Research School Network: Behaviour Twilight at Ash Grove Academy A summary of the Behaviour Twilight event in October 2020

Being held at Ash Grove Primary, on Tuesday 8^th October, was the first twilight session this year offered by Aspirer Research School. Each twilight session looks at a different guidance report from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and there are many others coming up. Keep an eye on the events section for more information

This session was looking at the Improving Behaviour in School Guidance Report (found here) and was led by Jane Bateman from Underwood West Academy. Jane was a member of the advisory panel for the report and she brought this knowledge and expertise to the session.

Jane started by explaining that the guidance report was a starting point and how it is important that we adapt it to meet the needs of our children. She explained that evidence + professional expertise = evidence-informed practice and that we must remember all the skills and experience that we have to offer.

She spent time talking about the 4 proactive recommendations and how these are vital to building strong, positive relationships with our children. These are all the decisions and strategies we put in place to reduce the need to manage any misbehaviours. These could be 

• Greeting children at the door;
• having reward systems,
• using the EMR method (a great blog here https://www.characterstrong.co… about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
• explicitly talking about what good behaviour should look like
• explicit praise – well done for sitting up straight, listening and giving good eye contact
• using the ratio 5:1, 5 positive comments for every negative comment you give a child

Jane then talked about recommendation 5 – the ​‘reactive’. She explained how behaviour systems need to match the needs of the child whilst supporting the school’s behaviour policy. 

Finally, recommendation 6​‘consistency is key’ is all about the implementation of behaviour strategies and policies in school. These need to be consistent so children are hearing the same language from adults, they are watching the same body language from adults and they are building a range of relationships across the school.

The session was really useful to gain an overview of the report and it encourages you to go and look at the evidence behind the report in more detail. If you missed this session, there is another one taking place soon, check the events page for updated information.