fast and loose with the school’s behaviour code. The maverick who ‘is a mate’ to the kids. Who likes to bend the rules. Who isn’t a team player. Who may be very charismatic.

These people let their children talk loudly walking down the corridor because, hey – it’s just a rule – and rules are there to be broken! The children will love this maverick. Their colleagues won’t.

Both Paul and Tom (and anyone who has spent any time teaching) will know that this maverick will sow the seeds of poor behaviour across the school. “Why should I/we walk down the corridor when Mr/Mrs X’s class don’t have to?” goes up the cry.

Allow this maverick to strut about and the whole team culture is compromised.

9. Certainty of sanction is more effective than weight of sanction

Now this is the arena where the Edutwitter culture wars are typically fought…

On the one side are the ‘lock ’em in a cage if they look out of the window’ brigade. They confidently declare that harsh punitive punishment is what gets results and that ‘Tom Bennett told them to’ (he didn’t). On the other side are the ‘give them a hot chocolate if they set fire to the hamster’ brigade. They don’t believe in sanctions at all and believe that a singalong with an acoustic guitar is how to deal with an unruly class. They firmly believe that Paul Dix told them this (he didn’t).

This ‘pick a side’ narrative is not just exhausting, but also dangerous. It allows loud voices to on twitter to grandstand and drives bad, or more often mis-understood approaches to behaviour management. As Dylan Wiliam says ‘Everything works somewhere, nothing works everywhere’.

During my time as an LA behaviour consultant, I discovered that in many local Secondary schools, the number of Fixed term and Permanent exclusions had doubled every year for the past five years. The reason? Fatal mutation. Schools had heard of schools in other parts of the country using ‘Ready to learn’ (detention booths) to improve behaviour and rushed in the same policy without creating a coherent behaviour strategy which married a strong culture and positive reinforcement with any sanctions. As a result, children were being turfed out of lessons for increasingly minor infringements and the ‘Ready to Learn’ rooms filled up and became learning institutions in their own right – with pupils learning how to behave badly. So the schools put in place increasingly harsh sanctions for any pupil messing about in ‘Ready to Learn’ and, hey presto, exclusions skyrocketed.

On the other side of the coin, I ran a successful ‘Better Behaviours’ project across the county which focused on creating a behaviour culture in school. It included the need for appropriate sanctions but in some schools staff misunderstood the message and stopped using sanctions altogether. This was never given as a message and, again, was the result of fatal mutation. The result in these schools was equally as disastrous.

Sanctions have been, and always will be, necessary. Children need boundaries to thrive and feel safe. It is how we apply these boundaries and sanctions which makes the difference.

Paul Dix talks about staff never being forced to ‘busk it’ when it comes to sanctions. Tom Bennett talks about ‘certainty rather than severity’.

The inevitability of a sanction sends out a powerful message that poor behaviours will always be challenged and school rules enforced. This is often obvious with obvious or serious behaviour breaches, but can sometimes become more fluid when it comes to pushing the boundaries on the small stuff (which can quickly become the big stuff).

Again, schools much decide for themselves how to respond to low level disruptive behaviours. I for one am not a fan of heavy sanctions for forgetting a pen, but I do think that if ‘being ready’ is one of the school rules (as it is ay my school) then a 1 minute conversation at the start of breaktime about why not having equipment causes problems is probably appropriate. What is important is that the school has an agreed approach which links directly to the school rules (which must be easy for everyone to remember – ours are simply: Be Ready, Be Respectful, Be Safe) and the routines which we mentioned earlier. Once agreed, the sanctions need to be applied consistently.

10. Managing the most challenging behaviours.

There are children who, whether the result of need or environment, exhibit frequent ‘behaviours which challenge’.

We noticed a big increase in ‘toddler-like’ tantrums in our KS1 children when they returned from the pandemic lockdowns, along with an increase in children refusing adults’ instructions (parents or staff).

Where children display frequent ‘deregulation’ we don’t expect the teacher to busk it in their response. We have very clear (often visual) behaviour plans which are written for the child and show exactly what will happen (every time) if a good choice is made and exactly what will happen (every time) if a poor choice is made.

For example, if a child is refusing to complete their work or follow a teacher’s instruction, they are given 1 minute of ‘take up time’ where the teacher will walk away and give the child the time to think through the likely consequences of their refusal. They will have a flow-chart in front of them which shows them exactly what will happen next (sometimes for very young children this is just pictures or photos). The teacher will return to them and remind them of the next step on their flow-chart and ask them again. Initially, when the child is first put on a behaviour plan of this type, they will almost certainly not comply as they don’t yet make the connection with certainty of outcome. They don’t yet know that this scenario will always end the same way. So if they refuse again then a member of SLT is called and the child is made to work outside the SLT offices for an agreed length of time (as little as 5 minutes). And so it goes on, with each further refusal etc provoking an entirely consistent, measured and predictable response. Staff don’t get angry or stressed because the decisions about what will happen next has already been made. We have found that after only a few ‘testing of the boundaries’ the child learns that continuing with poor choices is not in their best interests and that it is more rewarding to receive the positive outcomes of positive choices.

Our school has a proven track record of significantly improving the most challenging behaviours in children. But this doesn’t happen overnight – and this is another mistake that teachers make (assuming that doing something for a week will solve the problem). Whilst the most dramatic behaviours can usually be stopped in a couple of weeks, it will often take months for these better habits to become hardwired and years for the child to make the correct choices subconsciously .

But with persistence, consistency and clarity it is possible.

11. The sweary Y6 – why I still believe that exclusion is sometimes necessary.

In the arena of the Edutwitter culture wars, exclusion (especially Permanent exclusion) is a catalyst for much argument.

I understand that some countries, like Sweden, never feel the need to exclude. I understand that to permanently exclude a child is to knowingly damage their education and is a personal disaster for them.

And yet I have permanently excluded three children in my 16 years as a Headteacher. All were for acts of violence against pupils or staff and the weight of the decision never lightens. And yet I still believe it was the right thing to do in all three cases.

Society has rules. If we break those rules there are consequences. If we harm others, those consequences will be significant. I believe that we do nothing for our children by not making this clear. At Blackhorse we have a red line on hitting staff. If you hit a member of staff, you are going home. I believe my staff, who are well used to challenging behaviour – especially from some of our children with complex needs – deserve to come to work knowing that their basic safety will be protected. This clarity means that every child knows the inevitable consequence of lashing out.

As for the sweary Year 6 child on my first day of Headship? I asked his teacher to get his bag and coat and I excluded him for the rest of the day on the spot. The school at the time had very poor behaviour and it was important that a line be drawn in the sand right there – in full view of the other staff and children. I never had to exclude the boy again, but the habit of older pupils being routinely rude to staff stopped almost overnight. The inevitability of consequence didn’t just modify that boy’s behaviour, but that of his peer group.

But, as I said, I’m no behaviour expert, so what do I know.

All I do know is – however you choose to manage behaviour at your school – make sure that you have made a conscious decision, having read both Paul and Tom’s books and having really thought about how to make your behaviour code part of a wider school culture.

And please. Don’t listen to the siren tweeters on Edutwitter harping on about the evils of progs or trads.

Their behaviour is often worse than the kids.