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What sanctions do you use in your school in relation to pupils’ behaviour? |
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Research taster
Teachers’ sense of well-being rises when they feel there are adequate measures in place for responding to behavioural issues they face. In order better to manage pupils’ needs and behaviours, local authorities and other agencies are working to improve the responses schools are able to make. A key part of this process seems to be looking at behaviour and behaviour policies current in the school to identify where the problems are and how effective the schools responses are when behaviour issues arise.  How appropriate and effective are the behaviour sanctions employed in your school?
Your evidence
You might find it helpful to work with a colleague or your subject/year team to consider the range of sanctions operating in your school. Your starting-point could be a comprehensive list of the sanctions used in your school. Can you classify them into those which are ‘school-wide’ and those which may be used by individual teachers? Can you create a hierarchy of severity for these? From your own observation how are the sanctions applied throughout the school?
You might also find pupils’ views helpful. What is their view of various sanctions? How do they feel when they are punished? Which punishments do they think are most effective? Which least effective? How would they go about dealing with people who break the rules or misbehave? What do you think the key elements of a sanctions policy should be and how can you avoid making it seem as though you are only thinking about poor behaviour?
(Adapted from Reflective Activity 11-3h)
Moving forward
How could you go about using your and your colleagues’ views to improve the sanctions policy for your subject/year team? Would it be possible to approach senior managers to suggest that this issue is put on the whole school agenda? Would it be helpful to ask a behaviour professional to provide direction in applying sanctions? Could you involve parents and pupils in designing and agreeing on a more appropriate sanctions policy?
Find out more
 Hallam, S., Castle, F., Rogers, L., et al (2005) Research and Evaluation of the Behaviour Improvement Programme Research Report RR 702, London: DfES
Halsey, K., Gulliver, C., Johnson, A., Martin K., Kinder, K. (2005) Evaluation of Behaviour and Education Support Teams Research Report RR 706, London: DfES
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