Binary Behaviour - allowing the engine room to excel.

Behaviour policies can divide the teaching profession. One only has to look through blogs and Twitter feeds to see what a polarising issue it can be. Steve Adcock of United Learning has recently written an excellent article on the “scourge of low level disruption.” Allowing poor behaviour of any kind rewards the naughty students and, crucially, means the others are a silent majority who don’t learn. Parents can get upset with a strict behaviour system when their child is on the receiving end – forgetting to empathise with parents of students who are behaving but not learning when there is a disruptive element in the classroom. It is undeniably true that poor behaviour inhibits the learning of students in the classroom. However, I would argue that poor behaviour inhibits learning in many more ways than meet the eye.

I am very fortunate to work in a school where low level disruption is not tolerated; students behave or they leave the lesson. The system, known as binary behaviour, is simple, easy to enforce and followed consistently by all staff. These, I would argue, are the tests for any good behaviour policy. 

The lack of low level disruption has been wonderfully liberating as a classroom teacher but I think where I have noticed the greatest impact is in my role as a middle leader. All too often middle leadership roles can be bogged down in a mixture of departmental detentions, constant phone calls home and extensive behaviour related interventions. The lost hours of lost learning have to be made up later, typically through Year 11 interventions. These cause needless stress to staff and can lead to burn-out, particularly for those middle leaders who have to coordinate these interventions. Middle leaders are often described as the ‘engine room’ of a school; the people who should be implementing the school’s vision and driving school improvement. This cannot happen if the engine is constantly hampered by the grind of poor classroom behaviour.

Working in a school with such a strong behaviour system allows me and my team to focus all of our efforts on sustainable, long term change in the department; concentrating on areas we believe really matter to student outcomes. Firstly, a high quality implemented curriculum, which I believe is the cornerstone of any successful department, can be our primary focus. Without the scourge of poor behaviour we can design, implement and review the curriculum regularly as a department. We can focus on the design of renewable resources that should last for years, rather than on extensive interventions that only benefit a few students in the short term.

Another key priority for any department leader is to improve the quality of teaching and learning. In the past my lesson feedback would get distracted with a focus on behavioural issues. Now the discussions I have around classroom teaching focus on the fundamentals of high quality science teaching.  For example, feedback may now focus on how to explain that tricky concept, the best way to model a calculation or how to improve the quality of questioning. Teachers can take this feedback on board without the worry of not being able to implement it. Teachers can practice, focus and refine their skills without the constant distraction of poor behaviour. Therefore, observing lessons and coaching teachers become far more productive activities for both the teacher and observer.

Finally, I believe binary behaviour has allowed me to develop as leader. It means I am not constantly trying to react to problems; it keeps me from spending too much time in ‘quadrant 1.’ It allows me to focus on the important but non urgent matters that are essential for good leadership. It makes it easier to be strategic and enact long terms plans to make sustained difference to the students we teach.

Strong behaviour systems will continue to divide opinion. However, from my experience I can say the following: our system allows teachers to teach their subject in the way that they think is best. It gives departments time and space to develop and improve things that will make a long term sustainable change. It accelerates the rate of teacher improvement, through ‘noise free’ coaching and mentoring. All of these will benefit the students in our care and improve outcomes and life chances as a result.

Graham Dakin