365 ways to improve your school – behaviour (301-311)

Ani Magill, Headteacher at St John the Baptist School, Woking, has compiled almost 400 tips that could help you to improve your school. They are split into 5 groups: leadership; learning and teaching; achievement; behaviour; general.

Ani would like to remind you that you shouldn’t view the tips as a panacea for school improvement – they are simply ideas that have worked at St John the Baptist. Bearing this in mind, here are her behaviour tips 301-311…

301. It’s so important to try to get parents on side. Investing the time early on saves hours later. Many hard to reach families have had a bad experience of school themselves so make sure their first experience is positive – visit them if necessary. People are very rarely rude to you in their own home.

302. Have a system to ensure that 100% of children get a positive phonecall/email/letter home every term. This will have a huge impact on behaviour.

303. Have house competitions for teachers and support staff. They are great fun and build community. Do a staff triathlon and get everyone together – department teams, sixth-form teams, and individuals.

304. Ensure everyone is in a house – governors, catering staff etc. Get them all badges. Create a sense of identity.

305. Ensure that house competitions have a wide range of activities so every child has something they can contribute to, not just sport eg Family Fortunes, Egg Heads.

306. Put photos up at the start of the month for each subject in curriculum areas. Eg ‘Mathematician of the Month’. Some departments use Photoshop for superimposing students’ faces over Einstein for ‘Scientist of the Month’, Oscars in Media etc.

307. Use the TV screens around school for praise, football match reports, photos of trips etc rather than reminders or nags.

308. Provide PE equipment, footballs, hoops, ropes, at break and lunch – it saves arguments and gets that excess energy run off. Outdoor basketball hoops work really well.

309. Try to establish links with the football club(s) that the students support. Get players to visit the school or take the students on a tour of the club stadium for prizes.

310. Use your parents for connections to get prizes the children will like – we managed to get a signed photo of Lewis Hamilton. Everyone knows someone!

311. Year group forms are a self-fulfilling prophecy – keep telling them they are the best year 7 the school has ever had and it will come true.

SSAT’s High Performance Leadership programme (in conjunction with NASA, HSBC and Phillips) launches on 17th October.

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