Research taster
Appropriate and effective behaviour strategies are now seen, in many schools, as being just as important as the national literacy and numeracy strategies.  As a result, staff teams have worked together to draw up new behaviour policies that are more focused on children’s needs rather than behaviour itself.
Your evidence
Working in a pair or small group you might find it useful to explore the range of children’s behaviours which you are looking for and those you find unacceptable as they learn, play, move about the school and interact with other children and adults.
You could then conduct discussions with a group of pupils. During the discussions you may find it helpful to share ideas about “good”, “quiet”, “polite”,” helpful” and “learning oriented” behaviour and about the meaning of words such as “naughty”, “noisy” and “rude.”
What affects your level of tolerance? For example, does it change at different times of the day? Is it affected by your health and well-being? How might you deal with such fluctuations and disruptions?
Moving forward
Can you find a way to create and display a ‘Line of Acceptance’ based on your own, your colleagues’ and your pupils’ views about behaviour that facilitates learning? Could you share this activity with your pupils and plan a way to represent it visually so that behaviours can be placed above or below the line depending on the situation and on your level of tolerance?
Would you also find it useful to record when you find it might be necessary to make changes in position of the line of acceptance for particular activities? Would you be able to monitor the outcomes of using the display and discuss what happened with colleagues?
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
Maines, B. (1991) Coping with Challenging Behaviour in the Primary School. Redland Centre for Primary Education, with permission of University of West England.
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