Behaviour Policies

Frustration is at the heart of many a teacher's day. It can manifest itself in many ways:

1. The kids won't listen and aren't taking their education as seriously as they should.
2. There aren't enough hours in the day to do the various tasks you have to do as a teacher.
3. The photocopier's broken and you need a class set of worksheets.
4. Your computer crashes in the middle of an observation.

There are many frustrating issues that go along with being teacher, and probably most jobs in fairness, but my main frustration has to be exclusive to educators:

How some kids essentially get away with everything: doing no work, being rude, smoking, swearing at staff, the list goes on.

Take an example from last week of a child who is regularly in trouble with the police for offences such as burglary, drug dealing, theft in general and wagging school. His home life is extremely settled, or should I say, should be extremely settled. This child's parents have applied for the child to be taken into care because of the carnage that surrounds their every move. This student, whom I attempt to teach when they are there, last week went nose-to-nose with me and called me a "fucking idiot" whilst I was on duty only to go on and threaten a colleague of mine, warning them to watch their back as you never know what might happen.

Both myself and my colleague wrote the incident up, but bright as a button, the student strolls into my lesson the next day. This student doesn't intimidate me in any way, although perhaps that's pretty foolhardy of me considering some of the people they hang around with, and this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. The student clearly feels that they can do what they want, when they want. In fact they threatened another member of staff a day or so later. Nothing's happened.

Not only is this absolutely shocking, but when you see normally nice kids make a mistake or lose their temper and get the full rule book lobbed in their general direction, receiving time in isolation and phone calls home to explain to their parents just how naughty they've been, it makes me wonder why every child isn't misbehaving more. The more you do, the more untouchable you seem to become.

I'm not saying that schools should be excluding every child who sneezes in the wrong part of the corridor, but unless there are consequences for those who misbehave, where's the incentive to toe the line? The government (no surprise there) has made it almost impossible for schools to exclude, although they will obviously claim otherwise. If a school does exclude, it still has to pay for their education. In a climate of decreasing budgets this is not an option for many schools.

What does consulation really mean?

Education in recent times is littered with "consultations", over syllabi, conversion to academy status, the requirement of a free school and various other things.

The Oxford Dictionary definition of the word is below:

Definition of consultation in English

consultation

Pronunciation: /kɒnsəlˈteɪʃ(ə)n/

Translate consultation | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

noun

[mass noun]

• the action or process of formally consulting or discussing:they improved standards in consultation with consumer representatives [count noun]:consultations between all sections of the party
• [count noun] a meeting with an expert, such as a medical doctor, in order to seek advice: a consultation with a homeopathic doctor

Origin:

late Middle English: from Latin consultatio(n-), from the verb consultare (see consult)

Here's a link to the page if you don't believe me: Click Here!

My initial understanding of what "consultation" means is this:
Somebody in management has a new idea that affects everyone so they ask for feedback on the aforesaid idea. People give their feedback, including pointing out stuff that may not work and possibly suggesting improvements. Those in charge then reflect upon these suggestions and amend the new idea where necessary.
The result:
Everyone's feels "ownership" of the idea and it goes relatively well.

In "real life", what does "consultation" actually mean?
Somebody in management has a new idea that affects everyone. They ask for opinions on their new idea because they have to, sometimes by law. People offer suggested improvements. Management totally ignore the suggestions and do what they originally planned.
The result:
The new idea may have some merits, but the suggestions that would have made it a really good idea were ignored, so everyone abandons it as a bad lot all-round, or soldiers on regardless of the consequences, neither of which help anyone.

The problem with consultation from a management point of view however is that people just tend to pick holes in a new idea; the fear of change is a major issue. The trouble is that change is almost always required if you want to move things forward. My gripe with how most "consultation" pans out is that when genuine feedback (ie. that which suggests genuine workable solutions) is almost exclusively ignored. So why bother consulting?

Nothing regarding "consultation" will change though and those affected by the decisions made at management level will feel even more disenfranchised. The argument that if you want your say, then move into management is a tricky one in teaching in that the higher up the food chain you are, the less you teach, which was the original reason for entering the profession in the first place.

Oh well, put up and shut up I suppose.