Behaviour management: techniques and approaches

See how you can support your teachers to brush up on their behaviour management skills and feel more confident – especially if they’re in their early career teacher (ECT) year or struggling with a particular class.

Last reviewed on 5 September 2023
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 10963
Contents
  1. Get to know your pupils, especially those who need extra support
  2. Follow, and rely on, your school behaviour policy
  3. Tell pupils what you expect from them from the start
  4. Create routines for a positive classroom environment
  5. Be kind to yourself, and remind yourself it's a work in progress
  6. Brush up on your knowledge with these toolkits and elearning

This article is about behaviour management in the classroom. To learn more about managing behaviour across your school, read our article about embedding a culture of good behaviour across your school, based on the DfE's behaviour in schools guidance. 

Share the rest of this article with your teachers to support them in developing their behaviour management skills.

Get to know your pupils, especially those who need extra support

First, identify the causes of challenging behaviour

Use our article to help you consider your pupils’ underlying needs and how they may be influencing their behaviour. 

Then, if they need particular support, put in place behaviour plans and pastoral support plans.

Focus on developing positive relationships with your pupils

This doesn’t mean becoming friends with your pupils, or allowing them to get away with bad behaviour to make sure they still like you. Rather, consider:

  • Getting to know your pupils – ask questions to learn about each pupil in your class, like whether they have any pets at home, or what they like to do in their free time 
  • Remembering:
    • What pupils needed help with in the previous lessons, so you can provide extra support to them
    • What they did well in previous lessons so you can remind them and give them a confidence boost

Make notes in your planner or on the seating plan to help you remember these details. It will help pupils to trust and respect you, and can therefore help reduce disruptive behaviour.

Follow, and rely on, your school behaviour policy

This will help you stay consistent in line with your colleagues, and pupils will recognise that you're acting fairly.

If your school policy allows for classroom-specific policies, ask pupils to contribute to this. For example, agree as a class what the consequence for late homework should be, and stick to it when it happens. 

Tell pupils what you expect from them from the start

Put a behaviour charter on the wall, or ask pupils to stick it in the front of their exercise books. Explain your reasoning, and ask pupils to agree to it by signing their name, for example, to help with accountability. 

You could write the charter yourself, use a school-wide one, or create it collaboratively with your pupils. 

Your charter could include:

  • How pupils should speak to you
  • How they should speak to each other
  • Your classroom routines, including starting and finishing a lesson (read about this below)
  • How they should keep the classroom tidy
  • Exercise book rules, including doodling and tearing
  • What happens if they misbehave
  • How they can manage if they’re finding something difficult, e.g. letting you know, or asking for time out

Reinforce these regularly with pupils by referencing your expectations directly, or asking them ‘what do we do when...?’

Create routines for a positive classroom environment

Behaviour management isn’t just for disruptive behaviour or pupils, but also for pupils who shout out the answer, or who just aren’t concentrating.

This means that engagement with lessons is directly linked to behaviour.

Use the routines below to help pupils stay engaged, and to instil a sense of order and consistency in the classroom.

Maintain momentum with your routines, and reflect to see if they're working throughout the year. Don’t change them too often though, as you’ll defeat the purpose.

Have a clear routine to start your lessons

This could mean, for example:

  • Having class monitors hand out books
  • Putting books on desks before the start of the lesson
  • Handing books to pupils as they walk in

The important thing is to do the same thing each time, so pupils know what to expect. 

You could also put up a retrieval practice starter up on the board, or have it printed and ready on the pupils’ desks, so they have something to do while you’re getting the lesson started.

Read about embedding retrieval practice in our other article.

Don't allow room for confusion

Specify how pupils should do something, rather than assuming they'll know how to. For example:

  • "Work on your own to answer the first 3 questions, and then put your pens down"
  • "By raising your hand, who thinks the answer is false?"

Give instructions twice, and ask pupils to repeat them back to you. Check if anyone is not clear about the task before you ask them to begin.

Make your presence known

Walk around the room while pupils are working, rather than staying at the front. This means you can catch any distractions or poor behaviour when it starts, rather than letting it spread, and make pupils aware of your presence.

When helping a pupil, don’t have 1-to-1 conversations with them, but step back and make sure you have a full view of the class. 

This should also allow you to stop poor behaviour with a look (the famous 'teacher glare'!) rather than having to call out the behaviour in front of the whole class and interrupt the lesson.

Make it clear you want quiet

Develop your own methods for asking for quiet. You could use:

  • Rhyming phrases: ‘1, 2, 3, all eyes on me’
  • A countdown: ‘5, pens down, 4, eyes up, 3, stop talking, 2, ready to listen, and 1’
  • A game: ‘if you can hear me, clap once’

Use the same few methods every time so pupils know exactly what to do when you start speaking.

Create smooth transitions to support the next teacher, or your next lesson

End your lessons the same way each time. This requires planning so that your lessons don’t overrun and you have time to end each lesson calmly. It also gives you an opportunity to reflect on the learning with the pupils, and check what you need to revisit next lesson. 

To do this, you could, for example, always end lessons by having pupils:

  • Pack away 5 minutes before the bell
  • Stand behind their desks
  • Do a retrieval practice task, such as an 'Exit Ticket' (ask pupils to retrieve 2 things they learned during their lesson)

Be kind to yourself, and remind yourself it's a work in progress

Poor behaviour doesn't mean you've got it wrong

There are lots of reasons why poor behaviour happens, such as a pupil having unmet special educational needs or something going on at home, or just being hungry and tired in the last lesson of the day.

If it is going wrong, keep calm, take deep breaths and remind yourself:

  • That this happens sometimes
  • Of the techniques you can use
  • That you can ask for help from SLT
  • That you have a policy to fall back on, and that you can escalate

Pick up on effective techniques from your colleagues

Use peer observation and learning walks to see what your colleagues are doing, and try these methods out in your lessons. 

You could also ask a colleague to observe you and pick up on any inconsistencies in your practice to help you improve. 

Plan ahead and practise embedding different techniques. The idea that ‘practice makes perfect’ also applies to teachers, just as you'd encourage your pupils this way.

While you’re finding what works for you and your classes, try not to worry that certain methods haven't worked. Instead, reflect on how it went, and think about why something might not have been successful – this will help you adapt for next time, if necessary.

Ask for CPD on behaviour management if you need it

It isn’t a sign of weakness – even the most experienced teachers might need some new tools. 

If your school has a Whole School membership of The Key, access our CPD resources on behaviour management, including video case studies on:

Brush up on your knowledge with these toolkits and elearning

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation

Use these resources, along with our template, to create positive behaviour support plans.

The charity also offer workshops and other resources to support dealing with challenging behaviour.

North Lincolnshire Council

North Lincolnshire has a behaviour toolkit for schools. It was developed to help schools support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, but it could be used for any pupil in any setting. The toolkit includes a behaviour assessment tool and classroom environment audit.

Read more about behaviour management for pupils with emotional and learning needs in our other article.

Restorative Thinking

Find out how to develop a restorative approach to behaviour management with elearning from Restorative Thinking. Speak to your leaders to look into signing up your school.

Learn more about restorative practice for behaviour management in our other article.

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