First published 24 Jan 2009
I read this recently and was a little alarmed at the approach of this prominent headteacher.
His article in the TES did come over a little heavy-handed, I thought. He works in a primary school and amongst other comments, his statement
"When I became a headteacher, the behaviour of my top juniors was grim. I needed to sort it out - because younger children look up to the older ones - so I spent every Tuesday teaching Year 6. They had individual desks in those days, and on the first Tuesday they banged their desk lids continually and watched my reaction.
I'd been expecting something like this, so I put on a theatrical display of losing my temper. They certainly sat up and took notice. From that moment on, I didn't give them an inch."
I think the fact that he is the headmaster and at a stroke has the power to control and intimidate with the threat of exclusion should not be overlooked.
He also says
"Good behaviour starts in the very early years, and I am extremely firm with small children who can't behave."
- could sound a little bullying, if you take the last two words. This is pivotal if you want to manage with emotional intelligence and not with a rod of iron - I'd like to see the same approach with a disaffected and strong teenager.
Finally
"At my school, the biggest difficulties occur with children who are transferring to us from schools that tolerate poor levels of behaviour, excuse it with a fancy psychological label or don't do anything about it until it's become a real problem."
I worry about people who dismiss mental illness with a quip like this - how do you hope to help these children with a Victorian attitude - just keep excluding until they get better?
Now I'm sure this school doesn't feel like this to the children there, but what opinions are held by those who didn't manage to cope with this strategy and those with fancy psychological labels? You can certainly make primary school children behave, but it may be a different matter when they move on. We need to be building resilience, self-management, self-esteem and emotionally intelligent young people rather than threatening and controlling. What will happen when student voice really kicks in - will they tolerate being treated like this - I'm not sure.
I read this recently and was a little alarmed at the approach of this prominent headteacher.
His article in the TES did come over a little heavy-handed, I thought. He works in a primary school and amongst other comments, his statement
"When I became a headteacher, the behaviour of my top juniors was grim. I needed to sort it out - because younger children look up to the older ones - so I spent every Tuesday teaching Year 6. They had individual desks in those days, and on the first Tuesday they banged their desk lids continually and watched my reaction.
I'd been expecting something like this, so I put on a theatrical display of losing my temper. They certainly sat up and took notice. From that moment on, I didn't give them an inch."
I think the fact that he is the headmaster and at a stroke has the power to control and intimidate with the threat of exclusion should not be overlooked.
He also says
"Good behaviour starts in the very early years, and I am extremely firm with small children who can't behave."
- could sound a little bullying, if you take the last two words. This is pivotal if you want to manage with emotional intelligence and not with a rod of iron - I'd like to see the same approach with a disaffected and strong teenager.
Finally
"At my school, the biggest difficulties occur with children who are transferring to us from schools that tolerate poor levels of behaviour, excuse it with a fancy psychological label or don't do anything about it until it's become a real problem."
I worry about people who dismiss mental illness with a quip like this - how do you hope to help these children with a Victorian attitude - just keep excluding until they get better?
Now I'm sure this school doesn't feel like this to the children there, but what opinions are held by those who didn't manage to cope with this strategy and those with fancy psychological labels? You can certainly make primary school children behave, but it may be a different matter when they move on. We need to be building resilience, self-management, self-esteem and emotionally intelligent young people rather than threatening and controlling. What will happen when student voice really kicks in - will they tolerate being treated like this - I'm not sure.