Leveraging learning behaviours: maximising opportunities for all pupils

It’s early afternoon and the class has, finally, settled. Jon and Chris have stopped prodding each other with their pens, Alex and Grace have ceased gossiping about whatever happened at lunchtime, and Chloe is no longer shouting out. Mischief has successfully been managed and everyone can get on with their work.

But across the classroom, very quietly, something is up with Alex.

Over the next fifteen minutes, under the radar, he achieves nothing except some innovative graffiti on his pencil case.

When we talk about ​‘behaviour’ in schools, we often mean ​‘poor behaviour’. In the June 2022 National Behaviour Survey, teachers reported that, on average, for every 30 minutes of lesson time, 6.3 minutes were lost due to misbehaviour. Our time and attention in the classroom is frequently spent tackling this.