Unlike almost every other teaching skill, there is a widely held view that the ability to manage behaviour is something you are simply born with — like being tall or being able to roll your tongue. Because of this, many people are reluctant to admit they are struggling and could do with some help.
The truth: Behaviour management skills can be learned.
The fear is that mentioning behaviour will unleash a torrent. Once people start talking about it, they will talk about how leadership does not support teachers properly, about inconsistencies across the school, about which students get away with things they shouldn't. And so on.
The truth: If it has been a while since you addressed behaviour, the floodgates probably will open. That is a necessary and unavoidable step towards improvement. And they are talking about it anyway.
Given their home lives, it could be argued that your school does an amazing job just keeping them in the building.
The truth: We shape children's reality. Whatever the challenge, things can always be improved. Miracles do happen — the myth is that they happen overnight.
It is an old argument: if lessons are engaging enough, behaviour looks after itself.
The truth: Learning behaviours need to be taught. Good lessons help — but they are not a substitute for a clear, consistent approach.
I agree to an extent. Teachers should have the support they need to be effective. But that support depends on all staff agreeing to a short list of simple, school-wide protocols. Good relationships need rules.
If school leadership isn't talking about behaviour, the rest of the staff are — which is exactly why it matters who leads the conversation.
When I deliver whole-school training, my main aim is to start a conversation. To help schools focus on the essential decisions they need to make to improve behaviour. If leadership is not leading that conversation, someone else is — and the outcome is rarely the one anyone intended.
Let's start talking about behaviour.