Sorting Out Behaviour: A Head Teacher's Guide (Little Book) (Little Books) - Hardcover

Rowe, Jeremy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781350116 ISBN 13: 9781781350119

Publisher: Independent Thinking Press, 2013

Synopsis

Improve the overall performance of your school with no-nonsense advice to allow you the confidence to implement successful behavioral management structures within the school environment. Drawing on his years of experience, Jeremy Rowe shares the most effective methods of classroom management, enabling teachers to ensure that pupils receive the best education.

Sorting Out Behavior is the view from the head teacher’s chair when it comes to getting behaviour right across the whole school.

If you want to get the public, the papers and politicians hot under the collar you only need mention ‘classroom behaviour’. It’s a subject everyone has an opinion on – and it’s rarely positive. For every media-fuelled horror story of disruptive behaviour there is a knee-jerk, sack the teachers, blame the parents, get the troops in response which often makes things worse when it comes to actually engaging children in learning. This book is not only about effective behaviour strategies that genuinely work but it is also special as it has been written by a practising head teacher, drawing on that unique perspective of whole school behaviour. Full of helpful, practical, do-able tips and ideas it is relevant for any teacher, manager or leader in all sorts of schools.

“I strongly recommend this extremely useful and practical guide, which demonstrates that effective behaviour management is about clarity, transparency, consistency and a set of manageable policies and procedures which are kept under constant review. Drawing on the author’s vast, first-hand experience, it is a source of common sense and practical pointers which would enable all school staff from trainees to experienced school leaders to review their behaviour policies, practices and procedures.”
Brian Lightman, General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders

“Thank you to Jeremy Rowe for providing a plain English, common sense, easy to read guide about behaviour. Perhaps more importantly, he reminds us that children aren’t criminals and that most schools are calm, productive, orderly places that are far removed from the image so often portrayed in the media. We need to hear that message more often.”
Fiona Millar, Guardian Columnist

Jeremy Rowe combines his twenty plus years of teaching experience with traditional values and a realistic perspective to produce the effective method of management that has led him to become a successful head teacher and public speaker.

About this title

About the Author

Jeremy Rowe is the ultimate 21st Century headmaster, he combines his twenty plus years of teaching experience with traditional values and realistic perspective to produce the effective method of management that has lead him to become a successful head teacher and public speaker. Jeremy regularly published articles for Teacher’s Magazine and published online articles for the likes of Alistair Campbell. He believes that implementing simple but effective rules for school conduct result in a happy and successful school.

From the Back Cover

SORTING OUT BEHAVIOUR is the view from the head teacher’s chair when it comes to getting behaviour right across the whole school.

If you want to get the public, the papers and politicians hot under the collar you only need mention ‘classroom behaviour’. It’s a subject everyone has an opinion on – and it’s rarely positive. For every media-fuelled horror story of disruptive behaviour there is a knee-jerk, sack the teachers, blame the parents, get the troops in response which often makes things worse when it comes to actually engaging children in learning. This book is not only about effective behaviour strategies that genuinely work but it is also special as it has been written by a practising head teacher, drawing on that unique perspective of whole school behaviour. Full of helpful, practical, do-able tips and ideas it is relevant for any teacher, manager or leader in all sorts of schools.

“I strongly recommend this extremely useful and practical guide, which demonstrates that effective behaviour management is about clarity, transparency, consistency and a set of manageable policies and procedures which are kept under constant review. Drawing on the author’s vast, first-hand experience, it is a source of common sense and practical pointers which would enable all school staff from trainees to experienced school leaders to review their behaviour policies, practices and procedures.”
Brian Lightman, General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders

“Thank you to Jeremy Rowe for providing a plain English, common sense, easy to read guide about behaviour. Perhaps more importantly, he reminds us that children aren’t criminals and that most schools are calm, productive, orderly places that are far removed from the image so often portrayed in the media. We need to hear that message more often.”
Fiona Millar, Guardian Columnist

Jeremy Rowe combines his twenty plus years of teaching experience with traditional values and a realistic perspective to produce the effective method of management that has led him to become a successful head teacher and public speaker.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from Sorting Out Behaviour

Introduction
Like most of us, I’ve worked in schools that have got their approach to behaviour right and in some that have got it wrong. Right is better. I’ve been lucky to have had the opportunity to work with magnificent teams at Pool Academy in Cornwall and Sir John Leman High School in Suffolk, both of which are packed with colleagues who know it is possible to improve and have been prepared to do what is needed to make that improvement happen.

By working together consistently and strategically, both schools were able to see genuine improvements. This can only be achieved by teams unswervingly operating valuebased systems. Without that, staff are out on a limb and the
minority of students who can be difficult will have a field day.

Like you, I am doing the job day-in and day-out and, like you, I get it wrong sometimes. In fact, the minute you think you’ve sussed it, a child will literally take your legs from under you! Remembering that is quite helpful, I think.

My basic view is that behaviour is about choice. That doesn’t mean that situations are equally easy for all of us to handle, but I believe that if we factor choice out of a situation we could be robbing an individual of their entitlements and their independence. If we were all predestined to behave in certain ways, all responses would be predictable. People choose how they behave. All of us.

Below is a short quiz:
Can bad behaviour be eradicated in our schools?
Can it be improved?
Should we try to improve it?*
For me, everything became clear as a result of one early conversation I had in which I was told there was no soap in the students’ toilets because ‘they messed around with it’. What this meant was that a couple of students did. What it really meant, though, was both profound and frightening. It did not simply mean that one or two students were running the school. They had in fact, been given the power to do something much more important. They were being allowed to
define the school. No child could wash their hands because one or two students didn’t want them to. From that point onwards, I made a virtue out of taking risks with what students could ‘cope with’ – and never looked back.

(*Answers: No, Yes, Yes.)

I hope that this book provides a straightforward description of what we do, and why we feel these approaches work. None of the ideas are patented; all of them are taken wholesale or adapted from other schools. You will know the idiosyncrasies of your own school and what would be successful.

I’m not using a Marxist or feminist perspective – mainly because I don’t understand them. I haven’t done a lot of research either, because I was too busy actually improving our school – so there aren't twenty pages of references at the back. Sorry.

Incidentally, it is important to remember that children are not criminals and that the negative behavioural choices a minority occasionally make are not crimes. Our job isn’t about retribution; it is about ensuring young people learn
from their mistakes, so they can take their place in society and succeed.

My intention is to set out a simple, occasionally slightly difficult, approach to student behaviour that actually works. My school isn’t perfect, but it is better as a result. And that’s important.

Key points
¦¦All schools can be made even better
¦¦ The outcome is worth it
¦¦ The students are worth it

Edition details

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781350116
• ISBN 13: 9781781350119
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 104