The following list represents the features that the pupils said they most wanted to see in ‘their

best teacher’. They were, in no particular order:

 They treat us in a courteous, friendly manner

 They acknowledge it when we do something right
 They know how to have a laugh
 They give out information in a fun and interesting way
 They trust us
 They’re firm and fair with the same rules for all
 They are always in control
 They are there for us, they care, they listen

As I said, no surprises; yet it took me a long time to realise just how important this short
list really is and why it is the key to both preventing and dealing with behaviour problems in the
classroom.
Years after compiling my little questionnaires it dawned on me that the reason these teachers
were having such an easy time in the classroom was not only because they provided interesting
lessons and were firm and fair. There is an important reason why the key attributes listed above,
taken as a whole, are so effective in preventing problems and making students feel content: they
satisfy three crucial psychological needs.
Most people will be familiar with Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory. It suggests that
we all have basic needs and that once a group of needs is met or satisfied, we move up to the
next level. The lowest level consists of our most basic needs - shelter, food and water. Our needs
for safety are the next level. Then we progress into the realms of psychological needs, under
which heading psychologists list a wide variety of needs – from the need to achieve through the
need to contribute, to the need for love and a whole host of others in between. These
needs must be met in order for a human being to feel content and ‘whole’.
At Needs Focused Teaching we’ve broken down these psychological needs into just three groups
to make life easy. Let me explain what the three groups are and why they are so crucially
important to classroom management.
The first group of needs falls under the heading ‘Empowerment’ and includes:
recognition, freedom, autonomy, achievement, contribution, choice and competence.
Second is the need for ‘Fun’ and includes:
the need for curiosity, interest, growth and learning, adventure, amusement, surprise, variety.
Finally is the need to ‘Belong’:
to be accepted, valued, appreciated, needed, related to or connected with something beyond
oneself.
Consider the following scenario: imagine if you will a thoroughly boring lesson. You know the
type I mean – a teacher handing out worksheet after worksheet, standing at the front of the room,
like a shop-window dummy going through the motions. There is no engaging warm-up activity
to grab the attention, no variety in terms of lesson tasks or level of challenge, no novelty or
intrigue, no humour, no laughter, no sense of discovery, no interaction or movement around the
room, no music, no curious props, no energiser, and no attention given to differing learning
styles. It’s the kind of lesson that makes kids want to get up and walk out.
What happens in a lesson like this? You guessed it: students misbehave.
Remember, our psychological needs are crucial to us and must be satisfied – they are a primeval,
subconscious thirst which must be quenched and as important to us as water and sunlight are to a
plant. If the teacher doesn’t provide a means to meet these needs as part of regular day-to-day
practice, students will seek satisfaction in less appropriate ways of their own devising.
In other words if you don’t give them fun, they’ll make their own fun. (And that will include
antics such as throwing things round the room, being generally disruptive and then filming you
with their mobile ‘phones before putting you on Youtube when you get annoyed. Great fun). If
you don’t give them a sense of Power, they will assert themselves in their own way. (It’s very
empowering to argue with the teacher). And if you don’t make them feel valued they will opt
out, form trouble-making splinter groups and bonds with the other ‘misfits’.
Throughout this mini-course we will present ways of satisfying the three needs in order to help
you prevent a large proportion of problems from ever arising in your classroom. I call it the
Needs Focused Approach™. I don’t claim that all your problems will be solved but by adopting
the strategies and ideas that follow you will definitely see a dramatic reduction in the number of
incidents you’re currently dealing with on a daily basis.
We will look at ways of making students feel a sense of belonging – by making them feel part of
the classroom community, by strengthening peer relationships and by building positive, mutually
respectful student-teacher bonds.
We will look at ways of empowering students by providing them with realistic chances to
achieve and experience success, by giving them a degree of autonomy and choice and by
ensuring their efforts are recognised and acknowledged.
And we will look at ways of improving motivation in lessons by making lessons more interactive
and appealing, more stimulating, more relevant and more fun.
******************************************************************************

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUNkILSQxHU :

- See problem students as students with problems

- Use positive strategies

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Yesterday I introduced the idea of satisfying needs to prevent classroom behaviour problems.
It’s a sensible idea - to manage behaviour problems the easiest way, by preventing them
happening in the first place. We’ll be covering methods for actually dealing with your biggest
classroom management problems later on in the course but for now let’s look at preventing as
many as we can.
We’re going to start by satisfying the need to belong. Have you noticed that you tend to feel
better about yourself when you’re surrounded by supportive friends? It’s the same you’re your
students. They will work best and cause least problems when they feel they are part of
a community in which they feel accepted and in which their individuality is encouraged. By
definition a community is a group of people who work with one another building a sense of trust,
care, and support. This means that in our classrooms, part of our job is to provide opportunities
and structures by which students can work collaboratively and support and help one another.
Here are two good ways to build classroom community: Student Meetings and Team-Building
activities.
1. Student Meetings
Student meetings are valuable tools for handling issues that arise and for finding out what is
working for your students, and for seeking ideas about how things can improve in areas that
are not working. They are also perfect for building bonds with your students (which we’ll talk
more about tomorrow). Meetings can be arranged on a 1:1 basis or by assigning students to small
‘focus groups’ of 4-5.
During a student meeting the main objective is to convince students that this is an opportunity for
them to have a voice - a chance to talk about issues which are bothering them and to put
forward their own ideas for how things could improve.
Important: The purpose of the meetings is not to apportion blame or complain about lack of
work, rather to solicit ideas for improvement from the students and to talk about what is working
(“we’ll do more of these activities…”) and what isn’t working (“we’ll do fewer of these
activities…. or seek to improve them”).
Student meetings should be held regularly – at least once a month – to get most benefit from
them.
2. Team-building activities
The benefits of team-building exercises and getting-to-know-you activities in relation to
developing peer relationships and classroom community are well known. They provide
opportunities for individual students to develop communication skills, appreciate each other’s
strengths and capabilities and, most importantly in terms of community building, bond with each
other. Activities can be incorporated into lessons as aids to learning or can be scheduled as one-
off lessons or starter activities. Time spent off curriculum on these activities is never wasted and
will be paid back in terms of increased motivation, improved morale and better relationships.
To find suitable activities just google the term ‘team-building activities’. Most activities of this
nature have been designed for the corporate world but can be adapted to all areas of the
curriculum with minimal modification.
Here are a couple of examples of Team-Building Activities from some of my teacher resource
packs.
The great thing about these activities is that students find them fun to take part in. Getting your
most challenging students interested in any activity in the classroom (even one not strictly related
to the curriculum) is a tremendous first step in changing negative attitudes and once they see that
the classroom can be interestingand enjoyable, you have a foundation for growth and further
learning.
******************************************************************************

Today I'm going to tell you about what I consider to be the best method to help you prevent,
minimise and deal with behaviour problems in school:

…building positive staff/student relationships.

There are several reasons why I believe positive staff-student relationships to be so important.
Firstly, when you really get to know a pupil you become aware of their triggers - the things that
upset them and result in problems in class. And when you're dealing with children who carry all
kinds of emotional baggage and flare up for no apparent reason, this is vital. You know what to
look out for and can plan accordingly. Stopping behaviour problems from occurring is much
easier when you know what causes them.
Secondly, when you reach out and get to know any child in school you show them they're
valued. Kids need to feel valued, supported, loved. Once they see that you're there for them and
respect them as individuals they will, in turn, respect and trust you. They will respond more
positively to a teacher they trust and respect.
Thirdly, when you form positive relationships with your students their ability to take an active
role in other positive relationships is improved; they fit in better with their peers and so are less
likely to need to ‘act up’ to get attention.
The problem is, how do we go about building relationships with challenging students? It’s fine
talking about all this – most people agree that this is crucial stuff - but how do we actually make
it happen rather than just play lip service to it?
If you think about it all relationships have communication at their heart. You can’t have a
relationship of any kind unless communication is involved in some form so it’s not surprising we
have poor relationships with our most challenging students; they’re usually among the last
people we ‘chat along nicely’ with.
Okay, so we need to talk with them, but getting them to open up and wanting to talk is a huge
hurdle to overcome. Striking up a conversation with your average, maladjusted 14 year old is
difficult especially when you don’t know them very well. It’s the vicious circle: you can’t get to
know them until you have something to talk about, and you have little to talk about with them
until you get to know them better. We need a way of finding out their interests.
People enjoy talking about things they’re actually interested in and your students, even the most
challenging ones, are no different. Once you know their passions you can easily strike up
conversation with them - you have a subject to chat about which will interest and engage them.
The problem, of course, is finding out what their hobbies and interests are in the first place. So
how do we discover these? We could just ask them but as we know already, they may not be too
keen to open up if we have no relationship in place to start with. We need a less invasive way of
discovering their interests.
What to do with the results: Here are some of the ways you can use the information:

 Increase the effectiveness of spontaneous rewards by tailoring them to appeal to pupils’

interests (if you have a pupil who's nuts about a certain breed of dog there's no point in
giving her a sticker with a car on it!). I’ll explain all about ‘spontaneous rewards’ later
in this series.
 Provide appealing reading material for break times, quiet reading sessions, registration -
magazines, journals and books that relate to their specific areas of interest.

 Plan really interesting lessons. You might choose to plan a series of lessons for the
whole class around a topic that several pupils are interested in, or cover a skill such as
narrative writing and encourage them to write a story about their subject of interest.
 Use them as a relationship-building tool. They enable you to strike up conversation on a
topic you know they're interested in and this is crucial with 'hard to reach' kids - it
shows you care about them and are interested in them.

******************************************************************************

Today we're going to look at a well-known means of encouraging students to work hard and to
repeat appropriate behaviour – praise and encouragement.
We all know that young people given praise for positive behaviour are more likely to repeat that
good behaviour and less inclined to seek attention in inappropriate ways. If there’s one thing I’m
sure of it’s that there is not a child on the planet who, deep down, doesn’t want to succeed; and if
you’re the one who consistently recognises their efforts and their successes they will respond to
you.
In fact I’ll go as far to say that you should ignore anyone who tells you this doesn’t work.
Without doubt, one of the flat-out, very best methods for getting any student on side is to show
acknowledgement when they do something right, do something well, or manage to do something
they have previously struggled with.
But this is common sense, you already know this.
There have been countless studies on the effects of praise showing that levels of on-task
behaviour increase as teachers rates of praise increase and you’ll have been told a million times
that ‘all you have to do to get kids to behave properly is simply to tell them how well they are
doing when they do something right’.
So why doesn’t it work?
There is a lot more to effective praise than just saying ‘well done’ and in this mini-course I’m
going to share with you some ideas for making this strategy much more effective and to instantly
get students on your side.
First we need to first look at some of the reasons why praise doesn’t work as well as we intend:
1. Praise only really works if the person giving it is respected by the student they’re
praising.
If a member of staff has neither a high-perceived status in the school, nor the respect of the
students, praise from them will have little positive effect. In fact, it can have the opposite effect
and can even be seen as quite embarrassing. The obvious strategy in this case is
to improve status and gain more respect by working on the key features we mentioned in part
one of this course. Once a level of mutual respect has been reached, praise will have the desired
effect.
2. Some students just can’t handle being praised in public.
On more than one occasion I’ve seen lovely pieces of work being torn up and ruined by the same
student that created them simply because a staff member has congratulated them on their efforts.
The way to avoid this is to offer praise privately, thereby avoiding peer pressure. Perhaps take
the pupil to one side or catch them at the end of the lesson to have a quiet word. This has the
added advantage of seeming to be more sincere because of the extra attention the child receives.
3. Excessive praise can have an adverse effect on students.
The ‘anti-praise’ lobby believe students can become dependent on the appreciation of adults and
that praise therefore does little to develop confidence in their own abilities. Excessive praise,
they say, will increase a student’s apprehension in the face of new tasks; anxiety that they may
not meet the teacher’s expectations (“Is my picture alright Miss Smith? Have I done this bit right
Miss Smith?”); and ultimately disappointment if they fail (and consequently receive less praise
than they were hoping for).
4. Excessive praise can lead to diminished student motivation.
Students who are lavishly over-praised for routine effort tend to opt for less challenging tasks -
perhaps in fear of not succeeding, or perhaps in the knowledge that they will have praise heaped
upon them anyway - even for minimum effort. This is certainly something to think about when
we are encouraged (by government drives and other members of staff) to smother the classroom
in as many “well done”, “brilliant” and “very good” comments as possible to create a more
‘positive classroom environment’.
5. Praise can actually encourage inappropriate behaviour.
This is interesting. Very often, little concern is given to the driving factors which may lie beneath
a students’ behaviour and it is entirely possible to reward and encourage inappropriate behaviour
which is prompted by ulterior motives. Consider this example:
Let’s say Jonny (known for his dramatic outbursts when provoked by classmates) is sitting
quietly in class, and Big George is needling him with unsavoury comments about his mum.
On this occasion Jonny displays remarkable self control and manages to ignore Big George –
partly because he is helped by Peter and Paul who both jump to his aid with positive comments:
“Just ignore him Jonny, he’s just trying to wind you up”.
Because mature behaviour like this needs to be acknowledged the teacher praises both Peter and
Paul for being so considerate and helping to avert what would normally have resulted in a messy
scuffle between Jonny and George. But what if Peter was acting out of genuine concern for his
friend Jonny’s welfare and didn’t want to see him get into trouble, whereas Paul was deliberately
manipulating the teacher? What if Paul had been in trouble all week himself and had come to
Jonny’s aid purely to get in the teacher’s good books?
In the above example both Paul and Peter received positive recognition. If the psychological
belief that ‘behaviour which is positively reinforced is more likely to be repeated’ is true, then
Peter will repeat caring, considerate behaviour and Paul will become increasingly manipulative.
That is quite an argument against praise but don’t worry, it’s not all bad news. I firmly believe
‘praise and encouragement’ is one of your most powerful preventive classroom management
tools and tomorrow I’ll give you some ideas to make it much more effective.

******************************************************************************

Yesterday we were talking about some of the ineffective and counterproductive ways praise is
often used in schools and the unwelcome results it can bring. Today we're going to look some
ways of making praise and encouragement much more effective so that it creates the kind of
positive changes you want to see in your challenging students.
1. Watery praise doesn’t wash! If you want praise to work you’ve got to make it
SPECIFIC.
Let’s start by making a concerted effort to stop using wishy-washy praise comments like “well
done”, “excellent” and “very good”. It’s not that I’ve got anything against the words themselves
but when they are handed out like candy in the classroom in a weak attempt to create a ‘positive
environment’ I fully believe they are a complete waste of time and actually cause more problems
than they prevent.
The problem is that these comments are just too vague. Real praise comes from genuinely
noticing when a student puts effort into something or has managed to complete something they
wouldn't normally manage. Giving thoughtful, specific recognition demonstrates that you are
taking real notice in what they are doing – a throw away “well done” doesn’t.
If you want to improve the behaviour of students using praise the comments you use must be in
FULL recognition of what they’ve done right. By that I mean praise needs to be SPECIFIC.
You need to tell them exactly what they did and exactly why it was good. Like this…
"Paul, stand back and look at what you've done... this is a fantastic portrait! What really sets this
apart is the way you've made that eye come to life by showing the light reflecting here. That
really makes it look realistic. And the texture you’ve got on the hair is superb."
Doesn't that sound better than a wishy-washy statement like "Very good Paul"?
Here’s another:
"John you’ve sat quietly for the last 10 minutes and got on with your work. That's great because
I've been able to go and help other pupils and I haven't needed to shout at you. Well done you’ve
shown you can work independently!"
In both cases the teacher is telling the student WHAT they've done and WHY they should be
pleased with themselves. i.e. they are giving SPECIFIC praise.
2. Praise effort rather than achievement
By focusing on effort rather than achievement we can praise a student even if they fail - and
that’s very important. Waiting for a child to complete a task before praising them means missing
out on untold opportunities to encourage them along the way.
If a friend was dieting you wouldn’t wait until they had reached their target weight before
making positive comments, would you? You’d help them along the way with encouragement,
because acknowledging their effort helps them stick in and persevere and, importantly, can help
them overcome or avoid frustration.
“Jason you are working well on this. What you’ve done so far is spot on.”
“You’ve tried so hard, you’ve really showed determination there”.
3. Avoid personal judgements
We’ve already discovered that praise can make some students dependent on the adult giving the
praise and that they can modify their behaviour solely to please the teacher. This is particularly
common when a statement of praise involving a personal judgement from the teacher is directed
to a power-oriented student - when they see the person giving the praise as the person with all
the power, there is a conflict.
Rather than judging students by telling them what we think of their efforts we should be
encouraging them to reflect on their own efforts. The following statement illustrates what I
mean: “I really like what you’ve done here” is a judgment which encourages the student to be
dependent on the view of the teacher whereas “You should be proud of what you’ve done
here” is more likely to encourage independence and self motivation.
4 . Praise comes from the heart – FLATTERY comes from the TEETH. If you want praise
to change a child they’ve got to feel it - it has to be SINCERE.
Most students can recognise fake praise from a hundred yards away - and they don’t like it. If
you can‟t say it with honesty, it‟s best not to say anything at all. Remember: praise comes from
the heart, flattery comes from the teeth.
5. Be aware that praise is often more effective on a 1:1 basis
Some students (a surprisingly large proportion) don‟t like receiving praise in front of other
people. For whatever reason – some just can‟t accept compliments very well - you have more
chance of your praise being well-received if you give it out of earshot of the rest of the students.
Catch them on the way out of the door or call them over to a quiet corner of the room. Praise is
much more sincere when it‟s a private affair.
6. Make them reflect on their efforts
Some people lavish praise on students for literally anything and everything in the hope that a
torrent of positive words will raise their self esteem and motivate them. “Wow, I love the way
you closed the door there!” Praise is more effective when we get students to stop and reflect on
what they‟ve done. By getting them to pause and think about their efforts we encourage them to
recognise and evaluate the positive feelings associated with positive action. If they enjoy these
feelings, there is more chance they will want to repeat the actions – for themselves, and not just
to please someone else.“What do you think of what you’ve done?” “How does it feel to have got
over that difficult problem?”
Praise strategies
In addition to direct 1:1 praise, here are two more very powerful and effective praise strategies
you should be using in the classroom...
1) Ego praise
This is a great way to acknowledge a student‟s strengths, abilities and efforts without saying
anything to them directly. Some students, as we know, find it difficult to accept praise directly –
this gets round the problem. The idea is to make positive statements about a student just loud
enough for them to hear but giving the impression that you are talking about them not to them.
The impression we want to convey in the examples below is that we hold Jonathon in high
esteem – so much so that we talk about him favourably to others.
“Go and ask Jonathan about it – he’s picked this up very quickly.”
“Go and watch Jonathon for a minute – he’s brilliant at this and you can learn a lot from him.”
“Mr Jones, have you noticed a change in Jonathon lately? I’ve seen him make some really big
changes in Maths – he’s really trying.”
2) Send letters home.
Don't underestimate the power of the letter home as a form of praise and effective behaviour
management tool. This has such a positive impact on students - I only wish I'd started doing it
earlier in my career.
Sending a short, positive letter home can transform a previously negative child - literally
overnight - into one who is motivated and eager to please. This is also one method that works
well even with older pupils, right up to age 16 and beyond. It is also very effective for pupils
who don't accept public praise very well - a letter home means their friends will never find out!
Letters home can be 'quick-notes' or more formal, traditional letters on school headed paper. You
can send out simple postcards for odd pieces of particularly good work or award 'extra special'
letters in response to sustained effort.
Rewards
I just want to briefly mention „the issue of „rewards‟ here because they are often considered,
along with praise, to be an effective strategy for positively reinforcing good behaviour. The
Needs Focused Approach™ doesn't advocate relying on rewards to change inappropriate
behaviour though for several reasons.
One of the main problems with reward programmes is that they don’t take into account students
who lack the capacity or skills to complete a designated task or meet a required level of work –
they just assume that the only reason they aren’t working is because they don’t want to do so.
Consider a boy who is offered rewards to bring in his homework. If he lives in an acutely chaotic
home where school is viewed negatively by other family members and he has never been taught
even the most basic of time management skills, the reward won’t help him – it won’t make his
family members give him support, and it won’t teach him the required organisational skills to
find time to sit down to do his homework.
During my 'Motivate the Unmotivated' staff training days I use the promise of cash rewards for a
series of impossible tasks to hammer this message home. Participants are offered increasingly
valuable cash prizes if they manage to complete a series of puzzles. They can’t do it. No matter
how much they want to, no matter how much they would like to further deplete my bank
account, and no matter how much I increase the potential prize money, they can’t complete the
task. If the skills are lacking, the reward won’t help.
Another problem is that they provide, at best, only a temporary improvement. Once the treats (or
the person giving the treats) have gone, the behaviour resumes. At worst they help build and
sustain a society of young people who will only do as they are asked as long as they are given
something of value in return – “I‟ll do as you ask but what are you going to give me in return?”
Our aim must be to TEACH appropriate behaviour and encourage students to behave
appropriately for the right reasons and for the intrinsic rewards such behaviour brings - not just
because they have been promised a treat or reward for doing so. This doesn't mean we shouldn't
give kids rewards now and again though - we just have to get the timing right.
When rewards are promised in advance ("Do this and I'll give you this") they are nothing more
than bribes. But when they are unexpected and given after an increased effort or positive change
in behaviour they can 'mark the moment' very well and reinforce the behaviour we want to see.
Student effort should be recognised and celebrated – and rewards can be used to this end - but
we can do better than to rely entirely on bribery where they are promised in advance of an
achieved target, as is the case with most school reward systems.
Let’s look at a better way to use rewards as true motivators: offering them spontaneously as
occasional surprises.
One of the most effective reward systems I ever saw in operation in a school worked entirely on
this basis. Unlike most other centres and special schools I’d worked in for children with
behaviour difficulties, there were no sticker charts and points totals on offer here. Instead, a
youth worker was assigned to take students who had shown improved effort out on a trip. The
‘trip’ might be a run into town; a visit to a park or sports centre; an event or show; helping out
with unpacking some deliveries; or even gardening. It all depended on the level of reward the
teacher felt the students deserved.
The effectiveness of this lay in the method of delivery. The youth worker would walk into the
classroom (this was pre-arranged with the teacher but unbeknown to the students) and say
something along the lines of: “Jonny, I hear you’ve been working very hard this week. I think
you deserve to come out with me.”
The impact this had on the other students (and Jonny of course) was quite astounding. There was
no build up nor expectation on the students‟ part, but good effort was still positively rewarded.
This approach was more about rejoicing in and celebrating achievement. The set up gave the
opportunity for the teacher to say “look what happens when you work hard”. It was quite a
profound moment for the other students to look up and see Jonny walk out of the room.
Individual spontaneous rewards are very powerful but this approach can also be adapted for a
whole group – with tremendous benefits in terms of improved social interaction between
students and an enhanced community feeling.
Occasional, unannounced “just because you’ve all been working so hard‟ whole class treats such
as videos (with popcorn) or cakes and soft drinks go a long way to motivating a previously
disengaged group and can help students see that we recognise their efforts.
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I should also point out that this method can dramatically reduce your workload and stress, can
reduce the constant need to repeat instructions and will practically automate your classroom.
How is all this possible? By establishing and using simple routines on a daily basis. Routines
really are among the most powerful preventive techniques in your toolbox.
Routines are effective because they eliminate misunderstandings; with proper routines in place
there is less need to continually repeat instructions and explain things to students who claim
they ‘didn’t hear’ or understand you the first time. I’ll repeat that because it’s important. Once
you have a routine firmly in place your students can no longer use the classic excuses - “I don’t
know what to do” or “I didn’t hear you” to evade following your instructions. Routines let
students know exactly what they have to do in any given situation by giving them a clear map to
follow. And because this map doesn’t change, the routine creates total consistency for both
teacher and students.
Routines are applicable to an unlimited range of activities and situations. They help classrooms
run smoothly, allow activities and tasks to be accomplished efficiently, and eliminate the
problems normally associated with transition times and other hotspots.
Let me show you what I mean with this simple example. Let’s assume the end of a lesson is
approaching. The teacher knows exactly what she wants the students to do – get cleared away as
quickly as possible - and she issues the instruction to do so.
Question: Which of these instructions will give her the greatest chance of success?
a) “The bell is about to ring, everyone. Put everything away and get ready to be dismissed
please.”
b) “Okay, the bell will ring in 5 minutes, it’s time to clear away. You know what to do.” (The
teacher points to a clearly displayed, and well-practised, routine posted at the front of the
classroom – see below).
End of Lesson Routine

 Put textbooks on the shelf and exercise books on my desk.

 Put all equipment back where you got it from.
 Clear your work area and sit silently facing the front.
 After you get permission to leave, push in your chair and leave in silence.
 If it is the last period of the day, stack the chairs by the back wall.

If the correct answer isn’t obvious, go and sit at the back of the class.
OK, the first set of instructions could have the desired effect with a well behaved, well trained,
considerate class – but if we always had that type of class you wouldn’t be reading this. With
most groups it will probably result in a somewhat chaotic scene with some students continuing
to sit and chat, and some taking it as a cue for mass hysteria, with perhaps a few actually tidying
the room.

Vague instructions, more often than not, give vague results because they don’t give the students
clear enough direction. Vague directions give lively students an excuse to misbehave as there
are too many variables when they aren’t told exactly what to do. They will wander, play dumb,
claim they ‘didn’t know what they were supposed to do’ and find something else to occupy
them.

As a result, what should be a simple job degenerates into the time-consuming and stressful task
of dealing with multiple behaviour issues, with you the teacher becoming increasingly frustrated
as time ticks by without students doing what you wanted them to. You will find yourself
repeating instructions, shouting, yelling and having to deal with progressively more problems
from students who choose not to follow instructions.
Option b) in the example above works because the teacher has already spent time teaching her
students the routine for ‘the end of the lesson’. There is no need for confusion or wasted time.
No need to repeat instructions, no need to check that everyone has understood and give extra
prompts to those who haven’t – everyone knows exactly what to do, and you get to watch
contentedly as they do it.

In the same way that the ‘end of lesson’ routine reduces problems at the end of the lesson,
routines can be used for almost every transition or behaviour ‘hot spot’ throughout the school
day. Any time or activity which normally causes problems can be made smoother and less
troublesome by implementing a routine.
Routines can be set up for virtually any and every troublesome time or activity in the classroom:

< >Entering classroomStart of the lessonDistributing materialsClearing away materialsAsking

for helpTransition between activities or tasksWhat to do when you’ve finished your taskWhat to
do when you’re lateUsing certain equipmentGroup workGoing to the libraryWatching a
videoListening to an outside speaker/visitorAnswering questionsHanding in workHanding in
homeworkLeaving classroom1. Arrive on time2. Line up in silence3. Enter without talking and
hang your coat up4. Sit in own seat5. Complete starter activity

Each stage of this routine has to be demonstrated, practised, monitored and reinforced until
every pupil is completely clear about what is expected. Don’t worry if this particular routine
seems a little too draconian for your students – it’s just an example – although I have used this
exact routine to bring an extremely challenging group of 14 year olds into line and it worked
very well.

At first it may be necessary to practise and repeat various stages of the routine until students see
that you really mean business on this issue. The manner in which we approach this activity is
therefore crucial – particularly with very challenging groups. A fine balance must be maintained
with such groups so as not to switch them off straight away - we need to be firm but fair - so
avoid shouting, patronising, belittling, threatening or rushing in with punishments when they get
it wrong, mess around or refuse to take part.

The message we need to get across to them is that the routine is there to help them – to help
them succeed and keep out of trouble. It may be necessary to have a few quiet words on a 1:1
basis with some of the less compliant individuals but you must stress that you are trying to help
them. Your approach should always be supportive. No matter how much they complain, remain
supportive and more often than not they will eventually respect your efforts.

For example, to teach the second stage, ‘Line up in silence’, you would have the students line
up outside the classroom exactly as you want them to be lined up - they need to see the way you
want them to do it.

If you’re happy for them to line up while chatting, pushing and shoving by all means let them
get away with that - but they will do the exact same next time you ask them to line up. On the
other hand you might decide that ‘line up in silence’ means standing still with left shoulder
touching the wall, hands by sides, looking straight ahead, saying absolutely nothing.
Pick a handful of students and get them to demonstrate this for the rest of the class to watch,
then have the whole class copy it. They will almost certainly test you by getting it wrong –
perhaps a little snigger here, a shove here and a total refusal there, so the whole thing then has to
be repeated.

To make it a bit more fun and less patronising for them you could try giving them a goal to
work to that can easily be reached with practice (eg, getting lined up in 5 seconds) and make a
game out of reaching that goal. Start slowly perhaps with a target of 20 seconds on the first day
and speed it up each day from there. Remember to give positive reinforcement along the way.

With some groups you may need to make things a little uncomfortable for them if they don’t
buy in to your instructions (or the light-hearted ‘game’ approach) straight away. I have known
teachers, myself included, spend whole break times practising silent line-forming all through
break time with a group who preferred to waste time during the lesson when the routine was
initially being taught. After a few days of missing their entire break they start to get the message
that you are in control.

Once they have succeeded in meeting your expectations mark the moment
by congratulating them and telling them that this is exactly how they must line up at the start of
every lesson – this is part of their routine.

Use the same procedure for teaching the other parts of the routine; and then the whole routine
can be revisited, reviewed and practised from time to time to make sure it remains a priority. A
little two-minute reminder on three or four of your routines is all that’s needed at the start of a
lesson but it still must be practised to keep routines fresh in their grey matter.

Laminate the routine and put it up on the wall so that the next time someone isn’t doing exactly
what they should at the start of the lesson, you only need to point at it and ask “what should you
be doing?” This is preferable to constantly searching for another way to ‘get them quiet at the
start of a lesson’, or losing your voice by repeating the same instructions time and time again.

For those who still refuse to follow routines we have ‘Responses and Consequences’ which we
will come to later in this mini course. However, I must stress this point: reaching for a
consequence in immediate response to inappropriate behaviour is not nearly as effective as
spending time teaching routines in the first place.

There is one final point to remember: teaching students to follow routines is difficult if you
don’t first put in place the ‘preventive strategies’ that we have been covering in earlier parts of
this course. Positive relationships, praise, satisfying needs etc all play a crucial role in getting
respect and compliance from your toughest groups.

So how much easier would your teaching day be if you had routines in place for all those
tricky times we’ve listed above? How much smoother would the lesson be if your students
knew exactly what to do in each of those circumstances? The key is to make lots of routines –
just as many as you need. Teach them, practise them, sing them if you want, but make
them habitual and put them up on walls as reminders - so that all you have to do with
slowcoaches and transgressors is simply lift a finger and point at the sign on the wall… “What
should you be doing?”

Congratulations, you’ve just learned how to automate your classroom.

Don't miss tomorrow's installment oif the mini courxse - we're going to go through a technique
for getting students to follow your instructions... EVRERY TIME. ;-)

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Hi Emina

Welcome to day 7 of your mini course (and WELL DONE for sticking with it so far. And I'd
LOVE to hear from you - please let me know how you're getting on/what you think of the mini
course etc. by either sending me an email - rob (at) needsfocusedteaching.com or by leaving a
message on the helpdesk: www.needsfocusedteaching.com/helpdesk I try to respond but please
be aware I can't give personal coaching in this format any more - I simply no longer have the
time.

Today I'm going to give you some tips on empowering your students by giving them directions
which are easy to follow. This is how to get your students to actually listen to, and follow,
your instructions.

We are going to look at four key methods:

1. Checking for understanding

2. Being congruent
3. Making sure instructions are clear & unambiguous
4. Giving them a reason to follow your instructions

1. Checking for understanding

The first thing we can do to maximise the chances of having a student follow instructions is
to make sure they actually know exactly what we mean when we speak to them. Have you ever
asked a student to get on with their work only to turn round 5 minutes later and see that
they’ve totally ignored you? And when you ask them why they aren’t doing as you asked
they say “I didn’t hear you” or “I didn’t know what you meant.” It’s frustrating isn’t it?

The problem here is that the teacher has unwittingly left themselves open to argument by not
ensuring that their message was clearly understood in the first place and this gives the
student a nice excuse for not doing as they have been asked.

If we are going to prevent problems from occurring we need to remove as many

opportunities for confrontation and excuses to behave inappropriately as possible. One of the
simplest way of doing this is to simply get them to confirm that they heard you in the first place.
After every instruction or direction simply get the student to explain what you just said…

“Darren, what did I just ask you to do?”

“Kyle, tell me what I just said please.”
“John, repeat the instructions please.”

Once they’ve told you they can’t ever come back at you with “I didn’t understand” or “I didn’t
hear you” and you have successfully eliminated one source of potential problems.
2. Being congruent
The second aspect of cutting out arguments associated with the instructions we give our
students concerns the way in which we actually communicate them. On our live courses we
use various activities to illustrate the importance of congruence – making sure that the
messages we give through our facial expressions, body language and voice
tone/pitch/volume clearly match the words we use and help convey our message without
being misinterpreted.

It is difficult to be aware and maintain control of body language, facial expressions etc. when
dealing with confrontation but the way we speak to an angry or frustrated student is at least as
important as the actual words we use and has a tremendous impact on the outcome.

A student will read everything about our approach, our stance and the way we look at them
before we actually start to speak and if we get any of these crucial aspects wrong they will
have decided to either listen, switch off or retaliate before we even open our mouths.

It is the silent messages we unconsciously give that are often at the root of students
either ignoring or arguingwith us.

Does our weary expression and exasperated tone give them the message that
we’re tired and worn out? If it does there’s a good chance they’ll either ignore us or push a little
harder to tip us over the edge when we ask them to do something they’d rather not.

Do our folded arms, tone of voice and frown give them the message that we don’t like them?
Tough students might retaliate there and then while quieter members might hold a grudge and
seek retribution at a later date. In either case, they are unlikely to behave as we would like.

The way we give instructions has a massive impact on how students respond to them. We
can give the impression that we are a pushover, a threat or a leader depending on the silent
messages we give out so if you find your students aren’t responding to your instructions in
the way you’d like this might be a good area to reflect on.

3. Making instructions clear and unambiguous.

The clearer the directions, the more chance there is that they will do what we want and the less
chance there is for arguments due to misinterpretation.
"John, you need to stop tapping your pen, sit properly on your chair and look this way."

...will have more chance of getting the desired outcome than...

"John, stop it!"

A request like this immediately leaves us open to questions...

"Stop what?"

...and then before we know it, an argument has developed...

“I wasn’t doing anything! You’re always picking on me!”

Once they’ve drawn you into a ‘battle-of-wills’ your lesson is lost.

Here’s another simple example...

“Get on with your work quietly”

The word ‘quietly’ means different things to different people so straight away we have
opened the door to confrontation. For one student it means ‘whispering’ while for another it
means ‘talking in their normal speaking voice’. Another student might take this as meaning there
is no real rule on noise levels at all. In each case, the students who is challenged for making too
much noise will almost certainly protest that they are “working quietly”. It’s not surprising that
vague instructions like this don’t always result in the behaviour we want to see and are often a
source of arguments.

To make sure the students keep within the noise levels we want all we need to do is clarify
exactly what we mean by ‘quietly’.

Younger children might need a tangible representation of the word – they could be shown a ruler
and told to use their ’30cm voices’ or their ‘partner voices’ instead of their ‘yard voices’.

For older students we might simply clarify our instruction by demonstrating the volume we are
referring to.

4. Give them a reason

In 1978 a group of research psychologists tried to see if they could get people to let them jump
the queue to use a photocopier. They tried three different approaches to get people to let them go
first:

1. Request only: “Excuse me, do you mind if I go before you to use the photocopier?”
2. ‘Made up’ or irrelevant reason: “Excuse me, do you mind if I go before you to use
the photocopier because I have to make some copies?”
3. Real reason: “Excuse me, do you mind if I go before you to use the photocopier
because I’m in a rush?”
So a third of the time they just asked to skip the line, a third of the time they gave an irrelevant
reason (of course they had to make copies. What else do you use a photocopier for?), and a third
of the time they actually gave a good reason.

The results were interesting...

When the researchers gave a reason for wanting to queue jump they were allowed to do so far
more than when simply making the request without a reason. But the most surprising part of the
study was that it didn’t seem to matter what the reason was... a seemingly trivial or unrelated
reason (‘Can I go first? I need to make some copies’) worked just as well as a legitimate one.

The point we can take from this study in relation to teaching is that when making a request for a
student to do something, remember to back up it up with a reason: (”Can you do X because
Y?”).
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a good reason... “Get on with your work because otherwise you
won’t get it finished” should work just as well as “Get on with your work otherwise you’ll have
to finish it at break”; and will undoubtedly stimulate fewer arguments and protests.
Try:
“Help me by quietening down please because I have a hangover headache”
rather than
“Be quiet!”
and
“Line up please because we’re running out of time.”
rather than
“Line up please.”
Giving them a reason for doing something shows you can attach importance to the instructions
without making them officious and bureaucratic:
“When you come to see me at lunch time make sure you get here for 12:30 so we can sort this
out without it interfering with your lunch too much.”
rather than
“See me at lunch time, without fail.”

Play around with it and see what happens... but don’t get carried away or you might get in
trouble (“give me your dinner money because I’m badly paid” will almost certainly make you
unpopular on yard duty).
Summary:

Explain very clearly what you want a student to do – preferably by giving them a reason to do so,
ask them to do it in the right manner and then check for understanding.

Taking those four simple steps means there is more chance they will actually do it – without
arguing.

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Hi Emina
Welcome back to the classroom management mini course. Today I'm going to show you why it's
important to add a bit of FUN to your teaching... and how to do it.

To be honest though, for some teachers, the idea of having to make lessons fun just so that
disengaged students might take a bit more interest doesn’t sit too well. Their opinion is that one
of the most important things young people should learn is this:

‘Life isn’t always fun and there are times you just have to get on with it. You are in school to
learn, not waste your time having fun.’

It’s true of course - children go to school to learn. Most people, therefore, would agree with the
above statement… and so do I. But only to a certain extent; please allow me to digress for a
moment…

Many years ago, at the start of my teaching career, I attended an interview for a post working
with a group of children with Special Educational Needs at a prestigious high school in Cumbria.
The formal interview was held in the afternoon but before that I had to teach a demonstration
lesson – I was nervous under scrutiny, naturally, but by the end I was reasonably happy with my
performance.

After lunch I was grilled by the panel that consisted of the Head Teacher, four senior teachers,
and two governors. The Head was a particularly charismatic man with a cheerful, welcoming
manner which helped soothe my interview nerves, but when it was his turn to question me he
held his chin thoughtfully, paused and peered down his nose at me, just long enough to leave me
feeling like a specimen under a microscope. Unease stirred within me.

“I’ve got some excellent teachers at this school, Mr Plevin,” he said. In my mind I was already
thanking them for their time as my optimism began to drain away, and I was convincing myself
that my teaching style hadn’t reached the required standard. “Yes, excellent teachers. But do you
know what? Not one of them could do what you just did in that classroom with those students.
The way you held the attention of that group was exceptional.”

I couldn’t have been more taken aback if he’d hit me with a sock full of custard. I was
embarrassed if truth be known and I looked in surprise at their smiling faces. But the Head
hadn’t finished.

“However…” His tone changed as he put his hands on his knees and fixed me with a searching
stare. “What I want to know is - just what did those children actually learn? There’s no doubt
you can entertain my students, but what did you actually teach them?”

I realised his opening praise had been directed at my ability as an entertainer, not a teacher.

He was dead right of course, and his question had knocked me sideways. My philosophy up to
that point had been based on entertaining the students in my classroom – after all, if they are
engaged and not giving me behaviour headaches, then the lesson must be a success… right?
And suddenly, in the middle of that interview, I found my own skills and values under close
scrutiny. To cut a long story short I was offered a job at that school – but not the one I had
applied for. I was offered an entirely different role leading a new department on a higher pay
scale and…

...I turned it down.

I remember clearly the look on the face of that noble and passionate Head Teacher as he said to
me “When would you be able to start?” and I replied “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I will have to decline
your kind offer. As a result of this interview I’m going to go and reassess my career.” Without
intending to he had knocked the stuffing right out of me.

We chatted for some time and parted on good terms. I often think back to that day because it
marked a huge turning point for me. It taught me a lesson that led to me changing the way I
teach, and has undoubtedly been a contributory factor in the development of the Needs Focused
approach.

Making lessons fun is NOT enough to stop behaviour problems, and it isn’t going to
miraculously transform your challenging class into hard-working star students. Without the
application of other key teaching and classroom management skills a fun lesson may well turn
into a free-for-all, particularly with a challenging group, and will only serve to build you a
reputation as a walk-over.

The aim should be to improve all aspects of your lesson delivery and content. Yes, there will
be fun. Kids like to have fun and when learning is fun studies have found it to be much more
successful. But in addition to fun we need to make
lessons relevant, interactive and memorable. Let’s face it, even the most talented entertainer
gets a bit boring after a while when you are limited to the role of passive spectator. Kids need
activity, challenge and interaction – they need to be able to do rather than just watch or listen -
they need to be fully involved in the learning process.

I’m sure you’re already aware of that and have almost certainly stayed up into the early hours on
many occasions planning engaging lesson activities only to have students throw them back in
your face. It’s soul destroying when that happens but there is another element to a successful
lesson which I believe makes it easier to make sure your lessons appeal to your students – their
preconceived opinions and feelings.

I like to use the simple analogy of your students each carrying an ‘emotion rucksack’ on their
backs as they enter your lessons. If they arrive with the opinion or feeling that the lesson, (based
on their previous experience), is something they will have to endure for the next hour –
something boring, irrelevant to them, perhaps embarrassing or difficult – their rucksack will be
filled with negative emotions before they even set foot in the room.

And trying to teach students who have this view of your lessons is very, very hard. When they
have already made up their minds that your lesson is something they’re NOT going to enjoy or
get any benefit from, you’ve definitely got a battle on your hands.
Wouldn’t it be easier if your students actually looked forward to your lesson? I know, it sounds
ridiculous but despite what you’re thinking right now, getting to this stage with most, if
not all, of your students is actually very achievable.

Getting back to the rucksack, all we have to do is change the contents.

When those same students start turning up to class carrying a rucksack with a little bit
of intrigue, perhaps recollections of a few laughs they had last lesson, a feeling
of success and achievement at having understood a difficult concept for the first time or
the expectation that they are going to enjoy a certain activity, they become totally different
animals.

And the results are cumulative. The more malleable and responsive they are, the more you enjoy
teaching them, the more success you can have with them with the result that their respect for you
grows and they start to look forward to your time together even more. Eventually lessons become
an absolute JOY for both parties and your ‘least favourite’ group gradually becomes the source
of your most treasured teaching moments.

It all starts with changing the experiences they have in your lessons – making sure that the hour
they spend with you is a positive, enjoyable event. There will be ups and downs, for sure, but by
including certain key elements and activities in your lessons you will see a noticeable
improvement in terms of engagement, participation and overall student enjoyment.

These are the features your lessons should include, whenever possible:

1. Attention-grabbing starter activities to get the lesson off to a flying start

2. Energisers to raise the spirits of a flagging group
3. Active teaching and learning ideas to get students doing
4. Cooperative learning arrangements to get students working with each other
5. Novel, quirky, fun fill-ins to break negative patterns of behaviour and create a positive
learning environment such as music, funny video clips, puzzles, magic tricks etc.
6. Curriculum-related magic tricks to capture students’ interest
7. Whiteboard resources - flash games and tools
8. A variety of teaching activities appealing to different learning styles

To help you on your quest to find such activities and I’ve provided you with a link to a free
report today packed with activities that will help you start adding positive experiences to your
students’ rucksacks.

Remember, when your students find your lessons engaging, interesting and fun, there is far less
chance that they will need to find their own fun by misbehaving!

You can get your free report here: FREE ACTIVITY PACK
NB// Post this into your browser if the link doesn't work:

http://needsfocusedteaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Needs-Focused-Activity-Pack.pdf

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Here's the link: http://needsfocusedteaching.com/the-hidden-dangers-of-teacher-stress/

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Hi Emina

I've got a video for you today.

Comments I've received about this tend to be things like: 'I've never heard anyone explain
this so well' and 'This is the BEST tutorial I've ever heard on this topic.'

The topic I'm explaining on the videos is... CONSEQUENCES.

It's something MOST teachers struggle with and it answres the 'what do I do when they...?'
question.

If you'd like to watch it, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn9jcZilc7w

Incidentally, if you want to get ALL my classroom management videos I've put them all
inone huge pack. And it's currently available for 70% discount.

As well detailing my ENTIRE Needs-Focused Classroom Management System the pack

also contains the NEXT video about consequences (it follows the one above) and gives
examples of how to create your own hierarchy of consequences for different classroom
situations/behaviours as well as how to apply them. It's very good. ;-)

You can get all my videos for 70% OFF right here:

http://needsfocusedteaching.com/video-pack/

Best wishes,

Rob Plevin

Getting students to complete homework is a typical problem for teachers – especially with
students who lack motivation. If they’re not working in class where we can stand over them,
they certainly aren’t going to work at home. Here are six ways to encourage students to
complete and return their homework – and none of them involve you dishing out a never-
ending stream of detentions or making promises of certificates and other treats (a.k.a.
‘Bribes’!)
1. Make sure the work appeals to them – It sounds obvious but the more appealing you
can make your homework in terms of having sufficient challenge, interest and practical
value, the more chance your students will attempt it. With competitors like television,
games, friends and the now-ubiquitous Facebook, if they see no point in it or if it’s too
boring/dull/easy it’s obviously not going to appeal. As a long term strategy, if students gain
a sense of pride and accomplishment when they finish work, they are more likely to attempt
future tasks.
2. Make it achievable – Ideally it should be continuation of class work (rather than
introducing something new) so they know how to do it. They need to know exactly what
they’re aiming for and what the finished product should look like. There’s no point in giving
them something they haven’t a clue about, it just won’t get done.
3. Include an element of choice – Choice is an incredibly powerful motivator so it should
be included in homework tasks. Give them a choice of task (‘any 3 tasks from the following
5’) or a choice in the presentation method – ‘produce a mind-map, report, illustration,
magazine article or model’ etc. (See ‘Creative Homework Assignments’ in resource
area/cd).
4. Write it down – Always make sure students have the task (and any helpful instructions)
written down clearly before they leave the room or post the task up on a blog/website so that
they can access it any time. It cuts out the ‘I didn’t know what to do’ excuses and provides
them with a reminder should they get stuck
5. Include group interaction – We know that students like to work together so there is
some merit in the idea of occasionally (or even regularly if it proves successful) setting a
project which requires students to work in groups for completion. The individual
accountability from peers involved in group work gives extra impetus to get the task
completed
6. Get parents/carers involved – If you have children you’re no doubt fully aware how
much of a problem the whole issue of homework can cause at home. Parents do the cajoling,
reminding, threatening, punishing and bribing while kids do the lying, avoiding, promising,
making excuses and delaying. In many homes World War III breaks out over this single
issue almost every night while in others it isn’t even mentioned. With this in mind, many
parents/carers (even those that appear totally unsupportive) will welcome help & direction
from school on the subject of homework and this can be a very effective way of gaining
their support in return.
If you have trouble getting support from some parents the key is to convince them that you
are trying to help them and their child and make life easier for all. You don’t want to come
across as if this is for your benefit or to meet school targets.; rather, it’s to help their child
progress, succeed and do well. You need to show them how a little bit of support from them
is going to have a dramatic effect on their child’s progress in school and consequently on
home life – happier child, easier life, fewer arguments, fewer detentions, fewer requests to
visit school for a ‘little chat’ etc.
Begin by explaining to parents that homework involves the efforts of three separate parties –
school, child, home – and that each party is dependent on support and input from the other
two if the system is to work properly. Show them a record of any homework tasks that have
been missed and explain the school policy and procedure for dealing with missed
homework. Show them that it is neither pleasant nor beneficial for the student. If possible
show them statistics for the effect of missed homework on overall grades.
Then show them the specific things they can do to help together with the days/times when
this should happen. They’ll need a copy of the homework schedule showing the days the
work has to be handed in together with the suggested time to be spent on a task. Setting a
regular, definite block of time – say 4:30-5:30pm – helps teach them time management.
Try to encourage them to set a time early on in the evening so that a) the child is still fairly
alert and b) X Factor hasn’t started. The idea is to create a habit, a routine which doesn’t
interfere with evening entertainment too much.
Another reason to set an early time is that it enables consequences to be brought into play .
If homework is allowed to be last thing at night and the child is allowed to play on a
computer or watch TV all night before that, how can consequences be applied?
They’ll need a list of necessary materials and supplies to make available at home (in some
cases the school could supply these) and you could even provide them with a set of ‘parent
notes’ for a task the child is likely to find challenging so that they can take part and provide
some assistance and instruction. I’ve dealt with many parents with severely academic
limitations and they were delighted when I gave them these.
Finally, they may benefit from some behaviour management guidance in terms of suitable
consequences such as withholding TV/computer game/mobile phone/pocket money until
homework is completed. The easier you can make it for them to take part, the better the
chances they will.
Whenever we’ve done this in schools the feedback from both the parent and the child has
been very positive – parents enjoy spending some quality time with a child they have
possibly had very little quiet contact with for a long time, while the students start to enjoy a
sense of achievement as well as increased parental contact/attention.