Evidence suggests that understanding individual pupils, training teachers in classroom management, and having a consistent approach across the school supports better behaviour – as talked about in the Education Endowment Fund’s guidance report on Improving Behaviour in Schools.
The report has been designed to support teachers and senior leaders in schools to make decisions surrounding behaviour strategies, and puts forward recommendations for improving behaviour in schools. These recommendations are:
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Know and understand your pupils and their influences
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Teach learning behaviours alongside managing misbehaviour
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Use classroom management strategies to support food classroom behaviour
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Use simple approaches as part of your regular routine
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Use targeted approaches to meet the needs of individuals in school.
There is currently a lack of evidence on how effective ‘zero tolerance’ policies, which are aimed at creating a strict and clear whole-school approach to discipline, actually are in practice. And despite initiatives where schools limited mobile phone use have proven successful in improving behaviour, reducing bullying, and helping pupils to focus, this cannot be directly linked to the reduction in technology but may be because of well implemented policies alongside it.