Research School Network: Start as you mean to go on – the why behind meeting and greeting This blog looks at both the behaviour and academic benefits of meeting and greeting students at the classroom threshold

“Start as you mean to go on” is a phrase that always feels pretty pertinent to me when thinking about teaching. For those of us fortunate enough to observe many lessons, we could probably count on one hand the number of times a lesson has started poorly but been turned around into an ​“outstanding” lesson (for want of a better phrase). The start of a lesson sets the tone, establishes the bar of expectation and helps determine the climate of the classroom.

For this reason, what happens at the start of lessons is something that we spend a lot of time thinking about at Durrington. ​“Do nows”, as we describe them, are actually the focus of our first Teaching Principle in Practice, and over the last two academic years we have had a whole-school focus on ensuring that our ​“do now” activities are consistent and rigorous across the school. Since coming back in September, leadership drops-ins, shout-outs and feedback have focused on the ​“do now” of lessons, while our SPDS (Subject Pedagogy and Development Sessions) have been led by our wonderful curriculum leaders, exploring what effective practice in this area looks like in their subjects.

There has been a sort of organic division in the discussions around what an effective ​“do now” should be. On one side, discussions have focused on the ​“what” of the ​“do now” – i.e. how do we ensure that the content included in the ​“do now” is both accessible for students to work on independently, but also retains an appropriate amount of challenge? And what does effective feedback/​adaptation look like off the back of the ​“do now”?

On the other side, discussions have focused on the ​“how” of ​“do now” delivery – i.e. what are the conditions and routines of a ​“do now” activity? How do we ensure that students are completing retrieval tasks from memory? How do we ensure that all students are participating and doing so quickly on entry into the room?
To support staff with this, the Research School and wider T&L team have created a guidance card with a list of ​“how” features that staff should incorporate into their ​“do now” routines. However, I just want to focus on the evidence behind one of these features: ​“Teachers are on the door and greeting pupils as they enter.”

This is one of the ​“how” elements that I think can be easily overlooked or have its significance questioned. At its most superficial level, it may just seem like a nice thing to do, or perhaps a way of modelling pro-social behaviours to students. But such a superficial consideration of its relevance actually does ​“greeting pupils at the door” a disservice.

There is actually a surprising wealth of research into the beneficial impacts of meeting and greeting students as they enter the room, and the relationship this has with positive lesson starts. Cook et al. (2018) found that positive greetings and interactions with students as they entered the room led to an increase in academic engagement among middle school students of nearly 20%, based on trained observer findings, as well as a near 10% decrease in disruptive behaviour.

Furthermore, Allday et al. (2011) note that a failure to engage promptly in tasks at the beginning of lessons may lead to a delayed start to academic learning and an increased possibility of unwanted behaviours in the classroom. In an earlier study, Allday and Pakurar (2007) found that greeting targeted students at the door of the classroom, followed by a brief positive interaction that communicated expectations, increased on-task behaviour within the first 10 minutes of lessons.

In a small case-study piece of research, Allday et al. (2011) built on this finding, showing that latency to task engagement was also reduced when students were met with a positive interaction at the threshold of the classroom – in other words, they got on with their work more quickly. Considering the time constraints on the school curriculum, this can never be a bad thing. Sandstrom (2023), meanwhile, found that greeting students as they entered the room increased students’ perceptions of their relationship with the teacher and their perception of being recognised. These interactions also appeared to translate into greater interest in and enjoyment of the learning content and were associated with a heightened sense of belonging.

While it is not easy to pinpoint exactly why something seemingly so innocuous as a greeting at the door can have such an influence on pupils’ on-task activity, perhaps such an interaction simply communicates to pupils:

​“I have noticed you, I am pleased you are here and it is now time to get started!”

Let’s be honest: having staff at the door has some obvious benefits. It creates a visible staff presence in the corridors and prompts students to transition from lesson to lesson more quickly, in a calm and orderly manner. It also models the normal societal behaviours we would hope to embed in our students. However, its greater significance should never be underestimated.

We hear a lot about fostering a sense of belonging and recognition in schools at the moment. Understandably, this can sometimes feel a little abstract and even a little unactionable. However, the simple step of meeting and greeting students on the threshold can not only help develop this, but can also have far less visible – yet highly positive – outcomes for students’ speed to and engagement with tasks at the beginning of our lessons.

This allows us to ​“start as we mean to go on”.

Ben Crockett
Co-director, Durrington Research School

Reference List

Allday, R. A., & Pakurar, K. (2007). Effects of teacher greetings on student on-task behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40(2), 317 – 320.

Allday, R. A., Bush, M., Ticknor, N., & Walker, L. (2011). Using teacher greetings to increase speed to task engagement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44(2), 393 – 396.

Cook, C. R., Fiat, A., Larson, M., Daikos, C., Slemrod, T., Holland, C. L., Thayer, A. J., & Renshaw, T. (2018). Positive greetings at the door: Evaluation of a low-cost, high-yield proactive classroom management strategy. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 20(3), 149 – 159.

Sandstrom, G. M. (2023). Even minimal student-instructor interactions may increase enjoyment in the classroom: Preliminary evidence that greeting your students may have benefits even if you can’t remember their names. PLOS ONE, 18(8), e0288166.