Behaviour Management at Gravesend Grammar School
The school has an official Student discipline policy document which is much more detailed than this summary and warrants a complete read. All policies can be found on the school website. However, the key points are summarised here, along with some additional ideas for help that current new staff have found useful. The children here as a rule are keen and eager to learn. It is your job to stretch, challenge and manage their enthusiasm.
As a new teacher, remember: YOU ARE NOT ALONE
The most important thing to remember at Gravesend Grammar School is that there are plenty of people who are willing and able to help you. The ethos at this school is to share your difficulties with other staff rather than cope alone.
Introduce yourself
Make sure you introduce yourself to the student support team. They are very supportive and know all the students very well. Often they can anticipate your difficulties.
Calm and collected works
If you have to resort to exiting a student from your class, just let them cool down for 5 minutes outside until they want to come back in. This usually works with most students here. After all, they do want to be back in the classroom.
Extra support
Your Subject Leader will also be able to discuss your class lists with you and should be aware of any potential extra needs beforehand.
Make contact with the SENDCo
Make contact with the SENDCo. You can download the most recent SEN lists from Google Drive. Behaviour will be better from those students if you make provision for them in your classroom.
If a student misbehaves regularly
If a student misbehaves regularly in your class, even after you have given them sanctions in line with the behaviour policy, the school recommends speaking to the form tutor. Form tutors willingly become involved and will telephone parents or undertake an investigation across other subject areas to check if the behaviour is across the curriculum.
Urgent support in the classroom
If you need urgent support in the classroom help is also at hand. Send a reliable student to the Head's PA requesting senior management assistance. The response is usually rapid and the student will be removed and dealt with by a member of the senior team. Do not be afraid to use this option if you feel you’ve reached the stage where a student is stopping you from teaching the rest of the class. It is also important that, at the first opportunity, you talk to the student about what has happened and why you took the action you did, as well as give him any work he needs to catch up on, as well as any sanctions he might also incur. (At our school, this is a very rare occurrence!)
New teachers
If you are a new teacher, speak to one of the previous intake who will all share some ideas, dependent upon the year groups and subject area. Also speak to your mentor who has lived through this many times before and has plenty of good advice regarding management of behaviour.
