Lisa Dale, Headteacher at Howbridge Church of England Junior School, has recently written a feature for The Headteacher magazine about how the school’s enrolment in a DfE training programme has led to a dramatic decrease in reported behaviour incidents.
After returning to school post-lockdown, Lisa Dale noticed that more pupils were struggling to focus during lesson time. This created a strong sense of restlessness in classrooms and made it increasingly difficult for teaching staff to manage behaviour. To transform the school’s management of discipline and pupil conduct, Lisa Dale signed Howbridge up for the Department of Education’s latest ‘Behaviour Hub’ programme.
The programme, which is part of a £10 million initiative designed to support a culture of good behaviour and structured routines, encouraged the school to focus on prevention and de-escalation strategies to change how staff responded to disruptive behaviour. This included assigning a key adult to collect children from the playground and help them settle down before returning to lessons, which helped to create a calmer atmosphere in the classroom.
Lisa Dale discusses the steps that were taken to improve the school’s overall behaviour, such as networking with other schools to see how their practical solutions could be modified to suit the needs of Howbridge pupils.
Lisa Dale’s article on sparking a whole-school transformation in behaviour can be read in full on The Headteacher website.
JOHN 15:5
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