The topic of behaviour management can often be a challenging one for teachers and educators to discuss openly. There are numerous approaches, many of which are polarising, drawing deep lines in the sand and evoking strong reactions. Admitting that behaviour management can be difficult at any level is sometimes met with disapproval, as if there's an unspoken expectation that once you complete your BEd, PGCE, or equivalent qualification, you should instantly possess the skills to manage any behavioural issues you encounter—if only it were that simple!

The behaviour ‘landscape’ has shifted dramatically since I started teaching in the very early 2000s…pupils' behaviour is different, our communities are different and the way we respond is different.

Across the country, schools are working tirelessly to evaluate, review, and refine their behaviour management approaches. In Hertfordshire, many of our schools are nearing the completion of the HFL Education Behaviour Leadership Programme. However, embedding new approaches and ensuring consistency takes time—it's a gradual process that requires thorough groundwork before a new policy can truly make an impact. With this in mind, I wanted to share some key strategies and practices that have been invaluable to me over the years in managing behaviour and shaping my responses in the classroom.

Reframe:

Reframing or renaming behaviour can be a powerful tool for both understanding and managing it more effectively. By shifting our perspective, we can adopt a more positive and flexible mindset, which not only helps us understand the root causes of a pupil's actions but also allows us to identify potential routes to support them more effectively. The way we label behaviour profoundly influences how we respond to it. When we reframe our interpretation of a pupil's behaviour, we change the narrative, opening up new possibilities for intervention and support:

• They have an attitude problem - they don’t feel safe
• They can’t be bothered - they aren’t able to engage
• They are so attention seeking - they are attention needing
• They are having a meltdown - they are dysregulated

When we reframe behaviour as a moveable state—something fluid rather than fixed or permanent—we open ourselves to the possibility of influencing and shifting it. This perspective encourages us to move away from viewing behaviour as a personal flaw or an inherent characteristic and instead recognise it as a response to unmet needs or challenging circumstances.

Regulate:

Self-regulation and co-regulation are often discussed in schools as ways to support pupils who are emotionally heightened. But how often do we, as educators, consider our own self-regulation? Every day, those of us working in education face numerous situations that require us to activate and deploy strategies for managing our own emotions. Most of the time, we handle this well, but we’re human, and there are moments when our strategies don't kick in quickly enough or simply fail us.

Take a moment to reflect on the behaviours that really get under your skin, that trigger you or push your stress levels to the brink. It might be pupils mumbling under their breath, rolling their eyes, not saying please or thank you, or talking over you. For me, it was the sound of pencils being tapped on tables. It drove me to distraction. Were my pupils doing it to disrupt my lesson or be disrespectful? No, they were using it as a self-regulation strategy to help them focus. And I needed them to focus, so how could I sanction them for it? I couldn’t. Instead, we wrapped elastic bands around the ends of the pencils, and everyone was happy—they could tap, and I didn't feel overwhelmed. It was a simple solution, but it had a significant impact on the harmony and learning in my classroom.

Repeat:

Repetition is one of the most powerful tools in your teaching toolbox. It not only reinforces expectations, routines, and boundaries but also creates a sense of psychological safety for your pupils. In today's classrooms, many of us are encountering a rising number of pupils experiencing anxiety, often rooted in early childhood experiences or emerging additional needs. For these pupils, psychological safety is key to creating a predictable environment—one where potential outcomes are clear, and even if the wrong choice is made, the consequences are understood and expected.

Shifting behaviour patterns doesn’t happen overnight. However, the continuous, drip-fed repetition of expectations, routines, and boundaries is crucial in supporting this change. By consistently repeating what positive behaviour “looks like” in your setting, and regularly practising and reinforcing these behaviours, you help pupils internalise these expectations. This repetition not only creates a structured learning environment but also builds pupils' confidence, reassuring them that they know what is expected and how to succeed within those expectations.

Reflect:

"Put it in the room and walk around it." This is a phrase I once heard from a psychologist, and it has stayed with me ever since. While I am in no way suggesting that a pupil's behaviour should be blamed on staff, it is crucial for us, as educators, to reflect on, review, and question our role in any incident. We must be willing to ask ourselves the potentially uncomfortable question: What could I have done differently?

In many schools, especially those that use therapeutic and relational approaches to behaviour management, we encourage our pupils to reflect on their actions and consider what they could have done and will do differently. If we ask this of our pupils, it is only fair that we hold ourselves to the same standard. After all, adult intervention in an incident can lead to one of three outcomes: it can either calm and de-escalate the situation, have no impact, or escalate it further. It is essential for us as practitioners to reflect on every incident and identify what went well. What strategies did we use to successfully navigate the situation to a positive outcome? Conversely, we also need to consider what might have acted as a catalyst for further escalation. This reflection requires honesty and accountability. We must be prepared to acknowledge our role in the outcome and ensure that we learn from each incident.

Just as we review and refine our teaching after a lesson observation, we must apply the same level of scrutiny to our behaviour management practices. This is how we truly refine our craft. By consistently reviewing our involvement, actions, and the outcomes of incidents, we can better understand the impact we have on the dynamics of our classrooms.

Navigating the complexities of behaviour management requires us to acknowledge that both pupils and educators are continually growing and adapting. By embracing strategies like reframing, regulating, repeating, and reflecting, we not only refine our own practice but also help foster a more positive and supportive school environment. If you’re seeking expert guidance, support, or tailored training to enhance behaviour management in your school, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Research shows 25.6% of learners identified with special educational needs, have a primary need of speech, language and communication need (SLCN)-it is the most common type of need for those receiving SEN support and second most common for those with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).  (Special educational needs in England 2024, DfE)

With Friday, 18 October 2024 marking Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder (RADLD) around the world, and an estimated 7.6% of children having DLD, now is the perfect time to share some helpful tools and resources with you.

Landmarks around the world will glow yellow and purple to shine a light on this often hidden-but common-disability in celebration of Developmental Language Disorder Day. (#DLDday) 

What is Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)? 

People with DLD have long term difficulties understanding and/or using spoken language creating challenges to communication and learning.  There is no known cause of DLD although it can run in families.  In the classroom you may notice learners who experience a range of DLD related barriers to learning. This poster provides a useful summary.

What classroom support strategies work well?

Explaining, questioning, making and sustaining friendships - these are just some of the daily language demands for learners before we even begin to consider the need to learn curriculum specific language. Ensuring high-quality teaching strategies support the development of speech and language skills for all learners will go a long way to ensure learners with DLD can succeed. Here we reflect on some ways teachers and teaching assistants can support.   

1. Creating a communication supportive environment

We all have situations as teachers we never forget.  For me teaching a child with DLD, in an English lesson was one of those moments.     

We were examining a text, and the main character ate a hot dog. The child, gasped, looked at me with wide terrified eyes and bellowed across the room, “No Miss! No!”

It took me a moment, but, looking into those panicked eyes I realised the child thought the character was at a funfair eating an overheated dog!

Context is everything in reading but when you have DLD that connection is harder to make.

Looking back, I wished I had used visual scaffolding to support the key message of the text. 

Hotdog

This child (and the whole class for that matter) could have been signposted to the images as we read/discussed/analysed the text.  For me, a quick image search on the internet resolved the misconception, but what if the child hadn’t had the confidence to shout out to me? How many of our learners are missing language hooks and therefore the entire meaning of our teaching?

Having key vocabulary displayed with an image is often referred to as dual coding.  For further information on dual coding explore the work of Oliver Caviglioli. 

2. Explicitly teach language

Alex Quigley highlights the benefits of helping all children to “grow their vocabulary” in his book Closing the Vocabulary Gap, 2018. When embedded into whole class teaching this approach will also benefit learners with DLD. Quigley refers to the SEEC model: 

Select: reflect, in advance, on the key vocabulary that connects and supports knowledge.

Explain: discuss the word, meaning, link with phonemic awareness (regardless of age/stage) and give learners time to discuss examples.

Explore: understand the word and give learners a chance to unpick it.

Consolidate: repeated exposure of vocabulary supports embedding over time.  Think where you can provide overlearning opportunities that are quick, succinct and support to embed language understanding. 

Quigley demonstrates this approach using the Frayer model. 

At HFL Education this approach is reflected in the mathematical vocabulary index resource.  By teaching and learning mathematical language pupils will be able to clarify and organise mathematical knowledge.  (HFL mathematical vocabulary index resource.) 

By making explicit visual connections with language all learners, including those with DLD, will be exposed to a considered, language rich model. For those of you who are senior leaders, you may wish to consider how you could embed this across all phases and curriculum areas. 

In support of #DLDday, here is a small selection of my favourite resources to raise teacher awareness:

• Hertfordshire’s SEND Toolkit provides direct links to training and resources from the Children and Young People’s Therapy Service including an excellent quick reference guide. Consider displaying the poster in the staffroom or sharing with families as the QR codes takes you straight to a wide range of organisations. 

• Speech and Language UK have a wealth of practical resources and guides for all ages including a support guide for teachers on DLD. Consider using the communication friendly checklists to audit the provision in your school for learners with DLD.
• Universal teaching approaches for secondary classrooms (speechandlanguage.link) , written by myself and Becky Rothwell (HFL SEND Adviser), supports reflection on class based support for learners with SLCN, including those with DLD. Whilst there is a secondary focus the strategies could be easily adapted for the primary classroom.

Finally, do have a look at the RADLD website to not only promote #DLDday in your own school but also to support staff to gain a better understanding of the condition.

Remember HFL Education’s SEND advisers can provide CPD on visual scaffolding. For further information email hfl.SEND@hfleducation.org

So, when you see that yellow or purple glow-on social media, in the news or in the sky- please do take a moment to reflect on the challenges that so many of your learners face each day and-more importantly-consider the small change you put in place to support learners with DLD.

In the spirit of raising the profile of DLD, as we celebrate #DLDday, please consider sharing this blog with colleagues. 

In part 1, we used the bar model to exemplify how to solve questions from reasoning paper 2 from the Year 6 SATs 2024. 

You guessed it… in this blog, we will explore questions from the KS2 SATs Reasoning Paper 3.

As Charley mentioned in part 1, a secure understanding of the relationship between parts and the whole is crucial. This learning begins in the Early Years and is built upon throughout Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 so please don’t be put off if you don't teach Year 6!

As well as understanding the relationships between part and whole, children also need time to explore these links in context.

Using the concept of ‘start, change, result’ can support children with overreliance on looking out for ‘trigger words’ and ‘underlining important parts’ (remember RUCSAC?!).

We know that when tackling worded scenarios, many errors occur when comprehending the ‘maths’ in the problem and no amount of underlining important parts is going to help.

Instead, ‘start, change, result’ supports children to ascertain the ‘knowns’ and ‘unknowns’ in a problem.

When this is coupled with the use of the bar model, comprehending the ’maths’ in the problem, becomes easier. 

In the image above, we can see how we have started with the 8 card and then added a 7 card (this is the change), with the result being that we now have both cards. This could then be linked to the number sentence 8 + 7 = 15 and the bar models below: 

The example below shows how ‘start, change, result’ can be used to support more complex structures – in this case, where the start is unknown but the change and the result are knowns. These could then be matched to worded problems.  

Using the ‘start, change, result’ strategy (which admittedly deserves its own blog!) is a gateway into exploring more complex problems – the sorts of problems that children are likely to come across at the end of Key Stage 2.

As with the first blog that explores paper 2, dialogue and key questions that could be used to support and refine children’s thinking is outlined for each question below from paper 3.

Once again, the language of part and whole is key.

As you read on, you may also like to consider how ‘start, change, result’ could be incorporated, as well as ‘knowns’ and ‘unknowns’.  

Question 13 – bar modelling to expose the need for multiplication and addition 

Solution

The total mass of the boxes is 99kg.

In this question, the bar model supports understanding that several multiplication calculations need to take place before adding the products to find the total mass. 

15 – bar modelling to expose the need for all four operations within the context of percentages 

Solution

79 girls have a pet dog.

In this question, the bar model exposes the need to adapt models as scenarios progress and more information is discovered. 

Question 18 – bar modelling to expose the need for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division

Solution

It takes Layla 25 weeks to save £65.

In this question, the bar model exposes models of multiplication (10 weeks x £2), subtraction (the difference between £65 and £20), division (grouping – how many groups of £3 fit into £45) and addition (augmentation – 10 weeks is increased by 15 weeks). 

Question 21 – bar modelling to expose the need for mixed operations including fractions 

Solution

£4,655 is given to charity

In this question, we would not want the children to draw 635 groups of £27! However, through use of the bar model, they are supported to see the need to combine models of difference to find out the ‘remaining money’) and then to divide to find a third of this amount. 

Further professional development

Our popular training is back this year in a new format. 

Across four half-day sessions, we unpick tools for supporting children in meeting age-related expectations in maths using a range of different strategies, including the bar model!

Statutory assessment outcomes from schools who participated in this training in 2023/24 show that children made, on average, 6 months more progress than their 2022/23 cohorts.

This course is also available as part of the Year 6 teacher ticket package 2024/25.

Resources you may be interested in

Bar modelling in maths progression

• Download sample pages
• A combination of photos of concrete resources, pictorial bar models and abstract calculations brought together to exemplify how to solve problems from across the maths curriculum.

Year 6 maths gap finder: SATS preparation toolkit

• Diagnostic summative assessment papers for early identification of gaps
• Resources to support teaching and rehearsal of arithmetic and reasoning

Year 6 SATS analysis toolkit

• a suite of resources and analysis tools to identify specific areas of learning strength and development for pupils and classes when using any past SATs papers as practice (2016-2024).