Leading Behaviour
Change
Darrell Williams
‘You can’t stay in your corner of the forest
waiting for others to come to you. You have
to go to them sometimes.’
Winnie the Pooh
Leading Behaviour Change
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Leading Behaviour Change Agendas
9.30 – 10.00
The Pivotal Approach
Pivotal Pillars underpinning exception practice
Pure consistency
10.00 – 11.00 How to design simple, concise, consistent policy
Chaos of rules
Essential elements of effective behaviour policy
Self discipline v command and control
11.00 – 11.20 Coffee
11.20 – 12.00 Why managing staff behaviour is your first priority
The impact of adult behaviour on learner behaviour – emotional and financial
costs
Managing tricky teachers: breaking patterns of entrenched adult behaviour
Creating problem solving adults not process monkeys
12.00 – 1.00
How to structure Sanctions and Rewards to modify behaviour
Reducing detention, isolation, exclusion and punitive punishment
Recognition beats reward
Layering Restorative Practice
1.00 – 1.45
Lunch
1.45 – 2.30
How to design a policy to manage the 5% as well as the 95%
When sanctions stop working
Monitoring behaviour without creating behaviour celebrities
Teachers who pass the buck to others and how to stop it
2.30 – 3.15
How to create your Behaviour Blueprint
Collaborative agreements that work
Embedding and defining key consistencies and processes
Setting the culture for behaviour
3.15 – 3.30
Case studies of exceptional practice
Reducing detentions by 90% in three months
Increasing attendance without punishment
Isolation rooms that are no longer needed
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Why the Pivotal Approach is different…..
We start with the behaviour of adults. We shape it to reach a level of consistency that most will
never have experienced. We create a platform for seismic change based around the one
behaviour we can control absolutely…..our own.
We believe all adults must be fully engaged in managing and modifying behaviour. Everybody
is trained to an exceptionally high standard so around the site, nobody walks past.
Individual Teachers are rapidly upskilled in leading edge classroom practice that eradicates low
level disruption and refocuses everyone on the learning. There is a huge shift in expectations in
every classroom and from every adult.
We work with Senior Teams, Teachers and all adults to dramatically slim down policy and
procedures.
Evidence based practice ripples through our curriculum and informs classroom practice as well
as interventions for the most vulnerable learners.
Humiliation in any form plays no part in the Pivotal approach. Learners are respected,
regardless of their behaviour. Adult behaviour will never be compromised by learner behaviour.
Adults strip out all negative emotion/response when dealing with challenging behaviour.
Recognition replaces reward. The Pivotal focus is on pride not prizes. Recognition systems are
not individual but collective. Learners are interdependent.
Our programmes are shaped around the 95% of learners who arrive every day keen to learn
and eager to please. The silent majority.
We don’t believe the 5% of the most troubled learners are ‘behaviour problems’; they need a
different approach. One that is not based on a set of increasingly large sanctions.
Learners are never able to ‘power play’ with adults. There is no ‘them and us’ culture. Universal
micro scripts are used to intervene with poor behaviour.
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Learners are never passed up the hierarchy. We have innovative approaches to ensure
teachers at the classroom level remain in charge of the incident.
There are no detentions, segregation rooms, physical restraints or punitive punishments. Adults
and learners have structured restorative conversations.
We rigorously evaluate the impact of the programmes on teachers and learners. Our focus is on
tracking and increasing learning hours for all learners. Data is used to drive cultural change.
Everyone can see the impact that their efforts are making.
Emotional Cost Exercise
Kyra has been covered in paint. Ryan has been accused. He has already been given a
reminder, a warning and a breaktime detention. The teacher feels that his behaviour is totally
unacceptable and forcibly tells Ryan to leave the room
Ryan won’t move. He claims that the teacher shouted at him and was unreasonable,’ Besides, I
didn’t throw any paint, she fell on me’.
You arrive ‘on call’.
As soon as the teacher sees you at the door she accelerates into maximum sarcasm , ‘Oh, Mrs
Harris, I am soooooooo pleased to see you. THIS boy thinks that he can assault other children
and laugh about it. Look, look’. She is pointing at Ryan who smiles uncomfortably.
Ryan immediately assumes that you are on the side of the teacher and makes a run for it. He
bolts under the tables, through the chairs and over the heads of some smaller children. As he
leaves the class the teacher takes the opportunity to tell you that ‘I won’t have him in my class
until he has apologised and completed 3 lunchtime detentions!’
It takes you and a teaching assistant 30 minutes to find Ryan who is hiding under the small
staircase by the portacabin.
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It takes you a further 45 minutes to calm him down. He is very aggrieved and is making claims
that the teacher shouted at him very close to his face and that she said, ‘I can restrain you if I
want, I’ve done the course’.
You keep him out of lessons for the rest of the morning, supervised by a learning mentor and a
member of the office staff.
At lunchtime a furious teacher finds you and it takes you the full hour to calm her down.
You need to take statements from other children and the teacher, arrange a meeting with the
teacher to negotiate next steps, speak to the parents, run a restorative session, find someone to
look after Ryan until you can resolve the situation, create a timeline, log events and ask the
office staff to send letters.
Calculate how much has all of this cost? Include all staff and administrative costs.
Be ready to present your workings to another group.
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Leading Behaviour Change
Task: What would you choose if the rules were limited to 5?
Filter this chaos of rules into just 5.
No bullying
School starts at 8.45am
Walk on the left
Clean your table when you have finished
Be polite to Midday supervisors
lunch
Be on time
Don’t push into the line say ‘please’ and
Kind feet
‘thank you’
Try your best
One voice at a time
Don’t run in the PE corridor
No knives
Follow instructions
No trolling online
Don’t argue with teachers
Keep hands and feet to yourself
Listen
Be polite
Kind hands
We are kind
No swearing
Try your best
Be respectful
Be resilient
Hold doors for one another
No chewing gum
No phones in lessons
Don’t eat in class
Bring your equipment
You cannot leave the classroom without a
Be ready to learn
hall pass
Stay safe online
Bring all your equipment
Pick up your own litter
Arrive on time every time
No sandwiches or packed lunches to be
Don’t answer back
eaten outside the dining hall
No make up
Wear proper school uniform
One voice at a time
Make sure you have a bag for your books
No sitting in the corridors
Never enter a classroom without a member
of staff
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Interview with the Headteacher of Fochriw Primary School, July 2016
The Pivotal programme has had a massive impact on behaviour in school. Children are
developing a more responsible, thoughtful attitude towards how they behave and conduct
themselves. We have noticed there is a much calmer atmosphere in school. There has also
been a more noticeable change in staff; there is a greater sense of solidarity as we are now all
reading from the same page.
Children respond beautifully to the positive vibes all staff wear ‘yellow smiley faces positive
behaviour badges’ on their lanyards. The children react well to the fair treatment and show a
sense of understanding of repercussions if they do misbehave. They understand and reiterate
our 3 rules only. (As Mrs. Pascoe stated, even our nursery repeat these and understand when
the vision is shared in assembly). We have noticed fewer students lose learning time as they
respond to the three warnings and the script within the classroom.
The lunchtime supervisors have also taken the Pivotal programme fully on board and are now
consistent with their approach to managing behaviour too.
We have measured impact in several ways. We have completed surveys provided by Pivotal as
staff and children have also completed a ‘learner questionnaire’ using specific behaviour
questions. We aim to rerun the questionnaires during the summer term to measure impact from
the baseline at the start of the programme. It has been on the Agenda during staff meetings
where we have reviewed the progress of Pivotal and there is a noticeable difference with the
children who struggled to concentrate and complete work within a set time who are now
completing at a much better pace. Attendance has also been monitored and there is an
improvement in figures and an increase in punctuality. We have conducted a Learning Walk
with the link governor for well-being and 2 of the school’s recently appointed Behaviour
Champions. We have also invested in training using the electronic system SIMS system of
record keeping for behaviour. We will use this data at the end of the summer term to measure
the impact of the programme.
We will continue to push Pivotal forward by embedding the routines and the behaviour
management strategies. The most significant being the development of positivity and rewarding
“good” acts consistently. We have a presentation to governors in the summer sharing our good
practice and the impact of the programme with the Change Maker and Behaviour Champions.
The behaviour policy was re-written with cluster headteachers and reviewed by staff and the
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school council (and governors). This will again be reviewed in the autumn term but with our
Behaviour Champions (who were not in place at the time) taking the lead on the policy review.
The Behaviour Champions are planned to carry out a PowerPoint presentation around classes
explaining the difference between ‘bullying’ and ‘poor behaviour’ as the findings from our initial
survey highlighted this as a way forward.
The biggest challenge for us was during lunchtime. This was when we noticed a huge issue with
behaviour from the children. I prioritised the lunchtime supervisors as needing the most support.
We meet every half term to discuss behaviour and management strategies in line with Pivotal.
To date we have made huge changes during the lunchtime; we have organised a seating plan
for the canteen so that the children sit in the same seats daily and are separated from any
negative influences. The lunchtime supervisors have also developed confidence and have a
voice as they have been given the responsibility of selecting a child from each class to receive a
lunchtime supervisor’s award where they are recognised for their outstanding behaviour during
lunchtime. The ladies are invited into our ‘Celebration assembly’ on a Friday to present their
award. They also have a display board in the canteen. (This, along with other information of
positive improvements on our journey is tweeted regularly to share with parents)
We were thrilled with how well the children adapted to the changes in such a short period of
time. The staff were enthusiastic and keen to pursue the Pivotal initiatives after the Whoosh
day.
It has been completely worth all of the hard work and effort to see the positivity and the
enthusiasm from both children and staff. Initiatives like the script, the meet and greet and the
recognition board are embedded in our daily routine and used consistently throughout the
school by all staff members. Feedback from parents indicate they particularly welcome the
‘phone call’ home. Our 3 positive Pivotal behaviour rules are not as prominent on display (a
suggestion from the ‘Learning Walk’ as collectively the children are aware of them throughout
the school and have almost disappeared. We have also a staff visitor book that has positive
comments regarding the behaviour of the children and these are shared with the children to
continually reinforce positive behaviour.
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Pivotal Education Ltd is an education training consultancy working across
the whole of the UK and internationally. Founded in 2001, Pivotal Education
has always been committed to providing exceptional training and support for
teachers, school leaders and other professionals working with young people.
We are the leading specialists in Behaviour Management and Safeguarding in
the UK. Our aim is simple: to train adults to inspire young people.
Our acclaimed in-house training team work with a huge variety of teachers and
educators in diverse settings. Our live training sends consistent ripples through
your teaching teams, our online training sustains changes in practice and our
licensed instructors scheme embeds lasting cultural change.
From highly successful institutions to those in challenging situations, from
early years to post -16 learners, Pivotal training inspires, motivates and creates
profound cultural change.
Our work extends to 20 countries. We are COBIS (Council of British
International Schools) Approved Consultants.
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Paul Dix
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Ellie Dix
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T +44 (0)20 7000 1735
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