So let's praise with gusto and support with sensitivity. That way, respect for all will begin to grow
First published 27 Feb 2012
I read this article from Paul Dix of Pivotal Education and I thought it really showed the strength of the supportive system. We advocate the use of Green sheets to reward the positive behaviour of children around the school, whilst managing the incidents with care and some seclusion. I think it's important to shout about the good things and talk quietly and carefully about those other aspects of behaviour we are trying to minimise.
So let's praise with gusto and support with sensitivity. That way, respect for all will begin to grow First published 27 Feb 2012 Figures published by KCC (Jan 2012) show that there are very high levels of permanent exclusions throughout the county. The statistics have alarmed the politicians and a countywide review is currently taking place. This is likely to be very much data driven and will take some considerable time to complete.
From the published data, there are some very interesting headlines
'One headteacher confirmed to me: "headlines about the high number of permanent exclusions in my school show parents I operate a good discipline". It's statements like this that seemed to show a complete disregard for the school as part of the community and the needs of the individual over the rights of the many. Heads like this are able to set up their school behaviour policies on whatever sets of standards they wish and seemed to revel in the fact that they have 'control' over young people who have effectively volunteered to turn up for their establishment in the hope that they will be better educated to cope in an ever-changing world. Good discipline also needs to be wrapped up in good caring and good supporting for those who aren’t robust and flexible enough to cope with the rigour of a zero-tolerance and do-as-you-are-told environment. Approaches like this simply teach many of our young people that it is better not to turn up to school at all rather than face the often zero tolerance approach that some schools operate. They effectively would prefer to join the 66.000 or so who daily choose not to attend school, 16,000 choosing because of bullying. I think this also includes establishment bullying. If we really want to be gathering some effective data, we should be speaking to those young people who have been failed by the system or are in the process of being failed by the system to find out what it was that caused them to step away from full-time education. In most cases, it will be simply because they have come into conflict with people wielding power in the schools and they have chosen to either to resist or perhaps not to take part at all. In many establishments resistance is futile and will be punished until compliance is achieved or the students stops attending. In my opinion, this is the quickest route to building and reinforcing denial, disengagement, disaffection and opposition in our young people, four of the attributes we would possibly most like to see coached out of young people and key focus points when working through a supportive programme I have worked with young people in such environment s and have always been amazed at the use of such aggressive, demanding, demeaning and downright rude approaches from many teachers and especially the senior managers towards the young people and in some cases the adults. If we truly want to build education systems for the future, they surely must be based on brilliant people management, relationship building, empathy, sensitivity, caring, building up and generally life enhancing rather than knocking down, dominating, humiliating, punishing and seeking revenge for mistakes made within the system. Some schools justify this approach by claiming they are ‘Preparing their students for a life of work’ - I don’t think so I do believe that many of these heads also have an open door policy on admissions yet very quickly close the door by exclusion for those students who are unable to modify their behaviours swiftly enough to cope with some of the very many rigid structures that schools can impose. Selection by exclusion is quite an issue, particularly in the academies, where power is often absolute We need to have a much wider debate which includes re-routing the funding of more individualised off-site education via PRUs all shortstay schools and start to consider how that money could be better spent supporting some of our more vulnerable young people within their own school environment. It can be done, it just takes the will. If one area of Kent, Ashford, is able to setup a zero exclusion zone successfully re-routing PRU finances back into the schools then surely that model could easily be rolled out not only just across Kent but also across the country. It easier to build a child than to repair an adult Kent County Council is debating a paper submitted which provides alarming figures for permanent exclusions in Kent, and especially for children with statements of Special Education in Kent. KCC education director Patrick Leeson said: "The exclusion rate is too high and we have to recognise that and we will be doing a number of things to address that. It is an unacceptable number." Work is to be commissioned to tackle all these issues, with a target that by 2015, there will be fewer than 50 children permanently excluded from school including a proportional impact on those with SEN. This amounts to a challenging reduction of 80%. My response to this is to ask why KCC will still be happy to see 50 young people failed completely by education system, not just an accidental failure but a structured failure built into this review. Why is the number not 0%? The answer being that there are a number of dominating and sometimes arrogant head teachers who seem to have been given the power to dispatch children to the streets with great ease. There are far more supportive approaches which could be taken, but these head teachers are people who seem to work around the requirements of the structure A second target is to see no permanent exclusion of Looked After Children. Whilst I applaud the targets, sadly I see that, with the independence of academies and the government scrapping of independent appeal panels which keep a check on the validity of permanent exclusions, KCC's ability to influence school behaviour is unlikely to be sufficient to achieve them. As a result we shall continue to see in Kent too many young people head for adulthood with damaged lives, to the detriment of all of society. Once again, I'd like to hear your views Kent Independent Education Advice Kent Online BBC News First published 22 Jan 2012 The Howard League for Penal Reform published a report developed by young people in the criminal justice system which reveals how punitive responses to youth crime are failing, as evidenced by the highest reoffending rates of any age group, with almost three quarters of under 18s going on to reoffend after leaving prison.
It's not really surprising that so many disenfranchised young people got involved in the rioting - there's a great lack of personal identity and a feeling of not belonging to society - being sidelined. The cost of keeping young people in remand or in prison is huge, far less than the costs of positive intervention in the school and post-school years. All the cuts we see in support services will only add fuel to the fire. The backlash of mental health issues and feeling of social division are growing alarmingly and is being felt in schools at the moment. Some 66,000 young people already choose not to attend school on a daily basis, many of them because they lack the capacity, resilience, flexibility, adaptability and resourcefulness to manage the sometimes very demanding and often compliance/punitive environments they are expected to cope with. I'm really surprised that the numbers are this small - perhaps someone is massaging the figures down. It is easier to build a child than to repair an adult So why is it that we still think we can use the sticking plaster approach - ie wait for the damage, then try to fix it, blame society, parents and anyone else in the firing line? Why is it so difficult to see that a proactive, intevention approach is far better than the reactive on we are currently seeing? I wish I knew the answer to these questions, perhaps then, I would understand the working of Mr Gove and others' minds in Whitehall and beyond. Some of their recommendations are:
via@pivotalpaul on Twitter First published 14 Sept 2011 I just thought you'd like to have an update on this element that seems to pass many teachers and policy-makers by. The idea that many classrooms are just too slow and that learning has become a test-passing exercise, rather than an work-out exercise for the brain. Many kids are turned off from being creative and thinking in a challenging way, because their lessons are often so prescriptive that there's no room left for the creative and fast thinking ones.
Here's some research that back up my comments and refers to the idea that 'Lessons are too easy, say most pupils at primary and secondary school' 50% of the 8,334 children in a three-year study conducted by the Centre of the Use of Research in Education admitted they are not stretched in their studies Read: High energy kids in low energy classrooms - fast kids in slow classrooms First published 6 Sept 2011 I have followed Kids Company for some time now but I have to admit that I hadn't delved into it very deeply. So it was great to get the heads up from a colleague on taking a look at Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder. My friend said she had a super-hero name and on reading further, it would seem she has and is doing great things with challenging children in inner city environments.
You can follow Kids Company on Facebook but do also take some time to read about the founder - I think you'll enjoy it. First published 23 Mar 2011 The Department for Education has recently published its evaluation of the impact of secondary SEAL in schools.
Involving 22 SEAL and 19 non-SEAL schools as well as 9 case studies, researchers found a very mixed picture when analysing SEAL effectiveness but acknowledged that the lack of impact was due to poor implementation rather than the validity of SEAL programmes. I have always felt that the SEAL program was likely to struggle in many secondary schools due to the fact that many of them implement a compliance model behaviour management. The compliance model sits at the opposite spectrum to what the SEAL program is offering and in my opinion stands very isolated and detached from the day-to-day running of compliance schools. In addition, many of the young people for whom the SEAL programme is directed, can see this inconsistency in approach from the school. The program rarely takes on a whole school ethos because in my opinion, managers are starting from the wrong point. In order to implement an emotionally intelligent approach within the School, including the SEAL programme, many issues may need to be dealt with prior to seeing any success. These include:
In practice, it is often the very opposite that happens and that schools can go from highly punitive and revenge-based institutions into ones that take care of the individual and build the skills necessary for them to succeed in their own emotional lives and with others. I do think that the SEAL program has at its heart some of the best aspects of emotional learning but when dealt with in isolation, the impact is very limited. I like to consider this like applying a sticking plaster to your skin without there being any injury-it has very little impact. You can see it, you know it's there, you know what it's supposed to be doing but it's all a little bit pointless. Only when you apply the sticking plaster at the point of stress i.e. when you have cut yourself and your bleeding does it really make sense and have a purpose and use. First published 23 March 2011 This item is pretty startling for our young people.
At the moment, we have the government and Mr Gove on one hand wanting to get back to 'discipline' and giving powers to teachers to initiate this, including searches and restraint and on the other hand the NSPCC offering these stats from survey of 2,275 children aged 11-17, and 1,761 adults aged 18-24 last year. It makes some chilling reading, especially if you overlay the two. I think the future for many of our challenging and challenged children is bleak and fraught with stress. 'Readiness for learning' was always one of my measures for how I should interact with a young person. Whether it was a message about their behaviour and how it might be improved for the future, or a piece of learning I wanted them to undertake, I always tried to consider if and how they could manage to take the message on board. If they were not in a state of readiness, either through stress, fear, hunger, worry or something else, I made it my role to try to facilitate the change for them or to keep them safe until they were ready. What do I need to do to help you meet your needs at this moment? Is it a quiet space, another space, a different activity or another adult or perhaps discuss it later? All of these were considerations. So I think schools will be on a collision course in the next few years and many more of our young people will become more disillusioned with education and its ability to care for them and meet their needs. 'Treat others as you would like to be treated' goes a long way in this context Fis rst published 15 Feb 2011 In my classroom, I always tried really hard to maintain the same number of kids during the lesson that I started with. Not always a simple task. But most of the time it seemed to work and when it didn't, I always reflected 'Was that my fault' Working with SEBD children really keeps you on your toes and the apparent humorous quip doesn't always go down well if it's misinterpreted and as the chairs fly along with the comments, you realise you have made a poor judgement. I think it's a lifelong learning process when working with any children but the feedback from SEBDs is often not too subtle and always immediate, you are left in no doubt that something went wrong.
Because my classroom was a safe haven with supportive staff (not just me), we frequently found other kids turning up for sanctuary, knowing that the lesson they were supposed to be in would be too difficult to manage, or perhaps they had gone along, had some conflict and been sent out of the class to report to some senior member of staff but independently made the choice not to go and end up fending for themselves until the end of the lesson. My room was also open at lunchtimes when I would find a whole range of ages dropping in rather than getting into trouble on the playground through lack of play and social skills It's quite common for some teachers to have very short fuses and remarkably little flexibility when managing some of the behaviours of our students and the students are very good at finding the buttons and pressing them. Little things can blow up very easily unless managed with some restraint. Equally, some students show little tolerance and things can go downhill very quickly. So it was really interesting to come across this post by Pamela Kripke which describes a very similar set of situations - kids being exited from rooms and looking for help, it really reminded me of my day-to-day routine. Supportive Behaviour Management actually encourages this interchange and conflict avoidance between staff and students. Frequently in my school we used to collect up wandering students and find work from their class teachers, help them complete it successfully and then present the end result to a usually surprised class teacher. Frequently, it is more work than they usually produce and with less hassle. Over a period of time, the conflict dies down and with support, these young people can start to build new relationships that were previously broken. Positive relationship coaching can work really well and can take the pressure off teachers and students to get along. Little by little, it can be rebuilt and is often much stronger. First published 6 Feb 2011 I have always enjoying reading and listening to Kevin Honeycutt. He has a great view on Teaching and Learning and I have gained much from following him. He has recently written a great article with the above title where he looks at learning with a fresh pair of eyes.
He says: Kids don’t think like us. Kids want to know that what they’re doing matters If all we do is teach kids to be compliant test takers, then I want out of this business now. The context of: 'You have to learn this because it’s on the test and my job and the district’s reputation is on the line here is not enough.' and I think these statements stand true for many of us here in the UK We all have our views on ADHD and those kids who are diagnosed and sometimes medicated for it. There are lots of conflicting views and pieces of advice. It's difficult to imagine what it must feel like. So how does it feel.
I have sat in many lessons, supporting challenging children and along with them have found myself completely at a loss as to what the task is. Am I ADHD too? Often, I found myself working with predominantly boys in my groups and invariably I had to ask the girls tables for help - it would have seemed to be demeaning to ask the teacher and I would have been accused of undermining the lesson and the teacher. Listening to instructions can be really difficult to follow sometimes, so it was really good to have a chance to listen in on some teacher instructions and try to undertake the task on offer. Just for the record, I only managed to get 2 squares right. I found the task really challenging and frustrating to do. Have a go at this and see if you did any better than me - please post a response if you did Listen to the task here First published 4 Feb 2011 |
Mike Temple
I'm an independent consultant working in the field of educational Supportive Behaviour Management Useful links:
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