What behaviour strategies do schools use beyond rewards and punishments?

[Somuchbetteronholiday]

DC Yr 7 seems to regularly be in trouble at school and im trying to work out how to tackle this. School seems to rely heavily on rewards and punishments. There is much evidence that punishments do not work for children and young people - which schools must know. What other methods do schools employ for actually changing behaviour?

The question is what are you doing to change their behaviour? Are you happy to have a child who behaves like this? Respect and manners are taught at home, so what has gone wrong?

No, thats not my question. Im doing everything I can. Do I need to set that out in detail to ask about what strategies schools employ?

It’s sanctions rather than punishments. Sanctions such as taking away free time, not playing in a sports team on an occasion can work in my experience when implemented fairly and consistently . it’s tough love. Phrasing of verbal communication and effective use of non-verbal communication is crucial and can prevent the poorer behaviour in the first place.

I use redirection, ‘catch them being good’ (the idea of aiming for three positive comments for every negative/redirection). I am in secundary though so not an expert on primary.

Rewards for being good and gradually (the idea is), the poor behaviour lessens. Consistency is key. It can be a long road.

We have a behaviour management ladder for rewards and sanctions. I think your DC’s school will have similar and will be able to share it with you. It is good to have a home-school partnership (if possible).

Here are the things that can help at home:

. Make sure dd’’s bag is packed with the books she needs and pencil case the night before.

• Check uniform is correct before she leaves.
• Has dd got the correct shoes
• Does dd know her left from right? - This is a serious question, I am not being rude. Schools often have a ‘one way’ rule about moving around the school. If she doesn’t- practise.
• If talking in class is an issue - email her tutor and ask them to contact her teachers to sit her on the front row, nearest the door.
• Get your child’s hearing and eyesight checked - often there is a comprehension issue going on that masked as disrupted behaviour.
• Put a very small piece of blutak in her pencil case so she can fiddle with it discreetly if focus is the issue.
• If the issue is settling to work - make her a little tick list that lives in her pencil case that says: pens out, book open, write date, listen to teacher
• If the issue is rudeness or defiance - the she will need explicit teaching on how to communicate without aggression. This will need to be modelled at home consistently to reinforce the skills.
• If sensory overload is the issue then things like: going to a club at lunchtime. Eg art club which is quieter can bring some relief, loop earplugs, consistent decompression routine when home from school eg lie down with a weighted blanket for 30 mins and then do a quiet activity before starting homework,
• Ensure she has a focus outside school like horse riding, dancing, tennis, football - something that has movement, friendships and a sense of choice and belonging - so school is part of a young person’s life but not the sole focus for all friendships and activities.

If you say what she is specifically getting in trouble for I can offer more ideas to help.

we recognise the good in every lesson, verbal praise, achievement points leading to reward. Poor behaviour is not called out publicly. Sanctions are only given after warnings, opportunities to rectify behaviour choice and a strict behaviour code that all teachers follow. They may range from behaviour points, 10 up to 60 minute detentions, loss of free time/privilege, or in extreme cases (internal truanting, breach of mobile phone policy, fighting, swearing/threatening staff etc) to inclusion. Parents are encouraged to work alongside the school, some parents actively resist and their children are the ones in trouble most often.

As a secondary teacher I don’t have much time to spend with each pupil, but it is generally clear that students have their own motivation for good or bad behaviour in school. Sometimes it is difficult for them to control ie if they are very impulsive and easily led.
As I don’t have much time, I generally do what I need to do to ensure the majority of the children in my class can learn effectively, however I do have more time to spend helping my tutor group, and will try to work with the student and parents to understand the motivation of a student who is behaving poorly in order to improve things for them.
The children who have given up and genuinely don’t care are so hard to help, especially if their parents don’t care either.

I'm just wondering what "doing everything I can" means? Are you struggling, or perhaps there is some particular area that your child struggles with?
Usually schools focus on creating a positive learning atmosphere by managing small issues before they get worse. Plenty of positive rewards and consistent expectations.
Is there something specific that your child has a problem with?

Way before they get to the warning/sanction stage (which will be in the school behaviour policy which you should be able to read online) comes the subtle corrections.

So for example, 'be seen looking'- can your child read the social cue that the teacher looking over means stop talking etc.

Positive correction 'Oh well done year 7, 95% of you are mopping your workstations '- do they know that means 5% aren't and need to switch to doing the right thing?

"I'm waiting" means I'm waiting for 💯 compliance. Do they know, or do they just think 'good for you!'

What type of behaviour is your DC displaying? Or getting sanctioned for? Track the subjects. If it's corridors, different plan needed.

Some teachers will skip the above stages, but they're invariably poorer at behaviour management and often escalate issues that could be nipped in the bud- I wouldn't accuse them of this, but teach your child that different humans will invariably have different responses!

Do you mean “ im not happy with her being told off/corrected when they think she’s doing something wrong, what should they be doing instead?”

Can you provide some links to the "much evidence that punishments do not work," please?

It depends too, on what she’s in trouble for. All the positive redirection comments by PPs work and can be reinforced at home, if she is distracted, talking too much etc. if it’s higher level, such as shouting out, throwing things, walking off, then there will, presumably, be sanctions according to the school behaviour policy.

You can reinforce positive behaviour at home, by commenting when she’s tidied her room, organised her school bag, put her clothes away, helped out around the house etc.

What are they getting in trouble for?

Besides rewards and punishments what do schools rely on to change behaviour?

Schools rely on:

1. parental support to raise children properly (fostering self regulation and self discipline), to respect the school and its teachers, and to value the opportunity to get a free education
2. a very well developed school culture and “mission”
3. strong SLT and governance
4. strong and well funded SEN team
5. pastoral care sufficient to meet various needs of the student body
6. Rules and policies
7. ”boring” and pointless-seeming stuff like uniforms, registration, prize giving and assemblies which train children to do simple things like respond with self discipline, queue up, sit in silence, see that achievement is valued
8. extra curricular life of the school which helps with social skills and also fosters school culture see above
9. being able to recruit highly effective teachers
10. good physical environment (classrooms and corridors that are well organised to avoid “flashpoints” for bad behaviour)

Besides rewards and sanctions:

identifying special needs such as autism which mean a more personalised approach/extra support is needed.
in secondary relying on the years of primary to build up expectations that eg you don’t talk when the teacher is talking.
liasing with primary schools about children who are not able to meet behaviour expectations and getting the perspective of the primary

i supposr you could think of it as a three layered approach - for 90% of the kids the rewards and sanctions work.

10% or so need additional help to either meet the behaviour expectations or for some disabilities to have them relaxed and explicitly teach social skills and behaviour. So this is often children who may access mainstream only some of the time and do some small group work when others are eg in languages. The small groups work is often stuff like gardening or animal care to encourage socialisation and the concept of caring for things.

maybe 1% need more than this and these are the children who may be referred on to social services for early help - maybe they are on drugs or involved with county lines or are being abused or dad just died and they’ve gone to live with grandma and she isn’t coping. These kids are often on daily chat with pastoral staff plus counselling if available.

If you don’t think sanctions make any difference try removing them and observing what happens.

When I was teaching, low level indiscipline took up a lot of time until your rules were clear. One directive to the class ie "too noisy folk." Then I would move round the class and stand behind persistent chatterers. Then say individual names. Then a reminder to the class about paying attention etc as the bext step would be their name on the board. Three strikes and it was an automatic penalty point. It rarely got to that point. Indiscipline was rare because I sorted it. Sometimes, if behaviour seemed out of the usual, I would have a restorative conversation with an individual, however this had to take place out of the classroom so wasnt always effective. For some misdemeanours, there was an automatic punishment exercise, ie late to class with no excuse or eating in class. If not done, then automatic referral to the faculty head. If pupils were behaving badly, i referred then in writing to the faculty head who would speak to them. Detention at lunchtime or whole school detention after school was also an option for promoted staff. Each child had 100 points at the start of a term. They lost point through poor choices but gained points through good behaviour, work etc. Head of house would monitor the points and speak to pupils if they saw a pattern develop and/or contact home. Each month we tracked every pupil for behaviour, homework, ability and focus. That information was sent to parents.
Failure to address issues would result in Faculty Head speaking to Head of House to organise a meeting with parents. Then deputy head would be involved. If enough points were lost, the pupil was always warned but removal from faculty trip, school trip, dances and reward days as well as educational trips abroad was an option too. Ultimately school exclusion was the last punishment and usually only kept for serious misdemeanours such as fighting etc. Hope this helps.

They use routines and rules that set up expectations around behaviour.
The staff model the behaviours they want to see also. They rely in things like social norms. They identify and support needs that might be impacting in behaviour and yes the 'reward' good behaviour and consequences for undesirable behaviour. They do explain why the behaviour is not wanted and have conversations to support better behaviour also.