Many schools throughout the country have adapted a zero-tolerance policy or very rigid behaviour policies. It has been suggested by many students however, that this does not work for every pupil, and it some very small circumstances, make behaviour worse. Due to this, some schools have modified their policies to ‘flexible consistency,’ meaning that each significant case will be evaluated by a team of educators to identify a ‘plan’ to ensure this does not happen again.
Pupils first attitude
Working on an individual case basis is difficult work; it takes more time, requires a group of teachers/senior leadership to identify the issues and then additional paperwork for a plan of action for the pupil. More work but fair for the pupil. For this exercise to work fully, all staff members need to trust each other to ensure they are putting the pupil first, no matter what the workload.
The few schools that have utilised this have said that after a short period of time, workload decreases as trust between all parties is implicit. This approach will not only improve the communication and trust between colleagues, it will also reap huge benefits for pupils as they are getting individual assistance targeted to them.
What are your behaviour policies like in your school? Do they work?