Behaviour Management

Miss Hayley and Miss Jane are both responsible for Behaviour Management and can support staff, children and families in promoting good behaviour, develop self-discipline, respect and self-regulation and prevent bullying.

Important factors to consider when reviewing a child’s behaviour:

  • think about what stressors the child might be dealing with

  • work alongside the child to help them understand their emotions/feelings

  • give the child the language to name their feelings and understand their behaviour

There’s always a reason for the way a child may behave and we use various methods and resources to unpick and understand what may be causing unwanted behaviours. Once we have begun to understand some of the reasons for specific behaviours it can be easier to understand how to support the child to behave differently.

Miss Hayley’s Top Tip - 1
If the negative behaviour is a one off - ignore

Miss Hayley’s Top Tip - 2
Approach with questions such as:
Where did you hear that word?
or
Do you know what that word means?

(Offer alternative magic words that child can use then they have that feeling)

Miss Hayley’s Top Tip - 3
If the negative behaviour is done out of anger, its best to try and speak to the feeling, not address the word, such as:
”Wow, I see you’re having really big feelings right now, you seem like you are upset, you seem like you are angry, can you tell me more?”

(Try and find out what’s beneath those words)

Miss Hayley’s Top Tip - 4
Children need to be heard in order to hear us and to hear our lessons, on a 1:1 basis you could say:

”I understand you are upset about xxx, that word is a strong work that can be hurtful and make others sad and hurt their feelings”

or

“I understand you were upset about xxx (find out what actually happened in that moment to understand why the child used that word)

Miss Hayley’s Top Tip - 5

  • Educating on the word and why it isn’t a nice/kind word to use

  • Overall message on why that word upsets you

  • Are there other ways of helping the child manage their frustrations in a healthy way (take a break, tell the xxx no, can they move away and get help

  • Ask the child:
    Does this makes sense?
    Do you understand?
    We can handle this together

Miss Hayley’s Top Tip - 6
Role play a new situation with what you want the child to do with new choices and then swap over so both teacher/parent and child takes on both roles. Tell the child that your not judging them and that you are going to be partners - great book to use is ‘What should Danny Do’ (great support for making good choices)

Top Tips for managing unwanted negative language