Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

Withitness stems from keen observation and the recognition of behavioural patterns, both within the whole class and for individual students. It’s about reading the room and proactively spotting potential problems. This allows the withit teacher to prevent or quickly address issues before they escalate. By knowing what’s going on and actively managing the classroom, the withit teacher significantly reduces the likelihood of misbehaviour even starting. The opposite of withitness is ‘withoutitness’. In this instance, the teacher will have a poor idea of what their students are doing or might do, and the students know it. As youmight expect, this unfortunately puts the teacher on the behaviour management back foot. Consequently, these teachers tend to be reactive, rather than proactive – responding to misbehaviour in the moment, rather than taking a preventative or strategic approach. They’re also slow to intervene, which means the misbehaviour invariably worsens and thus becomes evenmore difficult to deal with. Tip 5. Followthe policy The teachers who are best at behaviour management will further know their school’s behaviour management policy in exhaustive detail – inside out, upside down and back to front. This gives them a detailed knowledge of the school rules, standards of expected behaviour, criteria for warnings and consequences, and the forms of support available to them, including on-call. When they act in accordance with their school’s behaviour policy, they will do so decisively and with confidence. Teachers who are shaky about its content won’t. Inevitably, they’ll tend to misapply the policy – both under- and overusing it, and wielding it incorrectly. Moreoever, because they have a poor understanding of this crucial document, they may begin to doubt themselves when challenged by a student. They might start thinking, “ Well, maybe the student’s right. Maybe it’s not a C3. Maybe it is a C2... ” This will only further deplete their confidence and effectiveness. There’s an interesting paradox here, too. Those teachers who apply the policy correctly will tend to use its formal elements (warnings, consequences, on-call measures) far less. This is because the students are seeing the teacher consistently apply the policy, thus prompting them to modify their behaviour accordingly. Put simply, there’s less motivation for them to misbehave if any and all incidents of misbehaviour are promptly dealt with. Behaviour management is a team sport that requires all teachers to pull in the same direction and do things in the same way. The behaviour policy is the school’s way of achieving that end. If teachers don’t follow the policy – either because they don’t know it, or because they’re inclined to act on the parts they agree with and ignore the bits they don’t – then they risk weakening the document and undermining their colleagues. Consequently, the whole team loses. So there you have it – the 5 Super Tips. The remaining tips in the book are equally impactful, and are intended to help you create a calm, safe and respectful learning environment. They also go into much greater detail, breaking down the approaches that the best teachers use step-by- step – so over the coming months, look out for them appearing in Teach Secondary ’s regular Learning Lab section. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robin Launder is a behaviour management trainer and speaker; this article is based on an extract from his book, Brilliant Behaviour in 60 Seconds or Less (Routledge, 2025); for more information, visit behaviourbuddy.co.uk 25 teachwire.net/secondary B E H AV I O U R