Written by Paul Dix

Those of you who have recently been through the OFSTED mangle - or skipped through inspection with annoying smugness - may think that ‘behaviour' is dead. So long live "attitudes to learning". But this change in OFSTED's language is not just irritating word-play, it marks a shift in expectations around behaviour. And once you get beyond the frustration of what seems to be yet another hoop, there are opportunities to use it for your benefit and that of the students.

Addressing conduct in the first term is essential. Yet most schools are still using the same basic rules to address the learning behaviours of year 6 and 11. Where is the progression? Where is the expectation shift? If you continue to base your behaviour policy on a set of simplistic conduct rules you may be missing an opportunity. If you are still talking to year 11 about ‘listening while others speak' something is not working.

Try a simple project which might just provide the solution. The best policy is borne out of focused action research at the classroom level - not by overwrought senior leaders in locked offices, smacked up on caffeine and fig rolls.

Using simple whole class reward systems and focusing on single behaviours can transform classroom practice. Try something for the next 30 days. Agree with your teaching team on one behaviour that your students urgently need to achieve to help them learn. Steer away from mundane phrases such as ‘Stay on task' or the dictatorial, ‘Get on or get out'. Instead pay attention to the moments you notice students being inquisitive or curious, engaged or autonomous. You will be fostering good attitudes and teaching behaviour along the way.

A simple tally chart to record each fantastic question/collaborative investigation/determined effort soon morphs into deliciously creative substitutes. Place table tennis balls in a clear tube outside the PE changing rooms to reward classes who are ready in under 2 minutes; use giant jigsaws that gradually reveal the primary source material for the next scheme of work; or set up large tubes filled with coloured water that rises each time a stone (the reward) is dropped in. Ask the children to design them. Make them grand and irresistible.

Operating a class rewards system like a game show host is exhausting and may not be your first choice of teaching role. But you don't need a personality transplant to use class rewards effectively. Share the responsibility for positive reinforcement with your class. Set up five tallies for peer assessment, and at the end of the lesson ask two children to nominate someone they think deserves one. Or offer a ‘Senior Reward Monitor' badge and watch students climb over each other to volunteer.

With a single behaviour in focus and a simple tally system it is easy to gauge how far and how fast you are teaching/encouraging/fostering attitudes for learning Share the evidence with colleagues as the project develops. Clear a space on staffroom notice boards and start sharing impact, not just anecdotes.

When the children reach their weekly target of tallies keep the reward small and relevant to the learning. The satisfaction of reaching the agreed target can be satisfying enough. Over egging the reward changes won't improve the strategy. The feeling of putting in the final jigsaw piece to complete the class reward puzzle or putting the final table tennis ball in to fill the plastic tube or popping the last marble in the jar. Rewards to not have to have material value. Small advantages are much more seductive: winning the right to be the first class in the lunch queue, getting a '24 marking guarantee' token or just being the first class to leave on the bell on a Friday. We are teachers not retailers. Behaviour is not a commodity. You don't need to give the children ‘stuff' to buy their improved behaviour.

Beyond the classroom the pursuit for improved attitudes to learning is seeded in more casual interactions. Deliberately shift your topics of conversation in less formal situations. ‘What are you reading?' might seem an unusual conversation starter by staff to children in the lunch queue when previous chats may have bee confined to football scores or performances. But their responses might surprise you. It's the start of making them feel that reading for pleasure is not only normal, but expected. Inspectors will ask the children about their attitudes to learning. It is sensible for teachers to open up the topic well before they arrive.

Meanwhile, deliver your sanctions privately where possible and keep them separate from the ongoing rewards tally. In time you will notice that you don't need to use so much punishment. The truth is that the more good behaviour you comment on, the more you will get of it: even with children who may initially fight you when you try to expose their good side.

The creation of a class rewards display shifts the culture of the classroom and, in turn, of the department. It is a clear visual statement of intent. It works to refocus the children, re-invigorate classroom practice and eradicate low-level disruption. And children really, really like it.

Written by Paul Dix.

Your first term as a new teacher started brilliantly. You had some ideas on how to manage behaviour but put them aside as it seemed they wouldn't be needed. The children responded to you immediately and were thoroughly engaged in what you were teaching. Putting aside your behaviour plan you began to think that you were one of the chosen ones, a natural born teacher. It seemed that great behaviour just happened for you and you laughed off colleagues who warned of a ‘honeymoon period'. Then the magic wore off. The chaos began. They wouldn't listen to you when you called for quiet, they were embarrassingly wriggly in assembly and you have heard concerned grumblings about the noise level in your room. In less than a week, a beautifully curious and engaged Year 5 class have broken bad. Ryan has stopped working and started questioning, "Do I really need to do this Miss? Miss have you got a boyfriend? Miss is penis a rude word?" Tyrone won't come in from play, "I aint comin' though (lengthy teeth kissing)", and Monica has sprayed herself with fake tan and looks like an unwrinkled Dale Winton. The fascination of a new teacher has created a false dawn. How do you reset behaviour and build the firm base that you should have set from day 1?

Now choose a strategy that best fits how you might respond when you see the children the next morning.

A Call in the big beasts - You have noticed that one colleague in particular seems to have absolutely no problems with behaviour. She often talks about it in the staff room. Go and ask her for support.

B Drill the routines - Go back to the start. The basic routines. Get them right before attempting anything else.

C Appeal to their better nature - Talk to the class. Reason with them. Ask them to give an undertaking that they will improve their behaviour immediately.

Now describe what happens in each case.

A: Get help

Miss Long is not hard to find. Her voice whips down corridors like a lizards tongue. Verbally lashing children with old school flourish. As you ask for help over a cup of tea at lunchtime you are surprised at how quickly the tears well up in your eyes. You explain that the children seem to have become unruly almost overnight. Before you have finished explaining she is on her feet with a sense of urgency. She clearly has a plan. As you follow her out of the room she tells you to sit down, have a cup of tea and relax while she has a word with the children. After 15 minutes she returns with a big smile and tells you to go and enjoy the afternoon's teaching. As you walk back into the classroom you can see that you have not been the only one to shed a few tears. The boys are cowed and some of the girls look shell-shocked. Ryan is subdued, Tyrone has a 1000-yard stare and Monica is scrubbing manically. The other children are clearly shaken. They are quiet, over-polite, frightened even. You realise that you have walked into the aftermath of a massacre. You called in the attack dog and unleased it. The trust that you so carefully built is ripped apart and you have sent a clear message to the class, ‘I don't know how to deal with your behaviour'.

Talking behaviour

1. Is it ever right to ‘read the riot act' to the whole class?
2. Do all schools need at least one scary teacher?
3. Are the teachers who are best at managing behaviour the most aggressive?

B: Drill the routines

Although there are individuals who are causing concern you decide to prioritise the routines that the class are get wrong. You start by explaining to the children that you are not happy with some of the routines. You are specific about the behaviours that you don't want and the behaviours that you do. To help everyone you display the two routines that you want to change as a set of symbols, prominently in the classroom. Immediately after your introduction you start energetically catching children who are doing the right thing. It works brilliantly but you are not going to be fooled by any more false dawns and you persist. Children who chose not to follow the routine immediately are given small, incremental sanctions. Counting down from 5 to get quiet while at the same time reinforcing those who are doing the right thing is becoming a useful routine. Returning to a seating plan that was lost in the excitement at the start of term was a good idea too. You drill the new routine for group work by writing noticing each child who follows it. Writing up the child's name with a big smile/special leaf/mad monster enthusiastically is exhausting but effective.
The class gradually reach a base level of behaviour that you are happy with, for now. There is more to be done but you have changed the direction of travel. The whole class routines have had a positive effect on Ryan, Tyrone and Monica but you are aware that they are going to need more work (and Monica is going to need wet wipes).

Talking behaviour

1. How long do you need to drill a routine before it is embedded?
2. What are the advantages of having the routines you are teaching displayed with symbols not words?
3. Why might a countdown to silence be more effective than hands up?

C: Appeal to their better nature

You gather the class together to speak to them about what has been happening. They are a lovely group of children who behaved well until a few days ago. You are sure that a quiet word will go a long way.
After some difficulty in getting the children quiet you explain how their behaviour has made you feel and how upset you have been. You explain that you don't want to be ‘one of the shouty teachers' and that you would much rather work in a spirit of equality and mutual trust. The children listen intently. They make all the right noises in all the right places. They promise to be better behaved. The sincerity is palpable. The afternoon goes brilliantly and you are sure that they have turned the corner.
The following morning however you shout, unusually loudly to get your voice heard. Yesterday seems like another country and they are breaking their promises faster than a newly elected politician. There are no routines for better behaviour and you worry that you may have been too unspecific. Staring into your mug of tea at breaktime your faith in humanity has been shaken. To see one false dawn is a mistake but to see two is just plain naivety. You remove all thoughts of being a natural born teacher and resolve to learn your craft thoroughly.

Talking Behaviour

1. Why can't you rely on the good nature of most of the children?
2. Is it right to connect their behaviour with how you feel? Are there any dangers lurking?
3. Is there such a thing as a natural born teacher?

Which approach did you use?

A: Your behaviour style
Too Hasty
Slow down, take a moment to think about who might be the best colleague to help you with behaviour. Many schools have maverick teachers who are a shade too aggressive in managing behaviour. They get their needs met but no one else's. Find support from a teacher who will guide you, stand alongside you but never take over. Look for the teacher who can manage behaviour rather than the one who forces children to comply.

B: Your behaviour style
Righteous Reinforcer
Even experienced teachers can come unstuck when they forget to reinforce the routines. A focus on important routines at any time in the term can sharpen everyone's behaviour. Before introducing any activity define, display and drill it. The best teachers have time doing this. Their routines are so engrained that they can transform a classroom in the blink of an eye.

C: Your behaviour style
Too much love
Children learn very young how to make the right noises when an adult is upset with them. Pleading with children to behave better never worked. ‘Behaving better' means something different to each one. When a child promises to be ‘better behaved' it is a lovely wish but a wish is all that it is. 

Written by Paul Dix.

If you are not an advocate of the aggressive, sanction-based method of behaviour management, then some schools can be a very lonely place to work.

I met a teacher recently whose department head wanted her to manage behaviour as he did: aggressively and confrontationally. Her method, which was proving very successful, was more subtle and nuanced than her colleague's explosion of anger at unpredictable intervals. That her method was working was not enough for her manager, and she ended up having to move schools to have the space to manage behaviour in a way that she found worked for her.

Unfortunately, there are many similar enthusiastic (and inexperienced) department heads out there that have bought the lie that children are dangerous subversives and, not satisfied with being persistently hostile to the children in their own classes, they want the entire department to replicate their practice. They even produce books that tell everyone exactly how to teach each lesson and new rules start to appear that are more stringent than is necessary.

With middle leaders demanding this iron-fist approach, more measured, assertive practice is being crushed. Even teachers who have excellent behaviour in their classes are being asked to give more detentions and those who do not punish regularly, or who fail to adopt a more dictatorial approach, are told that they ‘lack confidence' in the classroom. This terminology begins appearing on observation forms, whispered in middle management meetings and written into CPD plans.

Confidence should not be confused with assertiveness. You can be a beautifully assertive teacher with your students without being a confident character and you can manage behaviour without resorting to ugly aggression or stupefying sanctions. In short, it is just as valid to be a horse whisperer as it is a lion tamer.
Being a horse whisperer is about a sure-footed, assertive approach that is a daily drip-feed of consistency. Here, you use simple assertive sentence stems that convey assertiveness: "I need you to..."; "You will be..."; "In two minutes I am going to come back and see..."; "I know that you...".

It is also not about a teacher's physical presence. Physical assertiveness is not dependent on something as obvious as size, but on the nuances of movement, pace, personal space and appropriate distance. It is body language that is tailored to the needs of the individual child. The best teachers working with the toughest classes are often no match for their students physically. They have had to find more subtle ways to influence behaviour.

Beyond sentence stems, and tailored body language, you can also use assertive structures: closed choices, deal making; encouraging the student's responsibility to react appropriately by saying things like "We need to have an adult conversation to resolve this"; and lastly showing belief, even in the face of overwhelming odds, with a statement like ‘I can feel that this is going to be an excellent session/lesson' making all the difference.

You also have a choice as to when you engage with bad behaviour - you do not have to instantly meet it head on. You might choose to record it and address it at a more appropriate time, ignore it, confront it or walk away and consider your response. Assertiveness is knowing that you can control your own behaviour and making considered appropriate choices in your response to students.
All the above tactics are just as assertive as the aggressive method of standing your ground, just saying "no" and repeating your demand (the ‘broken record' technique) - if not more so. Yet they are being lost from the repertoire of behaviour management strategies in favour of the didactic, nice-nasty dichotomy insisted upon by many ‘lion tamer' department heads.

There are certainly strong arguments for the role of lion tamers, but there is just as valid a set of arguments for those more quietly assertive horse whisperers. Calm assertive certainty may not be the ‘shock and awe' tactics that excite dictatorial middle leaders, yet it will allow you to teach the children a personal discipline that does not rely on the lion tamer's whip. And teachers should have the freedom to embrace that strategy for as long as they can prove it works.

In short

• While department heads may demand an aggressive approach to behaviour management, more subtle techniques can be just as effective.
• You can use simple assertive sentence stems to show control, such as "I need you to..." and "You will be...".
• You do not have to be huge physically to use body language - the nuances of movement, pace, personal space and appropriate distance can be very effective when it is tailored to a specific child's needs. 
• Assertive structures can also be adopted: closed choices, deal making, positivity and treating students as adults.
• Timing when you tackle behaviour is also a tool. You do not always have to meet it head on at the moment it occurs. 

Written by Paul Dix

Scenario:

There is a rumour in the staff room. You know that you shouldn't get involved but you can't help yourself. There is a new child arriving. A wayward scholar who, after some ‘local difficulties' was removed from a school nearby. He sounds like proper trouble. He looks like it too. In a competition to find the kid who looks most like trouble Henry would be a multiple prize winner. Unfortunately in the classroom Henry is not so successful. Apparently he has a history of violence against animate and inanimate objects, refuses to read and has parents who are flattered to be called feckless. The staffroom atmosphere is friendly and convivial until you find out that Henry is coming to your classroom. Tomorrow. No, no, no. No no no no. No. Your lovely year 4 class who you have moulded and manipulated into a magical learning co operative is being sent a torpedo of trouble. NOOOOooooooooooooooooo.
After spending the requisite 20 minutes talking/arguing/almost shouting/ /pleading/being helped up from your knees/crying with the Head you resign yourself to the fact that Henry is coming. And he is coming your way.

Choose an intervention strategy that best fits how you might respond.

A. Ignore everything and teach - keep your expectations high and refuse to judge him on his previous record. Let Henry find his way in.
B Head Henry off at the pass - don't let him walk straight in. Create an induction programme for him and ease him into your classroom culture
C Prepare the ground - with the children and with the environment - talk to the children about the new arrival. Make sure they are ready and prepared.
Now describe what happens in each case

A: Ignore everything and teach

You have heard the stories, read the report and seen the data but you want to give Henry a chance. A chance to be treated fairly and equally with the other children. Leading him in the classroom he seems calm. He wants to sit with a couple of boys he already knows from outside school and it seems reasonable enough to let him. After all you want him to feel at home. Indeed by breaktime Henry feels completely at home, feet under the table, confident as you like. The disruption starts in earnest after lunch. There has been trouble with football and Henry is at the centre of it. There is an explosion in the lesson, table flying, actual fists being used towards the face and terrified children catapulted in all directions. Henry is removed (almost carried), still kicking out, by the Head and co opted strongmen. The class sit in stunned silence. Looking at you with fear and anxiety in their eyes. You realise that your cavalier attitude has backfired. By not differentiating for Henry you have abdicated responsibility and the consequences are all around you. You can already imagine the tide of emails, texts and impromptu visits from parents that is coming your way. Henry sits on the sofa of shame outside the Head's office and you wonder how you can repair the damage caused and reset the expectations. You wonder if the damage done with the rest of the class will ever be repairable.

Talking behaviour

1. Is it ever right to ignore the information that comes from other schools when accepting a new child?
2. What do you say to the rest of the class about the incident?
3. How could you differentiate your behaviour management to meet Henry's needs?

B: Head Henry off at the pass

You spend the evening in a fit of panic that matches your fitful sleep. The plan is simple. Divert Henry before he gets to the door of the classroom and let him spend the first two lessons with Quennie (LSA) who can set him straight, show him the ropes and give him the best chance of settling in well.
You welcome Henry in reception. He is surprisingly well presented and not quite what you expected. He is thick set, strong and square. But clean, polite and keen for mum to go. You introduce Henry to Queenie who ushers him away to take him through your hastily agreed induction.
You re-jig the seating plan to some protestations from the rest of the class. You excuse it on ‘being able to work productively with anyone is an important skill' and move on. Henry is cunningly positioned between Cassidy, who takes no nonsense from anybody, and Kelvin who manages to balance being cool with working extremely hard.
Henry emerges from his time with Queenie keen to join in with the class. Three simple expectations have been reinforced heavily. As he takes his place in the class you can see that he is going to be a handful. Yet he has started well and you can set about reinforcing his good behaviour. You know the honeymoon period wont last but Henry has made the best possible start. You begin reframing him as a valuable and important member of the group, you send home a positive note to mum at the end of the week and begin to learn when to divert Henry away from potentially difficult situations. You call on his gentler side referring to him as a ‘gentle giant' and begin to introduce the idea that he can be someone different in this new class.

Talking behaviour

1. What would an induction programme to your classroom involve?
2. What should the other children be told about new children coming in, if you can see there will be difficulties?
3. Why shouldn't Henry just be allowed to come in and start work with the other children?

C: Prepare the ground

You read the children a story about a boy called Harry who finds it difficult to fit in. In the story Harry is angry and loses his temper. The children love the story and enjoy thinking about the issues that arise from it. You had considered speaking to them directly about Henry but felt that using a story would be a better way in.
The first difficulty arises when the children start calling Henry, Harry. Some of the girls come to ask you if it is the real child from the story. They are excited that it might be. Henry overhears and gets the idea that everyone has been told about him before he arrived. In a fit of tears and anger he storms out of the room before he has even had a chance to find his seat. He shouts loudly enough so that mum, who has been lingering far too long at reception comes running and makes a bad situation much much worse. As the Head arrives to find out what the commotion is Henry's Mum starts dragging her son out of the school claiming that ‘You are all the same, you promised that things would be different etc etc'. As the last echoes of Henry's mum fade and Henry is pulled out of sight the Head turns to you for an explanation.
As you walk back into the classroom the children want to know how the story really ends.

Talking Behaviour

1. How can you prepare the class properly for a new arrival when you know that things might be rough for a while?
2. How do you deal with angry parents in reception?
3. How can you reintroduce Henry into the class now?

Which approach did you use?

A: Your style
Wing and a prayer
Of course you need to keep your expectations high and give Henry a chance but you also have a professional duty to the other children. There will be information that other teachers have passed over that could be extremely useful, indeed critical. You cannot expect a child who has clearly struggled to stay within the rules in one school to simply transform in another. Transformations take time, hard work and a more intelligent strategy than simply sink or swim.

B: Your style
Easy does it
Giving Henry an induction to the classroom (however hastily arranged) is an important first step. Keeping it simple and short is a must. Henry can deal with being withdrawn for the first session, maybe even the first day but soon he will need to join the general population. Easing Henry into simple routines, reframing his behaviour with positive reinforcement and thinking really hard about where he sits are essential steps for the first week.

C: Your style
Passing the buck
The children do not need to be prepared for Henry's arrival by being told that Henry is trouble. They can make up their own minds about Henry and ought to be allowed to do so without interference. Henry's behaviour is your responsibility and your business only. Involving the children is only going to lower expectations and make them feel anxious. You need to play the cards that you are dealt and play them well. Deferring responsibility to a class of year 4 can never be a great plan. Particularly when you are dealing with a child with more challenges than just changing schools.

Written by Paul Dix

Regaining your authority after a catastrophic loss of face is not a quick fix. You could call in the big hitters, police each lesson with growling heads of faculty and book a season ticket in the 'Isobooth'TM (Face the wall, Feel the pain ). You could pretend that you had authority. In fact, until you do the hard work to rebuild trust and relationships everything else is just a pantomime.

Apologise

Apologising to your students is essential. It is an assertive act that models appropriate behaviour. If you have become frustrated and acted in anger, been inconsistent, unfair or thrown your toys out of the pram; admit your own mistakes and apologise. You may be surprised at the positive reaction that you get, both immediately and some time after. The students begin to see you as reasonable, fair, human even. Apologising not an optional nicety. It is a vital part of the process of change that you are initiating. It does not need to be reciprocated, although in practice it often is. In behaviour management humility is strength.
Apologising may already have prompted you into some essential self reflection. There will be elements of your practice that you want to change. If your approach is 'This is how I am going to change my behaviour...'; the model is firmly set for their own reflection. You may choose to reveal your plan for moving forward or agree it with the class Either way give yourself time to implement changes, drip feeding new strategies and monitoring effects honestly. Immediately replacing one regime with another is unlikely to solve difficulties in the medium or long term. Look for what is working and build on it.

Tweak the plan

Make changes to the classroom behaviour plan for or with the students. Don't throw it all out, tweak to transform. Ask a colleague to help you look dispassionately at how you provide structure for the children. Examine how you develop and reinforce existing routines, provide clarity on rules, reinforcements and sanctions, schedule proactive communication with parents, target specific students and learn from strategies that are working for other teachers. Make a visual impact that restates your commitment to the classroom climate and the students. Spend time on the display, ask some students to help. Keep the plan simple and clear. Use it fanatically from the moment you introduce it.

Repair trust, accelerate authority

When classes have been through rough waters with a teacher, trust will need to be repaired. Begin to repair trust by reaffirming your commitment to the students. Tell them that despite past troubles you care about them and their achievement and are
committed to building positive relationships. Be prepared to tell them the same thing again and again. Some classes will need to hear you say this more than once, in fact repeatedly over a long period. For those students who have learned to mistrust adults outside of school this is particularly important. Building trust will sustain your authority far better than punishment ever can.

Relentlessly recognise what you want

Most teachers who find themselves in difficulties know that they have let things slip. Inconsistencies have eaten away at the relationships and the climate. Sticks and sanctions are delivered with too much emotion, carrots of recognition lie unpicked and withered. The step change that is needed is in the culture of the classroom which is driven by your own behaviour. The solution to regaining your authority lies in your ability to pull out of the cycle of sanctions and punishment and shamelessly and over enthusiastically recognise and celebrate the learning attitudes that you want to see. Every lesson, every day. To hide your emotion when you are angry and share your love of doing the right thing. It is exhausting, unnatural and frustrating.

Make a plan for the next 30 days. Be consistent and predictable, make sure that your words match your actions Communicate accurately, openly and transparently, share and delegate responsibility for classroom tasks. Nurture a common identity for the class creating a sense of unity. Establish or agree joint goals that are clearly defined, shared and displayed. In talk and actions use ‘we'. Value work by displaying it and involving students in design and creation. Focus on a single identifiable learning attitude that you are going to recognise whenever you see it. Digging your way out of the hole is going to be hard work. You need the energy of the hare and the dogged relentlessness of the tortoise in equal measure.

Essential steps for regaining your authority

• Ask for support / guidance / a sounding board
• Apologise to the students and model the right approach
• Identify aspects of your own behaviour that need adjusting
• Reaffirm your commitment to the students
• Explain the changes that you are making, display them brilliantly
• Restate your expectations then pursue them positively and relentlessly
• Initiate strategies for developing mutual trust
• Set a schedule for monitoring effectiveness and listening to student feedback 

Written by Paul Dix

Scenario:

There is a corner of the school that you have still not fully explored. It is not that you fear "the old shelter", it is just that the older boys hang out there and they are not particularly welcoming. Many of the trickier customers in year 6 have curated response styles that experienced teenagers would be proud of. They huddle around secreted mobile phones, laughing for attention, jockeying for position in the hierarchy. They are the biggest fish in a small pond and they swim around in their status. Individually each child is lovely to talk to but collectively the boys are tricky to manage. They bounce banter off each other in well-rehearsed rituals.

Today the boys have gone too far and you need to intervene. They have taken a tennis ball from one of the year 5s and gentle teasing will soon escalate into all out war if it is not nipped in the bud. As you approach the group you know that you need to be careful about how you intervene:

Now choose a strategy that best fits how you might intervene

A Shock and Awe - don't wait until you get there. Call to the group and warn them to stop as you run over. Use the power of you voice to put an immediate stop to their poor behaviour.

B Soft and gentle - calmly move over to the group and use some non-verbal cues to redirect the children and move everyone apart.

C Nasty and nice - use different shades of your assertiveness to bring the children to order and then diffuse the situation.

Now describe what happens in each case

A: Shock and Awe

Your first attempt at shouting across the playground doesn't go well. None of the children in the group even look up but you have managed to make 3 year 1 boys cry instantaneously. As you run towards the group shouting the rest of the children stop playing and start watching. You arrive at the group of boys just in time, if a little out of breath. Your blood is up and you let loose on two children immediately, sending them to sit on the bench of shame. As you do there is an instantaneous chorus of complaint from both groups of boys. You recognise that chorus. You have heard it before and it usually means that you have called it completely wrong. None-the-less you are determined to break up the party and send the four loudest complainers to the four corners of the yard for their troubles. They move but continue to argue so you unleash the extreme range of your voice with, "SAY ANTOHER WORD AND I WILL TAKE YOUR BREAK AWAY FOREVER!" As the rest of the children disperse a furious delegation emerges and declares that they are off ‘To see the ‘ead'. Turning to return to your duty you see a confused and anxious audience of younger children. They look as though they have lost their innocence, others look anxious, frightened even. What is certain is that they will forever refer to the incident as ‘the day Miss blew a fuse'.

Talking behaviour

1. Is there anything wrong in shouting across the playground?
2. How can you stop an audience forming to watch an incident play out?
3. How do you climb down if you sense that you have made a bad call?

B: Soft and gentle

Without making a fuss you make your way over to the group of boys. By the time you get there someone has been pushed and two boys have grabbed each other. You try to move some of the less involved children away with some non-verbal cues. It works beautifully and some of the group slowly step back. Unfortunately the children at the centre of the action have not even noticed that you have arrived. As you work your way towards the main protagonists a punch is thrown and it kicks off. The children who have stepped back, step in again and children are hurt. You have no idea who started it but no one has any intention of stopping it. You shout but now cannot be heard and it is not until the year 6 teacher and site manager step in that order is restored. Your reputation has not been enhanced by your inability to manage the group. Your pride has also been dinted. As you wade through the paperwork that results from break-time you resolve not to journey alone into the dark corners of the playground again.

Talking behaviour

1. When are non-verbal cues most effective in managing behaviour?
2. When should you call for help when dealing with a potentially violent incident?
3. Is it alright to let someone else deal with the year 6 boys in future?

C. Nasty and Nice

Without calling out you move quickly but calmly over to the group. The volume of your "STOP" surprises you let alone the year 6 boys. Other children stop as well, in fact most of the playground. You move into the centre of the group and stand right next to the two boys who have hold of each other. Immediately dropping your voice you tell the children to ‘let go and step back'. To be fair they had already started letting go when they realised that you were coming to stand next to them. The playground audience cannot hear what is going on and go back to their pursuits. A manky tennis ball is produced from an unlikely if not wholly hygienic place and offered to you. Part of you wants to be disgusted and angry. Most of you just wants to laugh. You go with the latter and the tension of the moment is broken. You ask the two boys in the centre of the action to come and talk to you and ask the rest of the children to line up. There is still some investigation to be done and a restorative repair but the incident has been diffused before it detonated.

Talking behaviour

1. When is it right to shout?
2. Is it appropriate to use humour to diffuse a potentially violent incident?
3. What is the conversation that you have with the two boys now?

Which approach did you use?

A: Your behaviour style
RoboCop

To be in control of a group of children you must first be fully in control of yourself. Rushing in and shouting the odds might feel like the right thing to do but there are dangers lurking. The ripple of anxiety that runs through every child in the playground and the three crying year 1's results in an ugly, unnecessary scene. Send a child for another adult and make a quick plan that doesn't' rely on the force of your temper.

B: Your behaviour style
SilentCop

You need to choose the right strategy for the right moment. Non-verbal cues are highly effective in a classroom environment and for redirecting low-level behaviours. In the playground they can also be great for adjusting behaviour but not for a situation where urgent action is required. Sometimes raising your voice is the right thing to do.

C: Your behaviour style
FairCop

Your shouting is brief, controlled and has a specific purpose. In the gap that it creates you can quickly to use your physical presence to get to the heart of the problem. Sometimes the lion needs to roar.

Written by Paul Dix

In many mainstream schools there are tell tale signs of a deep misunderstanding of human behaviour. You can hear it in conversations between adults. In throw away lines.

"We have exhausted all the strategies for this child"
"There is nothing more we can do for this child"
"We are just gathering evidence now"
or the ubiquitous "I give up with this child"

In a great PRU there is no conveyor belt of punishment that ends at the cliff edge of exclusion. In a great PRU therapeutic approaches are not a series of tick boxes.
In a great PRU adults don't give up, there is always another way.

The best PRUs, like the best schools, take staff training and development in behaviour management and modification extremely seriously. It is never a one off event as it is in many mainstream settings but a constant drip feed of excellent practice refined and adjusted over time. The best PRUs develop a thick seem of true expertise in behaviour management. It takes time, investment and wise recruitment but when it is formed it becomes an unassailable wall of calm consistency and certainty. It is no coincidence that the very best PRUs in the UK have spent years finding and developing the right adults then holding onto them. The best PRUs have a knack of finding and training remarkable heroes. Teachers who will dodge a chair, soak up angry abuse and moments later inspire learning with delicate encouragement.

The culture of a successful PRU is fixed deep within the behaviour of adults. No one is shouting, no one is pretending that detention is anything other than laughable, no one believes that is the all the children's fault. Staff understanding of the impact of their own behaviour is absolute. They play tag team with students who are intent on confronting like they have rehearsed it a million times. Raging adult egos that pervade many mainstream settings are put aside. Adults know that humility is strength, that kindness is not weakness, that getting told to ‘Fuck off' is not a trigger to throw your toys out of the pram/phone the Union/stamp your feet in the Head's office. They understand that when punishment doesn't work it is time to look elsewhere, not simply to punish more. In an excellent PRU the staff know that the destiny of the students lies in their hands. It is a responsibility that they will not throw away in an adult tantrum.

Staff are determined to be an amazing role models and in chaotic moments that tightens their resolve. In mainstream schools people are still building isolation booths to punish the vulnerable. In PRUs adults build finely balanced relationships with students that are based on mutual trust. There is no battery farm approach to behaviour here. The arguments over crime and punishment that rage in mainstream settings are left behind in a PRU in favour of more intelligent approaches to dealing with troubled human beings.

Mainstream schools patch poor recruitment with ‘emotional intelligence' courses. In a PRU emotional intelligence cannot be a bolt on. It is a prerequisite for daily survival. If you can't read Ryan's intent and are unable to shift your tone with precision you will very soon find him displaying his emotional ignorance all over your room and quite possibly in your face. Of course the amount of damage that the children bring with them has a huge impact on the physical and mental health of the adults. Ignore this and your hard fought consistency will mean nothing when the staffroom is heaving with supply teachers. The way you look after your staff is the way that you look after your students.

Teaching and learning in great PRUs starts from a different place. Nobody is surprised when the students aren't interested. The effect of this starting point is remarkably positive. Nobody tries to get away with the bullshit that masquerades as teaching in many schools: wordsearches, worksheets designed to occupy, endless meaningless PowerPoints, copying off the board, copying diagrams and all other ‘sit down, shut up, do your work, do as you are told' mindlessness are left behind. Nobody can bully anyone into learning anything, but in some mainstream schools they have a damn good try. Try bulling children into learning in a PRU and you will realise how fast PRU students stand up to bulling adults. A successful PRU focuses on hooking children into learning with teachers who are quietly inspirational every day. Teachers who have to work better because they know they cannot force children to do anything. Teachers who are flexible enough to shift mood, pace and content in a heartbeat to predict the shifting sands of emotion from the students. Teachers who skillfully use data to hone interventions and show impact. It is attached to real children with very real and often harrowing stories.

In most mainstream settings the parents always come to the school. In PRUs the school comes to the parents. Sometimes intensive home-based family therapy that involves the child can work magnificently. Resources are focused to make this happen. PRUs know that parents, with skillful interventions, can be the wind in the child's sails. Yet PRU parents come in many shapes and sizes. As you might imagine, the ability or willingness of many parents to engage with their child's education is weak at best. PRUs are often forced to accept that some parents are not going to positively contribute. When you have been in enough homes that have had everything sold, stripped bare, for drink/drugs then pragmatism takes over. Yet this is not a cause for despair but for a new plan, a tightening of the mentoring program, a different set of reference points and a more solid focus on the relationships within the PRU. In mainstream settings many have low expectations of those with feckless parents. In PRUs adults learn to work with the child even when that child's situation is not how it is 'supposed to be'.

Some of the most simple yet effective routines in PRUs are not often found in mainstream settings. Many would argue that the number of children in larger schools makes it impossible to replicate. Until you visit mainstream schools who have made them happen: Staff on the entrance to the school, meeting and greeting each student by name as they enter, individual mentoring that is holistic, evidence based therapies tailored and delivered by professionals, data that drives to the heart of the individual's learning, adults who deal with behaviour with sensitivity not tub thumping ‘detentionism'.

A great PRU, like a great mainstream school is not an add on, an after thought or a forlorn cabin at the bottom of the field. It has a sense of self and gives students a sense of belonging. It is a small school not a holding pen. A great PRU is not designed simply to return children to mainstream. Its ethos is more focused on what is right for the individual child and not on squeezing the child into a school shaped box.

Written by Paul Dix

You are not well. You knew it when you woke up but ignored it. Now you can feel the clammy palmed early signs of fever and the drums of relentless head pounding are marching towards you. All of this would be just a little annoying on a Sunday: you would pull over the duvet, send someone to the chemist and sleep it out. But it is not Sunday it is Tuesday and there are 30 faces looking at you with eager anticipation. You know what you should do. You know what any sensible colleague would advise you to do. But instead of going home, grabbing for the hot toddy and series 3 of the Wire you decide to stick it out. Your natural teacher guilt is enough to make you struggle through, you believe that chaos will ensue if you drop everything now.

The class are still ‘in training'. They have their good days (well, good mornings) and are certainly in better shape than they were 5 weeks ago. Yet you feel that the successes that you have are still reliant on the force of your personality rather than any real discipline on their part. Now that you have resolved to stay and try and see it through you have to make a choice about how to play it.

What should you do...

A. Carry on regardless - Pretend it isn't happening: deep breath, stiff upper lip, illness is for wimps.

B. Sympathy vote - Tell the class that you are not well and expect their sympathy

C. Sit in the corner - Share the load, ask for help from an LSA/Colleague and change your role. You need a different plan for today.

A. Carry on regardless

Summoning up all reserves of energy you launch into the first session at full pelt. It is going to be another good morning. You ‘double coffee' at break time and even squeeze in an emergency flapjack. If you are going to go down, you are going down fighting. It is all going swimmingly until William rips up Constantine's painting, Chelsea gets knocked in the kerfuffle and Chardonnay/Chablis and Rioja wade in on her behalf. From nowhere comes a volcano of temper and you find yourself standing in the middle of the room, holding two children aloft and screaming at full volume "THERE WILL BE NO PLAYTIME FOR ANYONE ANYMORE". Small sections of the class whisper to each other, ‘she's really lost it this time' and ‘do you think she will actually explode?'. At lunchtime you are found in the staff room, slumped on two library chairs pushed together in a makeshift bed, shaking involuntarily. The Head wisely and immediately sends you home.

It takes you a lot longer that usual to recover and a week later you return to find your class decimated by a nasty feverish, head aching flu bug that has gone round like wildfire. Even three of the staff have caught it. The Head is keen to speak to you about your attempt to martyr yourself for the cause. It seems that your well intentioned determination to stay at work for the sake of the children, may actually have been a more selfish act.

Key Questions:

1. Can it ever be right to try and fight your way through an illness?
2. How long should children be told to stay away from school after a sickness bug?
3. How do you control your temper when you are really exhausted?

B. Sympathy vote

You gather the class on the carpet and explain that you are not feeling well. They listen intently with ‘Ooos' and ‘Ahhhs' as you explain that they are going to have to look after themselves for most of the day as you are not moving from your chair. Some children are sympathetic, a couple, go overboard, 'No I don't need a massage thank you Kaylea' and ‘Thomas, your mother may well demand ‘Gin and Benedict Cumberbatch' when she is feeling unwell but that is of no consequence here!' Other children immediately see that a large gap has just opened up in the classroom behaviour plan and they begin exploiting it fully. The far reaches of the classroom become a blur of Teaching Assistant chasing slippery boys. There are minor incidents throughout the morning and various children are brought to you for instant castigation. You go through the motions but no one really believes you will follow through on any of it. Sensing a steep decline in classroom expectations Tom decides to climb out of the window to fetch a pen that he threw out there himself. In the excitement he becomes wedged in the frame and dangles upside down. The class is in uproar and teachers from other classes come running in to find you behind you desk passively pleading with the group to stop and the rest of the class (including your heroic teaching assistant) trying to unwedge and upright an increasingly panicky 9 year old. The sympathy of your colleagues evaporates quickly. Letters from parents, endless meetings and negotiation with the LEA result in a rollocking and an extended Safeguarding refresher for your troubles. It seems that your attempts at instant emotional literacy have failed and the shallow well of sympathy has run dry.

Key Questions:

1. Is it right to leave your Teaching Assistant to deal with behaviour issues while you try and teach?
2. Should you tell the children if you are feeling unwell?
3. How can you use colleagues to support your properly when you are feeling under the weather?

C. Sit in the corner

You are keenly aware that unless you protect the children (and colleagues) from your germs you will cause a wave of sickness. You need to make it to the end of the day and then you can collapse but pacing yourself is key. Quickly drawing support from your teaching assistant you contrive a plan. With you last reserves of energy you barricade yourself into the reading corner and start creating a ‘help desk' for the children. You surround yourself with resources that will help individuals if they get stuck and pass the instructions for the morning to the teaching assistant who will introduce tasks. Sitting silently in the reading corner gives you an interesting perspective on the lesson. Some children immediately thrive on the independent work they have been set, others immediately seek help, a few need a hard stare! Instead of spilling your germs on the children you communicate with a series of signs to redirect them ‘Ask 3B4Me', "'Think, Pair , Share', ‘Where else could you find help?' and a few arrows to point them to information that will be useful. The children enjoy the game and the teaching assistant enjoys the change in roles. Some behaviour is wobbly after lunch but those children are able to spend a few minutes calming down in your new lair. You feel awful but struggle through to the end of the day with the gentler rhythm. In fact it seems that you are needed less and less as the day goes on and you wonder why you haven't tried sitting in the corner before!

Key Questions:

1. Where would you put an unmanned ‘unstuck corner' in your classroom?
2. What would you do if the teaching assistant was not willing to lead the class?
3. How do you create a classroom culture where children don't automatically seek support from an adult first?

Your style

A. Selfish bravery

Your decision to ignore the waring signs seems brave at the time but your actions have consequences for the children, parents and the school. Instead of a couple of days off you need a week, instead of protecting everyone from your germs you have exposed them involuntarily. Asking for help is not weakness, looking after yourself can never be the wrong decision.

B. Burning Martyr

Although your class can perform the pantomime of sympathy it is only a show. You cannot expect 30 nine year olds to extend that sympathy into how they behave and how they act towards you. You have a professional responsibility to keep the children safe and that cannot be executed slumped behind a desk.

C. Cunning fox

You have not created a permanent way of organising your teaching but it is enough to get you to the end of the day with least damage done. The greatest pleasure was to just to watch the children working. You have learned things that you didn't pick up on at the front of the class, seen new skills from your teaching assistant and now know just how much the children are capable of without constant adult interventions.

Written by Paul Dix

Using lawful, proportionate restraint when it is necessary to keep children safe is a hefty responsibility for any teacher. When restraint is used to control behaviour, a line is crossed. Physical intervention is not a panacea for controlling violent behaviour. If it was we would still be beating children.

Some children who are restrained shrug it off. It is just part of their daily personal chaos. Others escalate restraint incidents for pride, 'It took five of them to hold me, mashed up the glass door as they carried me out". Some take their revenge in damage to personal property, others have Dads who do not share your enthusiasm for physical discipline. In the toughest areas when the family can see that you have crossed the line, the game changes. The stakes have been raised. Waving that DFE 'guidance' won't help you when Big Phil wants a 'quiet word'. I know many teachers who drive to work for the protection from implicit threats made against them after incidents in school. Others who have had direct threats of violence. We are teachers, not police.

Some of the PRUs I work with, who have the most potentially violent pupils, never use restraint to control or modify behaviour. The Headteacher of one Outstanding PRU told me they had restrained just one student for his own safety. They deal with the trickiest students I have met. The issue is the culture of the institution, the leadership and the skill of the staff. If you have got to the stage where children are regularly restrained in order to get them to 'do as they are told' you have a problem in the culture of adult behaviour. The 'them and us' culture that accompanies use of restraint for control permanently taints relationships and corrodes discipline.

For teachers who are not as physically capable as their students, physical intervention is never an option. Alone in classroom at the end of the corridor a slim built, 5 foot DT teacher is no match for Lofty O'Connor, 6 ft 2 and built like a baronial boys lavatory. The teacher who taught me most about managing behaviour was just this size. Working with extremely volatile year 11s she would never raise a hand or voice. The seam of trust ran deep. See searched for relationships while others grabbed for wrists.

Children die in restraint. That is why we can never be casual about its use. One person's 'last resort' is never the same as another. Some people are too quick to put hands on, others too slow to help. Of course, children also get hurt when people stand by and do nothing. We need specialist training with the right philosophy. Most of the current training around physical restraint is seriously flawed and derived from systems used in Custody, Police or Military. Usually a bastardisation of all three. The NHS can teach us a great deal about how to do restraint with care and dignity when it is essential.

Teachers who are properly trained in managing behaviour value their training in Restraint as an essential part of their first aid kit. It is there to keep children safe. They have far more effective and humane strategies for dealing with escalating confrontation or children who 'won't do as they are told'.

Written by Paul Dix.

Yestin likes home a great deal more than he likes school. Some children pine for home, others cry for their mum but Yestin just legs it; fast.
Sit him near the door and turn your back on him, he is gone in an instant. Bolting out of the door Yestin knows that he can get a head start. Running at full speed across the playground, he leaps over the gate and follows his homing signal. Often the children see him go before you do. At first his behaviour confused them. Now they are excited by it and cheer him on. In the eyes of the other children you can see a burning admiration and a yearning to do the same. Yestin gives no warning, no indicators that he is about to break free, he just goes. He is not angry or rude, argumentative or difficult. Like a solider sprinting across no man's land, Yestin is determined, purposeful and quick. He is a liability at break time and PE on the field has become predictably problematic. Yestin's escapology is beginning to cause too many repercussions for staff and the behaviour of the other children. Mum is apologetic and returns Yestin each time but the frequency of his instant departures has increased recently and you are not entirely sure that mum is giving you the full picture. You need to stop Yestin from voting with his feet and find a way to keep him in school.

A. Dig a little deeper - all the signs are that this is an issue at home. Take some time to dig a little deeper and try to uncover the motivation behind Yestin's dash for home

B. Early warning system - stop Yestin before he gets to the door. Implement a new early warning system and try to intervene before he out paces you

C. Tough love - reduce his opportunity to run for the hills. Restrict his movements to internal spaces and take away outside play and PE for a few weeks until Yestin shows he can be trusted again.

A. Digging deeper

Although you have had many ‘chats' with mum they have always been on school premise. Besides, the conversation usually amounts to just a quick sigh as she returns him for the third time that day. You resolve to meet mum on more neutral turf to try and discover the real motivation for Yestin's dramatic exits. You arrange to meet mum in the coffee shop after school. After the initial meaningless chit chat it becomes clear that mum's dad, Yestin's grandfather has not been well for a while. He has recently moved into the house so that mum can give him a little extra care. Although Yestin's granddad's illness is not serious, Yestin must have some worries. Grandad and Yestin have always been very close, particularly after dad left. Mum can't see it but you suspect that Yestin's desire to be at home is, in part, an attempt to check that everything is alright with Grandad. You suggest more regular daily contact with home to give Yestin reassurance and agree that Grandad will text your phone twice a day with an message for Yestin. If Yestin can stay in school all morning you will allow home to speak to mum or grandad on the phone at lunchtime. Yestin likes the sound of the new deal and you notice him checking himself a few times for the first week. He still wants to run but now also has a reason to stay. You know that it may take some to break the habit but a good first couple of days gives you hope that Yestin's yearning for home is waning.

Key Questions:

1. Do you have a responsibility to find the underlying causes of behaviour or should you just deal with the symptoms ?
2. How could you work with Yestin to allow him to get his worries in perspective?
3. Should Yestin be rewarded when he doesn't run?

B. Early warning

Making your own escape from school at the end of the day you notice that the front door of the reception has a release button that needs to be pressed from the inside to open the door. After a great deal of negotiating (and pleading) with the Head you persuade her to fit one to the outside door of your classroom. You calculate that Yestin will need an few extra seconds before opening the door. At the same time you rearrange the seating plan to position Yestin as far away from the outside door as possible. You place some overly conscientious girls by the door to act as an early warning system. Finally you use the teaching assistant as an extra buffer zone, positioning her on the table next to Yestin's and asking her to track his every move. With the new system in place you are confident that you can get to Yestin before he bolts. Yestin, however, sees the barriers in his way as a delightful challenge and his very own mission impossible. Distracting the teaching assistant is no real challenge and the girls by the door forget their responsibility as lookouts very quickly. The door button is more tricky but Chantelle locking herself in the toilet and crying provides the distraction he needs to cover the sound of the buzzer, ease open the door and break for the border. You are determined to make the new system work and on Yestin's return try again. After trying to physically restrain him he wriggles free, nips out of the internal door and escapes via the window of the neighbouring classroom.

Key Questions

1. Why can't you simply lock the door?
2. Are you right to try and physically intervene to stop a child running out of school?
3. How might involving the other children in your early warning system affect their relationship with Yestin?

C. Tough love

Yestin isn't happy about his new restrictions. It isn't just the opportunities for going home early that have been taken away it is his playtime, his friends and his chance to burn off some energy. Yestin complies for the first two days but his behaviour in class deteriorates as a consequence. You feel bad about punishing Yestin as he is a lovely child who doesn't deserve so much isolation from the class. The new strategy appears to be going well until mum calls and says that Yestin is point blank refusing to come into school. You assume that this is a temporary glitch but he continues refusing for more that a week. The ESW cannot get him in, the family support worker is having no impact and you are having to send work home. Mum is unhappy about the new regime of isolation and you feel she may be supporting Yestin's choices. You are now stuck between enforcing the new strategy and having Yestin refuse school or rescinding the punishment and looking hapless. As the head teacher calls you in for ‘a chat about the Yestin"situation"' you realise that your best intentions have backfired. There will now be a long road to get Yestin back into the rhythm of the school day.

Key Questions

1. Does punishment have any place in adjusting Yestin's behaviour?
2. Should the ESW and family support worker work independently or under your direction?
3. Are there lighter restrictions that could be effective for Yestin ?

Your style

A. Dig for Victory
Throwing strategies at a problem without knowing the cause is wasting energy. Gently digging for the real issue seems like additional work but always pays off.

B. Together we can do it
Dramatically changing the environment and using the other children as lookouts will immediately disturb their working rhythm. You may need support but this needs to be done discreetly.

C. Stand Firm
Yestin's disruption is not malicious and heaping punishment on this worries will only make him trust you less. Of course you have rules and expectations but your ability to be warm, caring and flexible must be balanced with this.

Written by Paul Dix

Four armored cars, 6 bodyguards and two motorcycle outriders are what it takes to deliver some of the children to St Paul's School in Sao Paulo. The threat of kidnap is very real for the wealthiest families in Brazil's most famous school. This is not just for show.

At St Paul's, the security is sharp. I was eyed with great suspicion on my first morning until I was rescued by a sharper suited and unflappable deputy head, Paul Morgan, "We can't just let anyone in", he smiles as he leads me beyond the security cordon and into a sanctuary. In the chaos of the worlds' third largest city, there is an oasis of learning staffed by dedicated teachers. They are surrounded by security that would unnerve even battle scared ‘Saaaf' Londoners but they are accustomed to it. It lets them concentrate on the most important things: the children, the learning and excellent teaching.

Of course the children live a privileged existence. But beyond the glamour of helicopters landing to whisk them away for the weekend there are hidden vulnerabilities. School life is punctuated with the sadness of parents who have to spend a great deal of time away, of children being looked after by paid staff, of friends leaving for far away places, never to return. Money never solves everything. Turmoil in your childhood is turmoil. Doesn't matter how many iPads you have. "Some of our children can have really tough lives" I am reminded.

The staff are a delightful mix of ex-pat and local teachers. This is a British School. Modern, forward thinking and open. Not scared by its privilege, but enthused by the opportunities it brings. The Headteacher, Crispin Rowe, formerly Head of a school in Bath, has fallen in love with Sao Paulo, the school and its unique situation. I can see why. The buzz of the city is unlike any other. It is a pulsing tide of humanity. This is Gotham City on steroids, pumped up and ready. A sea of concrete that swallows you up and I was happy to be swallowed.

Even with the most outstanding schools there are always adjustments to be made. The ‘tutting chair' has now been removed (you know the one where children are sat and every adult who walks past must shake their head slowly, lower their gaze and tut disappointingly) and the ‘sofa of shame' brought into question. Staff are enthused by 30-day action research projects that came out of three days of INSET. They are open, enthusiastic and willing to try something new. They welcomed me into their slightly crazy world but quickly reminded me that they were teachers just like me. Their dedication to their school and their students was palpable.

Despite recent improvements, in 2009 Brazil scored 0.557 in the Gini Index, which placed it as the world's tenth most unequal nation. Class division and educational apartheid starts at 5 with the poor funneled into run down public schools. The middle classes push their children into private institutions with the highest expectations and ambitions.

For the wealthiest in Sao Paulo money buys you a perfectly British education and plenty of security. At the top of the tree in South America the view is very different. Below, the poverty gap is as deep as it is wide. It makes inequality of opportunity in UK schools appear triflingly insignificant. In the UK the poorest children can make opportunity through education. In South America the Favelas, slums and shantytowns are consumed not just by poverty, but by hopelessness. For so many there simply is no escape to a better life.

I arrived in Belgrano, in the city of Buenos Aires and into the smallest training room in the world. A motely crew of teachers assembled for a Saturday morning training session in a room the size of a caretaker's cupboard. The Argentinian teachers were furiously engaged in a debate about private schools. The same conversation you might hear at a horrific Islington dinner party, the sins of private education versus the utopia of universality. ‘We should all send our children to state schools to improve the system' versus ‘I'm not sending my child THERE'. In Argentina as in Brazil there are is a free education for everyone but the quality is so variable that many people will send their children to a private school by any means necessary. The choice of comparatively low cost private schools is much wider that the UK. There are schools to suit every purse and then there are schools that everyone else ends up in. And then there are Special Schools.

At Motores School, all of the children are in wheelchairs. The school is inside the hospital but there has been no money to convert the rooms into classrooms. Motores is a school for children in wheelchairs on the first floor. There is no garden, no outdoor space. Most have cerebral palsy. Nico, 16, Boca fan, arrives proudly in his red tracksuit. His condition is more severe than I had predicted. Strapped into an ancient chair his movement is wild and uncontrolled. Seeing Mariana his eyes sparkle. He engages immediately. He loves learning English, he loves Mariana. She asks him a question. After a pause longer than is comfortable, he reveals an understanding deeper than I ever expected. He physically relaxes smiles broadly, laughs joyously. Pride in his knowledge of a foreign language temporarily sweeps away the discomfort of his daily life. Asked how he is feeling his response is "I am as well as I can be". His stoicism is devastatingly humbling.

Nocilla, 14, is happy because today is Friday. She holds my hand through the lesson and her excitement pulses. But her enthusiasm for the weekend is not shared by all of the children. Many return to the shantytowns where there is still no outdoor space and no one to care for them properly. The school might be a difficult environment for outsiders to accept, but at least it keeps poverty at bay.

I am reminded of St Paul's and the ‘tough lives' of some of the children. Looking around at Nocilla, strapped in and struggling sat in a hospital room on the first floor with no air con. Money can't buy you happiness but it can ease the environment, buy a new chair and alleviate the pain of poverty. The difficulties have no parallel. Monday to Friday the lives of the children are fully supported. At the weekends and during holidays the state withdraws and support disappears. Recent surveys in Argentina show nearly one out of every two students in Latin America does not finish secondary school. Some of these children would stay in school forever if they could.

The children are caught by the thinnest of safety nets held by a scouser called Susan Hillyard. Through drama, games, play and song she has created a pedagogy that works and trained a team to be inspirational. She has nudged her way into the Ministry of Education with persistence, determination and guile. What she has created with no money, working with children who have the most difficult lives, living in the most appalling circumstances are the same moments of inspiration that the teachers at St Paul's School are creating.

These teachers are teaching English to children whose lives put the vulnerabilities of the wealthy in the shade. Children who are under armed guard in Psychiatric hospitals, children with severe physical disabilities, children with terminal illnesses, street children, abused and neglected; children who society has given up on. "What is the point of teaching them English when they are going to die anyway?' is an attitude they are often confronted with. Underfunded, undervalued and under pressure the teachers from English in Action have little support from the outside. It soon became apparent that this crazy gang of teachers were doing something special, something really beautiful. With more heart than a thousand politicians, they are making change where it matters and proving everyone wrong. Their belief and passion rises above the apathy of the bureaucracy.

Spend too long in the UK and it is easy to feel that standards in education are declining. Spend five minutes outside and a different view quickly emerges. It is a British education that both the most wealthy parents and the most disadvantaged students crave. Wherever I travel, teachers, parents and children hold a deep respect for British Education. They are not just interested in past glories or the latest political fad. They are not in awe of our system which has many of the same issues, in miniature, as theirs. It is the expertise of British teachers that excites most of all. It is the dedication to an education that is beyond just exam results. The ability to teach knowledge and character, to design genuinely creative curriculum with ambition for each child. Worth bearing in mind just how well our teachers are respected when confronted with petty criticism by box ticking bureaucrats and tin pot politicians.

Written by Paul Dix

Marlon likes routine, hates change and interprets life differently. He is a lovely child but needs careful management. In moments of desperate frustration he will attack wildly. Scratching and biting anything in his way. His behaviour swings from the utterly predictable to the impossibly bizarre. In recent weeks your rotating seating plan has caused daily outbursts resulting in displays of extreme behaviours. In a class of 30 with no support he is sapping up your time and energy. Marlon has no intent to harm but this does not wash with the parents of the injured and anxious. Parents have complained bitterly that Marlon must be punished, isolated and excluded. They are openly challenging your classroom management and you are beginning to think that they have a point. The daily patching of children who find themselves in the wrong place at the right time is becoming difficult to explain.

In the staff room the looks of sympathy have given way to mutters of annoyance. You regularly find yourself having to explain Marlon's defiance and unexpected violence. It must be a coincidence but your special mug has gone missing and you are sure that your secret stash of Hobnobs has been raided. Unless you act quickly you fear that the staff will turn against you and the stern looks of senior leaders will translate into ‘quiet words' and the inevitable ‘targets' in awkward performance management meetings.

A. Punish

Enough is enough. Give the other Parents and less enlightened colleagues their pound of flesh. Go down the punishment road and see if it holds the answer.

B. Secret diagnosis

Assume that Marlon is somewhere on the spectrum and treat him accordingly. Use the strategies that have worked with children with autism.

C. Appeal to Parents

Call in the Parents (again) and demand that they seek expert support and a diagnosis. Marlon needs more support in class than you are able to provide.

A. Punishment Party

The punishing doesn't begin well. By lunchtime Marlon is curled up in a foetal position outside the Head's office picking paint off the wall with steely determination. The punishments that have been thrown at him have had no positive effect on his behaviour. To be fair they have had no impact whatsoever. When you explain to Marlon that he may not see another break time until he starts shaving, he doesn't blink. You begin to realise that your own break, lunch and after school time may forever accompanied by Marlon. He is a lovely child on a one to one but you do have other responsibilities. The Head, keen to support your attempts to bring Marlon into line, makes stern and serious noises. Marlon is much more interested in the photos of her family on the desk than accepting a telling off with grace. The arrival of the Deputy who bares his teeth and tries to play Mr Nasty is futile at best. The pantomime of punishment ends with more threats, raised voices and Marlon commenting that he has really enjoyed meeting everybody and asking if they could do it all again tomorrow lunchtime. As you herd Marlon away to the segregation block (formerly the caretakers office) you know that your instinct was right. Punishment on Marlon is a weak and soggy strategy.

Key Questions:

1. Does Marlon deserve to be punished?
2. Does harsher punishment have more chance of having an impact?
3. Is it right to punish children for behaviours that emerge from their additional needs ?

B. Secret Diagnosis

Marlon is not the only child you work with who struggles with transition and interpreting instructions accurately. You begin to introduce a visual timetable and clear routines for key moment of transition for all of the children. There is a great deal of discussion about how to present the routines and the children decide that it would be better if they had photographs of themselves demonstrating each one. After seeking permission from parents you create photo stories with the children that are laminated on tables and at key points in the classroom. In order to give Marlon a little more protection from the noise and general ‘business' of the rest of the class you bribe the site manager (Jack Daniels, obviously) into building a screen onto three sides of a few desks. Spurred on by the thought of free booze and the outside chance that he may get his office back the site manager does a fantastic job. There are now 4 desks with curved screens, cork board on the inside. You introduce them to the children as your 'quiet desks' and allocate one to Marlon to see if he finds it useful. Marlon loves the screen and may have found his happy place. You invest time in teaching Marlon transition routines, one to one. He soon takes control of his own mini visual timetable and routine checklists. Marlon begins to settle, incidents of violence reduce dramatically. You would still trade everything for a good Teaching Assistant but now feel that Marlon has turned a corner.

Key Questions

1. Is the extra time invested in Marlon now, ‘one to one', likely to pay off later?
2. Could you extend the ides of screened desks for the whole class? What might the effect be?
3. How can you prepare Marlon for unexpected changes to the school/classroom routine?

C. Appeal to Parents

You have taught enough children to suspect that Marlon might be on the Autistic Spectrum. His parents are similarly unique individuals with their own views on Marlon's differences. They are educated, well read and well prepared. Although you attempt to steer the conversation they have their own agenda. Mum is appalled at the lack of support for Marlon, Dad will not countenance a referral to support services. The mention of Autism sends him into a tirade of vitriol against the school, the system and your classroom management. The meeting deteriorates despite your best intentions. By the time Dad storms out you wonder how Marlon has become the victim in all of this and how you seem to be promising to ‘try harder' with him. You suspect a follow up letter to the Head will provide further headaches and resolve not to invite the parents in again.

Key Questions

1. How far should you go in trying to persuade parents to agree with your view?
2. Is it your responsibility to point out that Marlon may exhibit some traits of Autism?
3. How can you mend the relationships with the parents now?

Your style

A. Punishment addict

You can't punish a child for having additional needs. It is cruel, perpetuates a damaging cycle and utterly futile. Marlon's behaviour needs a more intelligent and empathetic approach. He is not behaving badly to annoy you or to intentionally hurt others He is behaving badly because he doesn't interpret your instructions as you think you are delivering them. You mustn't be bullied into punishing a child just because other parents think that you should.

B. Inclusion engineer

Doing everything possible not to humiliate Marlon is a worthy pursuit. You are still successfully communicating with the rest of the children. All that has changed in their eyes is your style. Many of the children who previously looked to you for their next instruction will take the opportunity to take more responsibility for their own timekeeping and transitions. What was designed for Marlon's benefit may steer other children towards more independence and less learned helplessness in the classroom. It is never going to be plain sailing, but that with an inclusive attitude, you can face problems positively and deal with them proactively.

C. Amateur interpreter

Parents who refuse to accept help for their child may at first glance appear selfish and unreasonable. Yet they have every right to make their own decisions. Leave diagnosis to the professionals. Instead focus meetings on small steps and collaborative approaches that are manageable. Marlon's behaviour will not be ‘solved' by a diagnosis and you need to be able to work with the family and not against them. Although many of the traits that Marlon displays are ones that you recognise in children with Autism, Marlon is Marlon. Not a replica, not a stereotype.

Written by Paul Dix

When a student tells a teacher to "fuck off", you would assume a pretty universal response of sanctions and reports to senior management would follow.

There is a place, however, where that does not occur. Indeed, this is a place where a lot of the strategies that are assumed to be best practice in behaviour management do not occur. And rather than suffering for it, this place manages to teach children others claim are unteachable.

You're probably thinking you'd like to have a look at this place, to learn the secrets of its mysterious ways. Unfortunately, that would require a big shift in how schools look upon excluded children. It would require schools to follow those students that fall through the trapdoor of mainstream education and to trek with them through the bureaucratic minefield of government until at last they reach that distant and ignored outpost of education: the pupil referral unit (PRU).

It's a journey few schools ever make. When a child is excluded, they are generally forgotten, left to be someone else's problem. The schools don't follow up to see how PRUs deal with their sometime students, nor do they think to look at the strategies employed or consider whether these could benefit their own institution.

This should change. PRUs are a hive of excellent behaviour management that should be learned from. Here's five areas in particular where mainstream schools should pay attention.

1. Staff development

PRUs don't just want you to be a Maths teacher that can do a spot of PE to ease a timetable headache. They expect more.

The idea in a PRU is that the teachers provide skills that go beyond teaching and enter the realm of psychology, trauma management, social work and other support professions.
These skills can be brought in via recruitment - employing people that offer a background in support professions - or they can be developed through a commitment to training and supporting teachers to broaden their skillsets.

The benefit of this approach is that there is the expertise to offer advice and strategies on behaviour management constantly, rather than having to wait for an expert consultant on an inset day or to ask a member of staff that has to take a guess at an answer - which is what happens in many mainstream schools.
This is about empowering teachers not drowning them in extra work. Teachers in PRUs are not suddenly being asked to do additional jobs, just bring an extra dimension to their existing role, to speak with knowledge in the usual conversations of the staff room or in meetings and to know what to do themselves in situations rather than having to call on external expertise. The benefits to teachers are that they are more confident in their work, they are receiving the career development training they deserve and they are making themselves much more marketable as a professional.

2.  Teacher behaviour

Adults set the tone for the culture of a successful PRU. No one shouts, no one believes that it is all the children's fault.

Teachers play the long game. They realize that when a child is screaming at you to "fuck off" it is not personal, it is not anything to do with you as a teacher. Instead it is simply the shrapnel from something going on in the life of the student and as such teachers deal with incidents in that context. This means not always reacting to every incident with shock and awe. When a child tells a PRU teacher to "fuck off", or when they throw a tantrum, the teacher may well sometimes admonish and punish, but they are as likely to take the child aside for a chat, or to tell them calmly to stop playing up and to get on with their work or any number of other non-sanction responses - it all depends on what the behaviour has been like at other times that day, or what the teacher knows is happening in that child's personal life.

There is no reason this approach should not work in a mainstream setting. Communication is key, as ensuring a full picture of the child's school behaviour and personal life is crucial. As is ensuring the student does not think he or she is getting away with misbheaviour. Admittedly keeping calm in some situations is difficult, but once you realize that the rage of the student is directed at life, not you personally, then you'll be surprised at how calm and how understanding you can be.

3. Consistency

In a PRU, there are no differences in behaviour management between teachers. Consistency is paramount. Every student knows that, regardless of the teacher taking the class, the standards and the consequences will be exactly the same.

This does not happen in mainstream schools. You have screamers, and talkers and jokers and those that favour silent treatment. You have those who will let a little high jinx pass and those who will punish any semblance of a smile. Is it any wonder a student's behaviour may be inconsistent given such inconsistencies from staff?  In a PRU, the strategy is set from the headteacher down. An approach is agreed upon and everyone sticks to it, regardless as to whether they have issues with parts of it or not. It is strictly enforced and rigorously monitored. It is not a set of rules but a set of expectations, a sense of what is trying to be achieved and guidance as to how to get there. There is no reason why mainstream schools cannot create a similar environment of consistency.

4. Flexibility

In a PRU, teachers put a high value on being able to read the class. They make an effort to get to know the children as quickly as possible so that they can begin to recognise the class dynamic and mood and then react to that in terms of lesson content.  This reaction can sometimes mean taking the lead and forcing the class in a certain direction - if they need distraction, giving them an involved task; if they are over stimulated and tired, giving them lighter tasks or fun activities. It can also mean letting the students lead, finding a platform on which they can engage with a topic in a way they wish that still hits your objectives, rather than dictating the methodology.

In the world of the PRU, a strict lesson plan can often find itself amended or ditched altogether. It does not mean the objectives are lost, it just means the route to those objectives may be different to the one planned as the class mood or dynamic has demanded a different approach. This sort of ad-hoc change strikes fear into mainstream education professionals, yet misbehaviour arises when you fail to consider how the class is feeling and what they need at that particular moment. You cannot force learning onto a class, so you have to find ways of reacting to ensure they learn willingly.

5. Adaptation to Home Life

In mainstream schools, many have low expectations of those with feckless parents. In PRUs, adults learn to work with the child even when that child's situation is not how it is "supposed to be".  When it is clear there is an issue with the parents, PRUs tighten the mentoring programme, lay down a different set of reference points for behaviour management and place a more solid focus on the relationships that child forms within the school. They adapt their viewpoint of the child in reaction to the parents in a positive way. In a mainstream environment, too often the opposite occurs.

Many would argue that the number of children in larger schools and the budget restraints many schools are working under make these lessons impossible to replicate. That argument holds up only until you visit the few mainstream schools that have made it happen.

Written by Paul Dix

Scenario

The parents are muttering again. The children have been in open revolt for some time. As Easter approaches the wall chart shows the token economy of the classroom has its winners and losers. Despite your best efforts to even out points /stickers/smileys the children out in the lead are not those who work hardest. In fact of the top 10 is dominated with the trickiest children who are being showered with rewards every time they take a 5-minute break from their busy schedule to glance at the work. They are joined by the most attention-seeking children who are academically gifted yet seem to need constant reassurance. The hardest working children who do everything that is asked of them without fuss are being forgotten. You begin to wish that the wall chart you spent most of a weekend glittering and laminating wasn't so prominent. Parents who have long experience with ‘rewards races' peer through the window and mutter their disapproval. If you don't take some action the mutters about fairness will develop into chat, which is a short hop from a baying mob waiting outside with lighted torches! Besides, most of the children became disinterested in the points system when they realised they were not going to win.

1. Bite the Bullet

Scrap the current system entirely. Apologise to the children and especially those who have amassed the most points. Replace the points system with positive notes and positive phone calls. Only reward children whose behaviour is above and beyond what is expected.

2. Up the ante

Stick with the token economy and increase the value of rewards to increase interest. Link the points with prizes. Try harder to balance out the winners and losers.

3. Sparkly boxes and lovely chats

Leave the wall chart alone for a while. Divert attention. Make a thoroughly tempting sparkly lucky dip box as a class reward to be given when children meet a specific learning expectation.

1. Bite the Bullet

Scrapping the points system doesn't go down well with children or parents. The certificates softened the blow a little and at least everyone got a record of their points total. But you begin to worry that you have caused a schism in daily routines. A few parents have told you (very) directly how they feel about this. You hold firm to your purpose and by the end of the first week the class seem to have come down from their sticker addiction. Many children still ask for them and you feel pangs of guilt when you refuse the most deserving. The flip side is that your praise and personal feedback have taken on more significance. The children seem much more interested in the feedback that you write on their work: coming to talk to you about it with more frequency.

Revealing the positive notes and your desire to increase positive phone calls home sends a ripple of excitement through the class. The new focus on recognizing conduct that is ‘over and above' clearly makes some children feel that they will never get one but you have a plan for them too. When the first three children receive their notes and one child has a phone call, the children see the benefits of home contact. You ask the children to talk to the class about what mum said when she got the note and the glow of pride is unmistakable.

For the children who find it difficult to sustain great conduct for more than a day at a time you decide to cut up a positive note and reward it gradually over weeks not days. Both children and parents can sense a new fairness about recognizing great behaviour. A new status quo is established. There is still a longing for sparkly stickers but you hope that this will fade over time as your role becomes to recognize the behaviour and parents' role is to reward it in the way they see fit.

Questions

1. How could you change system without causing an uproar with the parents?
2. What do you do with children whose parents simply ignore positive notes?
3. Why is the positive phone call home so effective?

2. Up the ante

As you explain that the points are now linked to actual prizes you can see eyes light up. However the children's dreams of a new x box/ipad/holiday in Florida are soon dashed as you reveal a winners gallery that you gathered from the 49p shop. Unperturbed, the children enter the game with renewed enthusiasm as the garden gnome toothpick holder is quickly identified as the most desirable bit of tat.

It's game on.

Unfortunately the girls have become over excited and pester you constantly trying to earn more points. They show you their work every five minutes and dance around asking if there are more jobs to do. The trickier customers know that they have a far easier way of earning points and proceed to kick off. They know that there will be trouble but the rewards will come on the other side. For now the game is to cause just enough pandemonium to get everyone's attention but not enough to get sent home.

As you fend off the points seeking monsters you realize that you have simply refueled a bad strategy. Instead of creating a mechanism to encourage personal discipline you have simply stimulated more greed, jealousy more selfishness. When a fight breaks between the girls breaks out over a Mutant Ninja toothbrush (circa 1993) you know things have gone too far.

Questions:

1. Does offering more material reward ever result in long term improvements in motivation?
2. How do you ensure any system you choose doesn't favour those with most ‘pester power'?
3. How will the parents know when to celebrate achievements at home?

3. Sparkly boxes and lovely chats

Only a few of the most eager children realise that you have stopped giving out points. Covering the chart with the new signed poster from their favourite author was a cunning move. Out of sight and out of mind. Of course the children were already distracted away from the chart by the appearance of a very lovely and highly tempting sparkly box. With the children in their working groups you explain that the group can be awarded a dip if they either help another group get unstuck or ask an astonishingly good question. After some initial over attempts to curry personal favour the children realise that they are not going to be awarded individually. Some are disappointed with this but understand that there is a new focus: interdependence over independence. More collaborative work begins to blossom, albeit slight falsely at first.

Each day you change the focus. Sometimes you use it to recognise group achievement, sometimes the collaborative skills of the whole class. Some days time the box loses its sparkle and is not needed as the routine of working with a single expectation embeds. Some days the box is a cause of positive tension as the children realise that there are more forfeits than treats left in the box. Some children ask if they can put forfeit questions in the box, if they can draw their homework tasks from the box and even if they can take ownership of the box. You start to see the potential for both group recognition and giving children some autonomy over how the box will be used. The points and stickers are beaten hands down by the dipping and delving into the box. You just need to work out how to sustain the curiosity and teamwork when the newness of a sparkly strategy starts, as they all do, to fade.

Questions:

1. How do you make sure that everyone gets a chance to delve?
2. Are the opportunities for each group to nominate another at the end of the lesson?
3. What might an appropriate and non disruptive forfeit be?

Your style

1. Responsive Rita

The sudden withdrawal of a reward system that everyone has relied on for feedback is risky. Demotivating the best scholars and the most tricky customers at the same time can have unintended consequences at school and at home. You might have caused less friction by fazing out the wall chart and writing to parents explaining why. Nevertheless the cold turkey seems to have worked and the positive notes and positive phone calls have seeded a new culture of recognition rather than reward.

Points systems work brilliantly for children who demand your attention. It is not just the scattering of rewards on children who choose to behave for 5 minutes that is irritating

2. Two Wrongs Theresa

Packaging bribes up as rewards still makes them bribes. Children want recognition, pride, purpose and to make real progress. If their motivation for learning is dependent on game with prizes then how will they cope with the game is taken away. Children need to be taught self-discipline not advanced carrot dangling. The teacher's job is not to reward children with token, money and stuff. It is to recognise behaviour that is over and above minimum standards while reporting this to parents personally.

3. Balanced Bertha

Balancing individual praise and class rewards means that it is not ‘every man for himself', in your lessons. Your class rewards encourage reliance on others not simply a reliance on being better at playing the rewards game. The excitement of the sparkly box won't last forever, but you have reshaped the system to get more of the behaviour they need for success. Their interest in taking over the running of the box will need to be well managed but you seem to have hooked them into the idea that what we can achieve together is more important that what we can achieve alone.

Written by Paul Dix

Every school has a Big Beast. In some schools they roam the corridors ready to pounce on straggling children who have become separated from the pack. In others they are kept caged in their offices, ready at a moments notice to savage badly behaved children who dare to challenge the status quo. You won't find The Big Beast of Behaviour in any policy document or behaviour strategy. They lurk underneath the surface, renegade, untamed.

Is the Big Beast of Behaviour a relic of old school brutality to be ridiculed or are they an essential element of good order and discipline? Can a BB be useful if deployed carefully or are they too dangerous to be released onto modern children?

What type of Beast do you have?

Every child knows who the big beasts are. When I was at school, Chopper Harris was ours. Four fingers on one hand, the physical stature of a Yeti with the temperament of a battle hardened Sergeant. He was a man who loved violence and through the medium of the board rubber shared that love with us. Daily.

I've worked alongside some big beasts too. Diminutive deputy head attack dogs who would leave classes of gnarled year 11 girls whimpering and dead ‘ard boys with a 1000 yard stare; Year Heads whose own behaviour was brilliantly unpredictable it terrified and unnerved in equal measure; and Headteachers who could shout a cocky year-9 down to the floor from 100 yards.

In schools in chaos a Big Beast can be phenomenally useful. Where the status quo has changed and teachers are running scared of the students someone has to take control. They are magnificent at holding the line, re-establishing behavioural norms and leading "bollocking assemblies". For crowd control they are second to none. They often have advanced skills in hard stares, quieting a raucous canteen and a boisterous corridor in the blink of an unblinking eye. In the jungle of teenage chaos when behaviour has really slipped you need a BB to pull you out of the shit. Children understand power and hierarchy well before they understand responsibility and restoration. A BB can take you from chaos to consistency.

In schools where there is less chaos and more calm, less pandemonium and more purpose the beasts are quieter but no less important. Regardless of how well ordered your school is there is a place for someone with a different role. Someone who draws the line firmly in the sand. Someone who is the unbending face of discipline. Someone who does not attempt last minute mentoring, coaching or cups of tea. A calmer, more considered BB can be more effective than a raging torrent of adult emotion. Their performance is more measured. Often cold, never aggressive.

Making Best Use of Your Beast

A BB can be very useful if you use it well. Sending children to the BB is not going to help you build a relationship with the child, more than likely it will do some damage. Yet sometimes that is a necessary part of tough love. The BB won't solve your behaviour issues, but it will get the child's attention, fast. A skillful BB will smooth a path back into the class that allows the teacher and pupil to maintain their pride and begin the next lesson from a better position. A good BB won't stop there. The best and most effective big beasts are ones that help you to follow up incidents, support sanctions and repair damage.

For new teachers who are finding their feet and struggling to maintain order, a BB is essential. In the first year of teaching we all need a lot of help. The BB will make the space for you to convince the children that you are capable of being in charge. They carve out time for you to be heard, to deliver instructions and to get the learning moving. As you get to know your colleagues you will find others who can tailor support better for you. But for now the shock and awe reminds everyone that you are not alone. Never feel guilty about using the BB while you are establishing yourself in a new post. However if you are still pulling on the emergency cord in as an experienced teacher there are dangers lurking.

Misusing Beasts

Experienced teachers who over use the BB undermine their own authority with the children. Used sparingly it is a sharp reminder that the adults are all connected. Overuse the BB and you soon delegate power away from your classroom. If you persistently show the children that you are lower on the food chain they will only take their orders from higher up. For an experienced teacher a BB is most useful when it is standing alongside, often gently growling but supporting not taking over.

Inviting the BB in to give the class a ‘roasting' might feel great for a moment but as soon as they walk out of the door you have a mountain to climb. Whole class punishments never end well. Instead of waiting until the frustration is overwhelming ask a BB to pop in regularly, without growling and just ‘see how we are getting along'. Children don't like it when the BB ‘pops in', it raises the stakes, increases the risks for those tempted to disrupt. Yet the BB can impose a temporary learning environment giving you a chance to rebuild your own.

Don't be tempted to unleash a BB on the 5% of children who ignore status and have no fear of adults. These children need skillful mentoring, calm assertive leadership. They have met bigger beasts in their family lives and conquered them. A BB may be highly effective for dealing with the vast majority of children who defer to hierarchy and fear castigation. Yet unleashing the BB on damaged and vulnerable children is garnishing misery on the pain. Using a BB to discipline children who do not have the strength to recover from a mauling is cruel.

How to find the Beast

If you wondering who the Big Beast is in your school there is a simply way to find out. The next time there is a fire drill watch carefully. Big Beasts love the fire drill. It is their natural habitat. They prowl with menace and intent. Waiting for their moment. In glorious bellowing above the idle chatter of 1800 students the roar of the BB goes out. All are hushed, cowed before the beast and all is well in the jungle.

For Christmas week we are thrilled to have a guest blog from Kate McAllister of the School Bus Project.
Pivotal Education are making a donation to the project instead of sending out Christmas cards to the schools we work with this year. We encourage others to support this excellent cause too.

At the School Bus Project, we believe you don't have to go to school to get an education... school can come to you!

The School Bus Project has developed in response to the growing humanitarian crisis in Calais.
Our aim is to facilitate the participation of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in free, quality education.

Humanitarian crises have traditionally been seen as short-term interruptions to a country's developmental progress. We used to think that a war would end, floods would subside and things would get back to ‘normal'. We now know that this is far from the truth. Research from the Refugee Studies Centre (Oxford) revealed that the average length of displacement in the 30 major protracted refugee situations globally was almost 20 years in 2011. 51% of refugees globally are under the age of 18.

The UNHCR figures suggest that

Only 1 in 2 refugees attend primary school
Only 1 in 4 refugees attend secondary school
Only 1% of refugees gain access to skills or higher education.

In many situations, the ‘teachers' have a student ratio of 1:70 and often lack the 10-day's training that would categorise them as "trained". Refugees globally find themselves in unstable, unsafe situations of displacement for long periods of time, with limited access to basic services, including education, and scarce or non-existent employment opportunities. The refugees living in the Jungle are no exception: according to researchers at the University of Birmingham, the camp fails to meet basic standards set out by the World Health Organization and the UNHCR.

As a result of our initial visits & discussions with refugees, we will be focussing our immediate work on supporting mobile educational activities in four key areas:

1. Psychosocial Support & Protection
2. Basic Skills
3. Job Skills
4. Teacher Training & Support

We will provide an opportunity for everyone in the camp to participate in some form of educational activity, be it as learners or educators. Ultimately, we will see teachers & experts from within camp working side by side with UK volunteers, educating others.

Starting in January, our short-term goals include:

• Facilitating the participation of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in education in three of our key areas - psychosocial support & protection, basic skills, and job skills;
• Laying the groundwork for the fourth key area - teacher training and support; and
• Training our first group of UK volunteers

Our mid-term goals include:

• Providing a consistent presence of School Bus Project volunteers in the camp who are delivering quality teaching;
• Providing a consistent quality curriculum in camp where refugees can take part in activities as often as they would like; and
• Identifying refugees with skills they are willing to share to be awarded scholarships to train with The School Bus Project, empowering them as teachers, and allowing us to broaden our curriculum further to provide a broad and diverse curriculum for all learners in camp. 

Our long-term goals include:

• Facilitating the transition of refugees into higher learning and job opportunities;
• 'Handing over the keys' to the School Bus so that it is primarily owned and ‘driven' by the refugees themselves; and
• Scaling up our response and facilitating the participation of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in quality education across Europe and further afield.

We have developed a rigorous volunteer training programme for our UK volunteers. The programme is made up of an eLearning component and an in-person component. Volunteers from within the Jungle population who wish to become teachers will also attend the in-person training module in Calais alongside UK volunteers. The School Bus Project will award scholarships to attend the training. The eLearning component will cover the aims of the School Bus Project, the situation in Calais, refugee education, and what resources are available to support teaching in challenging contexts. For the in-person component, volunteers will attend a 3-day workshop, which will include first aid training leading to qualification (facilitated by a qualified health professional), orientation, and pedagogical skills-building. If you would like to contribute towards a scholarship fund or sign up to volunteer as a teacher, please get in touch. If you'd like to add your ideas to the mix or design a course of study, hop aboard the School Bus Project @: theschoolbus62@gmail.com. 

www.schoolbusproject.org or https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-school-bus-project-mobile-education#/story
Kindest regards,

Kate McAllister
Principal of The School Bus

Written by Paul Dix

Scenario:

Abigail is forever late.

She walks in with a mumbled apology, provides the requisite scribbled note from Mum "Sos, late xx" and takes her place. Some days it is five minutes, more often 10 and recently up to 30. The data shows that this term Abigail has only arrived on time twice. Other children are starting to notice, to question, to pass comment. The front office have become accustomed to welcoming Abigail, other staff have mentioned it over coffee and the Head has started to tut when the attendance data for your class is published.

In all other respects Abigail is fantastic. She is a week polite, hard working, diligent child. In many ways she appears to be as exasperated with her punctuality as you are. When questioned she tells you that she is always up early, dressed and ready on time, but she is always waiting for Mum.

What will you do next...

A. Reverse psychology: reward the children who arrive on time, make a fuss over them, motivate them with punctuality points and gather in some prizes to increase the jeopardy.

B. Punish: 'No excuses': everyone else manages to get to school on time, why shouldn't Abigail.

C. Tackle Mum: Deal with the problem at source, if you can find her.

A. Punctuality Prizes

The children are excited about punctuality points. You show them the ‘cupboard of joy' that is crammed with every 99p temptation you could find. Their chatter on the way out to break is all about how they are going to get ready this evening to save time, how many points they are going to get and who, just who will win the star prize; the MP2 player. Children start arriving ridiculously early. They are competing with each other to see who can get the most punctuality points. Parents are also feeling the pressure and seek some urgent clarification as to the exact start time at school. The trouble is there is no change for Abigail. None of the furore about the points affects her. All of this comes to a head when a child who lives near the school slips out of the house at 4am to be first through the door. Suddenly there are police everywhere, helicopters scrambled and general panic. The child is eventually discovered wrapped up in the coat rack getting some much needed rest. You carefully peal the ‘Super Punctuality Points' poster from the wall and stuff it into the bin and try to walk away nonchalantly, ‘My office 10 minutes ?' comes the unmistakably irritated voice of the Head from behind...

Key Questions:

1. Can a points system be fair?
2. Should children who arrive on time be rewarded?
3. Are children who struggle to get to school on time humiliated when they have no chance of changing their routine?

B. No time for excuses

You decide to make the consequences for arriving late much clearer and tell all of the children that time will need to be made up in break and lunchtimes. This changes nothing for Abigail, she is not concerned about missing break or lunch. Other children find the changes more difficult. They argue vociferously claiming ‘'snot my fault my mum was late', and that they have made up for their lateness by working 'SOOOOOOOOO hard'. Upping the anti has no impact on Abigail either, the after school detentions provoke no response or change in daily routine. You final consequence of making her work on her own for the first lesson seems cruel and unkind. You being to realise that the wrong person is being punished. Abigail doesn't have control over her Mum's timekeeping. You suspect that Mum doesn't even know that Abigail is received daily sanctions. You back away from the insane path of punishment just as some parents are questioning your inflexibility and sanity. You have noticed that conversations between children are all about how late they are and who has got how many minutes punishment. They are perversely enjoying by the tension of punishment; perhaps heroes will be made not squashed. The culture in your classroom has taken a difficult turn, time to turn it back.

Key Questions:

1. Is a 'no excuses' culture simply a result of a lack of empathy from teachers?
2. Is it right to punish children for their parents' crimes ? 
3. Do increasing punishments result in increasingly good behaviour?

C. Take Mum in hand

Despite letters and failed phone calls Mum is proving very tricky to pin down. Even the family support team have had no luck in contacting her. Abigail makes her own way home but it is mum who drops her off. The trouble is her routine is not predictable and you are teaching by the time she arrives. You resolve to make sure that you ‘bump into mum' in the next week and come up with a fiendish plan in cahoots with your learning support professional. Looking back over the data it seems that Wednesday is the day that Abigail is least likely to be late. You figure that if your class can be covered for 15 minutes you can wait for Mum to drop off and at least agree a time for a face to face meeting.
Waiting to casually pounce in the car park seems extreme but it doesn't take long before you see the car approaching at high speed with a frantic mum at the wheel. As soon as she sees you she starts apologising, explaining that she can't talk now and is late for work and throwing a bucketful of diversions at you. Instead of berating her for her appealing time keeping you decide to just say hello, introduce yourself properly and tell her how fantastic her daughter is. She slows down, listens and then burst into tears. As you usher Abigail into the reception Mum reveals the real issue of an ill grandmother who came off Christmas and never left. Abigail doesn't know it but grandma needs a lot of care, particularly in the morning. Life has got a lot harder very quickly for the family. You agree a time to talk again and as you walk back into school you realise that this brief encounter may have opened the door to finding a solution to punctuality.

Key Questions:

1. Should this conversation with mum be left to family support services?
2. What would be your next steps ?
3. Are there ways that you could help Abigail gets to school on time in the short term?

Your style

A. Bribe Time
Don't rush for the prizes. Children don't need to be rewarded for turing up on time. This is a minimum standard, a basic. Thanking them is enough. Attaching points to people and prizes can have unforeseen negative consequences

B. Hard Time
Don't reach for punishment. You cannot punish children for the mistakes of their parents. Punishment is a weak, soggy and largely ineffectual deterrent for lateness.

C. Time to care
Dealing with parents with kindness is always the best way to get behind the mask. Your proactive steps are a positive move to open a dialogue and find a way to get Abigail to school on time, every time.

Written by Paul Dix.

Top Gun rules of engagement are written for your safety and for that of your team. They are not flexible, nor am I. Either obey them or you are history. Is that clear?.

Open subversion of the school policy is the currency of the Maverick teacher. There are different rules that apply. From casual but constant ‘oversights' of phones out in lessons to open revolt ‘I don't care what the policy says, you are spending the rest of your natural life in MY detention!". The Maverick buys status on the cheap and everyone else pays the price.

There are cuddly mavericks who want to go the extra mile for everyone and nasty mavericks who bully children. There are inspirational mavericks that you would follow anywhere and misguided mavericks who will lead you off a cliff. A classic maverick however is an excellent teacher. Inspirational, dedicated, relentless, Proper good. They have the best defence for their behaviour as they often the best results in the school. It follows, in their logic, that they must be doing it right. Their positive effect on students' learning is rarely in question. But their negative effect on the staff is a hefty counterbalance.

Great schools rely on deep consistency in the behaviour of adults, New teachers buy into consistency in policy and practice. immediately. They hang to a behaviour policy like a life raft. In the eye of the first term storm it is their only chance of survival. For a while they believe everyone is applying the agreement consistently and so follow it to the letter. Gradually they realise there are some teachers who are deliberately sabotaging it. From the passive ‘I don't care if you keep your coats on', to the accelerated hostility of ‘Get out.....NOW' or the downright renegade ‘'Page 24 everyone, I just need to take this call!': the Mavericks can destroy essential consistencies in a heart beat that many have fought so hard for. Their disregard for policy sends ripples of doubt into new teachers, cover supervisors and anyone who thought that the adults stood together.

Mavericks rely on personality, charisma and charm. They sometimes ride solo but more often than not have a small band of disciples who consider them defacto leader. Left unchecked their persistent muttering into their coffee at the back of the staff room is a short step from sniggers in staff briefing and open revolt in ‘reply all ‘ emails. If you find yourself in a staff room full of mavericks the effect on whole school consistency can be profoundly destructive. At their best maverick teachers are utterly inspirational and drive innovation, at their worst they undermine the consistency that cements the staff together and buy credibility with learners through shameful subversion. ‘It's ok, I don't mind you doing that here, just don't tell (insert name of SLT)...'

Children know how to use a maverick to gain advantage. A defence of ‘well SHE lets us do it in HER classroom' works better than it ought to in a school. The instinct of the child who wants to disrupt is to play ‘divide and rule' with adults. Many have developed real expertise at home and bring this skill set to school. They latch onto the inconsistencies in their teachers and exploit them ruthlessly. At times just for their own entertainment. I have often had students banged to rights only to hear the ‘But he gave all 7 of us toilet passes at the same time, he always does" or ‘no, you don't get it Sir, she doesn't use same rules as everyone else" reposte.

Working alongside a maverick effectively means gaining some emotional leverage. The Maverick is driven by a strong core purpose and well thought through philosophy. Like the most intelligent children they are difficult to manage; at times quietly subversive, often confident to question decisions head on. You don't have to agree with how they do things but you must understand what drives them. At the core of the Maverick is an ego, an arrogance and a selfishness that can is paradoxically both utterly compelling and utterly destructive. The maverick can easily get out of control. The history of education is littered with the skeletons of educators who have gone to far and got burned. Mavericks are difficult to manage using systems and processes. They need more subtle and personalised management. One that blends emotional connection and solid principled argument. Don't micro manage the flair from your Maverick but share with them genuine responsibility: give their innovative streak some structure. With one hand your Maverick needs some tough love to ensure they sustain a commitment to core consistencies; on the other they need the autonomy that makes them brilliant with the children.

Written by Paul Dix

1. Moddlin

The model for the team must be set by the middle leader. In behaviour, this must be a model of emotional resilience. A calm, relentless pursuit of excellent conduct. Some middle leaders send ripples of fear through their teaching teams. They are dangerous explosives perpetually primed and often unstable. Their emotional reaction may feel good in the moment but the shrapnel affects everyone adversely. As inconsistency creeps in, trust is eroded staff, learners and parents begin to look for help from the top of the hierarchy. Magnificent middle leaders know that their own behaviour has a huge influence of the performance of everyone. It is no enough to demand that each teacher deals with behaviour calmly and then slamming the office door to give Ryan a slice of ‘rollicking royale'.

2. Riding shotgun

Riding shotgun means allowing colleagues to make mistakes, adjust their strategies, reflect on incidents. It means supporting colleagues to lead restorative meetings, plan interventions with individual learners and manage communication with home. Those who ride shotgun should not be trigger happy. The skill is knowing when to hold your tongue.

The best middle leaders stand side by side with their staff when behaviour gets wobbly. They provide guidance in private while guaranteeing unswerving support in public. They know when to sweep in to deal with bad behaviour and when to stand alongside staff. They know when a learner can be put back into a lesson and when it would be better to give everyone time to regroup.

3. Walking the floor

Supporting behaviour cannot be done remotely from behind a desk. ‘Walking the floor' is an essential part of the middle leaders daily ritual. Being a visible presence in the faculty beats the most finely crafted referral system hands down.

A predictable presence is essential: nudging learners towards their next lesson, cajoling the stragglers, beaming smiles for the dedicated, while sustaining a convincing disappointed look learners in ‘time out'. Great middle leaders will drop in to catch students going over and above expectations, come in and teach alongside you, develop a shared voice and demonstrate to the learners that their teachers really are one unified team. A great middle leader is not a manager but a lead teacher who knows maintaining the highest standards is a daily grind not a mission statement.

4. Head of celebrations

Middle leaders who stalk the faculty waiting to pounce create a discipline that is reliant on their aggression. Personal discipline is not encouraged and every behaviour problem is left at their door. Colleagues undermine themselves by deferring to a higher authority and learners begin to realize who it is worth behaving for and who will just pass them on.

A strong middle leader seeks out learners who demonstrate determination and perseverance and rewards them. They deliberately give their time to those who show personal discipline above those who constantly crave attention. In display, in person, through phone calls, positive notes, awards and public recognition an irresistible atmosphere of success is built.
Middle leaders who approach the management of their teams by catching them doing the right thing and recognizing it build sustainable improvement. Those who micro-manage with a pointy stick don't allow great teachers to flourish.

5. The buck stops here

Great middle leaders do not pass the blame for new initiatives, alterations to practice or additional tasks to those above them. They protect their colleagues from the wider school politics and allow them to concentrate on the classroom. They know where the buck stops and present colleagues with palatable shifts in practice even when the message from above doesn't taste too good. They are a filter, not a robotic conduit for top down management.

Similarly children who are proving challenging are not passed up the chain of command. In behaviour management the buck also stops at the faculty office door. Communication is streamlined, the range of consequences are capped and learners realise that they are not going to be passed from pillar to post. Knowing that your middle leader is willing and able to deal with the full range of behaviours eases adult anxieties and does not allow learners to play divide and rule between senior and middle tiers.

Great middle leaders have a vision for their faculty that goes beyond the walls of the institution. They have aspirations for the success of the team that echo the aspirations of individual teachers for the learners. Their energy, ambition and perseverance rise above the daily behaviour challenges. They don't just want the best learning climate in their faculty, or success on a local scale. They have no poverty of ambition. They want achievement that is nationally recognized regardless of where they teach. They don't just want to be top class they want to be world class.

Written by Paul Dix

Scenario

Jack is famous. ‘King of the Hill' for all the wrong reasons. His notoriety has steadily increased; his reputation sends a cold shiver through the staff room and younger children speak his name in whispered admiration. Stepping back from the daily chaos that surrounds Jack you realise that in your attempts to change his behaviour you have given him the gift of fame. Jack has his own special report card, a personal rewards system and is slowly building his own enclave at the back of the classroom. Jack's name is called out at the end of assembly and he bathes in the glory. He is regularly taken out of lessons for ‘special chats' and seems to have licence to wander corridors at will. Jack has found his place in the school. His throne is the sofa outside the head's office, his chambers the boy's toilets . He is a celebrity. You know where Jack's fame will take him. It is a well-worn path. If you don't do something fast to change his direction of travel you risk Jack forever defining himself by his bad behaviour.

1. Create a new behaviour contract. There is a lot of time and effort directed at Jack's behaviour but it is not shifting. Redraw the lines with Jack. Try a different direction. Ask Mum to come in to negotiate a new behaviour contract
2. Strip away the trappings of fame. Do everything possible to take away the sense of importance he gets from being naughty. Meet his desire for celebrity with cold, consistent micro scripts.
3. Remove the audience. Cut the problem at the root. Give Jack some time away from the other children and put stop his fame.

1. Create a new behaviour contract

Jack's mum is always very very keen to ‘help' and arrives with some interesting ideas on the contract. It is clear from the outset that Mum thinks this is an opportunity to stop the ‘fluffy stuff' and get back to punishing Jack. The negotiation over targets, rules and consequences is difficult. Mum wants to remove him from the football team as a punishment. Jack is busy promising the moon. He has mastered ‘required responses'. Nevertheless the meeting is amicable, Jack realises that there is trouble afoot and Mum leaves content she has repositioned all the ducks.

Looking at the contract you re impressed with the detail. It certainly seems like a solid agreement. The following morning is fantastic. Jack is attentive and seems to have turned a corner. Yet by the end of lunch Jack has broken each and every one of his agree targets. Three times over. As he calms down he realises that he won't be able to play for the football team on Saturday. He loses it. Total thermonuclear meltdown. The Head calls Mum to come and peel him off the ceiling. You realise that however useful the process of might be, the contract is too weighty (and too punitive) to affect daily routines

Questions

1. Are there ways that contracting behaviour can be successful in behaviour change?
2. Is Mum right to punish Jack by taking away what he loves?
3. What is the next move for the Headteacher?

2. Strip away the trappings of fame

You start by taking away his red report card and the reward system that he has managed to twist to his advantage. You explain that his poor conduct is no longer going to be advertised; that you will record his behaviour against his targets in private. Speaking to colleagues in ‘briefing' you ask that for the next two weeks everyone remove Jack's fame for causing trouble. No more reclining on the sofa of shame, parading his poor choices in public or speaking negatively about him in public. You ask staff simply to recognise when he goes over and above the minimum standards. There is some muttering into tupperware in the back row.

So that the message really hits home you decide to use a microscript with Jack every time he decide to break the rules. The script is simple. It reminds him of the expected behaviour, identifies the behaviour that he is engages in, delivers an appropriate consequence and remind him of his previous good behaviour. The mantra ‘You can feel good for doing the right thing' is one that is employed regularly. Jack does not like the microscript. He is irritated that he cannot show his naughty skills to the rest of the children but a great foundation for improvement has been set. "If you want to feel important do the right thing. Adults will never make you famous for behaving badly". Jack's first piece of work that appears on the ‘work of the day' frame on the classroom door is an early sign of the new strategy working.

Questions:

1. How do you make your trickiest pupils feel important?
2. How could you get the rest of the class to help?
3. Does Mum need to be involved at this stage?

3. Remove him from public view

The initial shock of being withdrawn from class and from circulation seems to have had an effect on Jack. He protests strongly but soon accepts his fate. The end of the library is sectioned off and Jack is taught by a rotation of TAs and teachers. He is no longer able to wander the corridors or take his throne outside the Head's office. The staff breathe a sigh of relief. Everyone works hard to try and convince Jack that he should change his ways but it is a scattergun approach. Too many people giving too much well meaning advice while setting too many targets. Eventually Jack needs to be released. The intervention is in danger of becoming unproductive (Jack has become overfamiliar and is calling staff by their first names) and 1 to 1 tuition is not sustainable.

Like Steve McQueen emerging from 3 days in ‘the cooler' Jack returns to the classroom like a conquering hero. His incarceration seems to have increased his fame. His reputation as ‘the child they couldn't tame' instantly gives his credibility a seismic boost. Once Jack's eyes have adjusted to the light he goes about his business; settling scores and readjusting the hierarchy that has shifted in his absence. By first break it is clear nothing has changed. As Jack comes to rest once more on the sofa of shame you overhear a conversation with the Head that begins "‘ere Dave, nice suit mate" (and won't end well) You wonder if you may have just made things a whole lot worse.

Questions:

1. Does separation work better if children are separated for longer?
2. What does your strategy teach the other children?
3. How could you reintegrate Jack so that he doesn't return to his old routines?

Your style

1. Contract Charlie

A contract for behaviour sounds so tempting. It sounds like a solution is being found, that finally some change is being concreted. Unfortunately, whatever you write on a lengthy proforma means little to Jack in the heat of the moment. He can barely remember 2 targets let alone 10. Taking away the one area of his life where he is currently successful is only going to make things worse.

2. Down to Earth Doris

If it is fame that he is pursuing it makes sense that taking away celebrity and bringing him back to earth would have the desired effect. Strategies that seek to modify behaviour take time to have an impact. Taking away the glory in poor behaviour is an intelligent long-term plan for Jack.

3. Short term Susan

The instant positive effect of removing one child is a huge relief for you and the rest of the children. Yet you are just storing up problems. Without an effective intervention plan there is no point in isolating Jack. His disappearance gives him more status in the minds of the children. His reappearance rather than being a rebirth is simply reinforces what he has already discovered; that behaving badly has its advantages.