Understanding the root causes of your students’ behaviour is
Poor behaviour has increasingly been an issue since the Covid lockdowns, and poor behaviour is a major concern for practical subjects such as chemistry. Challenging behaviour can become dangerous in a science lab, so I never tolerate it in my classroom. My school has three simple rules. All staff encourage learners to be engaged, respectful and safe. And when they are not, staff remind students of why these rules are important. Like many schools, we have a positive behaviour policy. This describes systems which provide consistency across the school when managing behaviour. Detentions do not factor into this policy at department level, but positive relationships do.
Act swiftly
When I put a sanction into place immediately I feel it is the most effective at helping a young person refocus on the school rules, and to try to regulate and reflect on what has just happened. This may include a change of seat, a quick chat outside the room or the suggestion of a call home. Sometimes I need to escalate a situation further, which can involve a more formal time out of the classroom with another member of staff.
I find it’s helpful to discuss the situation, perhaps saying ‘Please wait behind at the end of the lesson for two minutes so we can chat about what has happened here’. With some learners, immediacy is important because the event is in their minds and we resolve things to ensure a fresh start to the subsequent lesson. In other cases, it may not be appropriate to have a discussion immediately after the event. The learner might be struggling to regulate, and having a word straightaway would not be beneficial. In this instance, I always let them know that we still need to chat about what happened but on another day.
Focus on the positive
Detentions as punitive sanctions for bad behaviour don’t address the underlying cause and, so, don’t necessarily improve behaviour and support the learner in the long term.
Detentions … might even foster resentment and damage the precious relationships we are trying to build
But by focusing on positive relationships, we can try to help young people understand the impact of their actions. I do not believe detentions support them in managing their behaviour and emotions better in the future; in fact, they might even foster resentment and damage the precious relationships we are trying to build.
Trauma-informed practice
Let me give you an example. While I can see that sanctions such as missing a football game or other extracurricular activities, as noted in the previous article on using detentions as a deterrent, may encourage better behaviour, it is certainly not guaranteed. I would like to introduce a fictional learner who I will call Georgie. They are 14 and have had a turbulent life. Their mum was unable to keep them safe and so their primary carers from the age of two were their grandparents. They have lived in poverty their whole life and at the age of eight, their mum passed away. Shortly afterwards, so did a grandparent.
Let me give you an example. While I can see that sanctions such as missing a football game or other extracurricular activities, as noted in the opposing article on using detentions as a deterrent on the previous page, may encourage better behaviour, it is certainly not guaranteed. I would like to introduce a fictional learner who I will call Georgie. They are 14 and have had a turbulent life. Their mum was unable to keep them safe and so their primary carers from the age of two were their grandparents. They have lived in poverty their whole life and at the age of eight, their mum passed away. Shortly afterwards, so did a grandparent.
They have experienced many adverse childhood experiences and struggle to regulate their emotions. Although they don’t enjoy school, they love football and are very good at it. They play for the school team and train after school. Georgie’s traumatic experiences have impacted their neurological, biological, psychological and social development, and they are often unable to regulate their emotions.
If you take away football you deny them one of the only activities that they enjoy, and which promotes their physical and mental well-being. Detentions would not support them in coping with their emotions and self-regulation and therefore would not alter their future behaviour.
I know Georgie is an extreme example but hopefully they illustrate how important it is for us as practitioners to try and understand the root causes of behaviours and support learners to manage their actions in a more appropriate manner. Detentions are not the answer.
Helen Scally is head of chemistry at a high school near Glasgow
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