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I listened to some statistics from Stephen Fry on QI the other night about levels of punishment in the USA and was amazed at how high it was, particularly for ethnic groups. I think he quoted 1 in 9 black men are in prison and in addition they have a 'three strikes and out' programme which means a custodial sentence for your 3rd offence, whatever it might be.

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Paul Dix, 40, taught for 10 years before setting up Pivotal Education in 2001 with a colleague. He specialised in behaviour management and has built up a substantial business. Recently, he was invited in to Portslade, a secondary school and sixth-form centre in the suburbs of Brighton. Last year, and the year before, only 25% of its GCSE students achieved the benchmark of five A*-C grades including English and maths It was placed in the government's National Challenge programme as a result, and… Continue

Just in time is a term more recently used by the manufacturing industry to describe a process which improves a company's work flow by reducing the stock held for manufacturing. This improves costs and keeps down overheads.
So how does this apply to behaviour management?

Well I think it works very well in schools too. For many schools, particularly those in challenging contexts, one of the key areas of focus is in emotional wellbeing. Schools work hard to grow this asp… Continue

Is it really compatible to have a successful classroom with lots of fun as well? For me, they are inextricably linked. Fun and learning need to go together. If the learning isn't fun, then it's really difficult to become engaged in the process and as a consequence, deep learning, getting lost in the process, is much less likely to happen.

What about the side effects, perhaps seen as undesirable to some? Noise, disorder and movement in the classroom seem to be contrary to… Continue

I know I've been an advocate of pupils having some choice about how they resolve issues that arise in the school environment, but one over-riding factor is getting them back into the learning environment. For some of the time, this may be a learning environment outside the classroom, but more beneficially, it will be within the four walls of your teaching area.
In the beginning, some teachers may need this outside coaching, but over time, they will devel… Continue