How to deal with challenging behaviour.

Hopefully, you will not encounter behaviour like this in your classroom. However, you can sometimes feel like you've done ten rounds in the ring when you get home at the end of a busy day.

There are going to be some classes where, as a group, or because of the behaviour of specific individuals, you are likely to encounter challenging behaviour. Challenging behaviour is a label which sounds politically correct but describes less than perfect behaviour.

As a classroom teacher, you will need to deal effectively with this behaviour to avoid losing the class. I have seen this happen to a couple of teachers and it is not a happy thing. The teachers ended up feeling like they had failed, lost credibility and face.

This can be a real knock to self-confidence and it takes courage to get back up in front of a class again. If this ever happens to you, try and put it in a good perspective and be philosophical. The whole thing could be a learning experience, even if you learn that you never want to lose control of a class again!

The following are a number of interventions and approaches to managing challenging behaviour:

1 Planning

Much of the success in behaviour management comes from prevention rather than cure. If you carefully research and plan your approach to each class and the individuals that present challenging behaviour, you are much more likely to reduce the probability of disruptive behavior in the first place. At the least, thorough planning should help you to reduce the impact of any behaviour if it occurs.

For example, before I actually teach a class I will carefully look at the Special Needs Register and make note of any issues that the children may have. Often the SEN Department will have an action plan in place for that child. The action plan or IEP (Individual Education Plan) should have details of strategies that work or don't work for the child. It will be tailored to help with the child's problems . If you are teaching lower ability classes, definitely check out their IEP's. Another example of planning might be to look at the Schemes of Work and talk to SEN classroom assistants who know the kids well. You can then provide resources that are at the right level for the pupils and so avoid unnecessary frustrations.

This type of planning will help you get routines in place to help your classroom run smoothly.

2 Have your own sets of rules and communicate your expectations of the class.

3 Follow the School's Behaviour Policy.

If all the teachers in a school stick together and follow the policy, it has a much better chance of working. If you are new to a school, make sure you are familiar with the Behaviour Policy so that you can enforce it if necessary.

4 Keep things light and sidestep minor disruption with humour.

A certain amount of minor behaviour can be dealt with by the teacher making light of the behaviour but addressing it if it continues. Humour can be a great way to disarm a provocateur in a non-confrontational manner. As an example, I taught this boy called Tom, who had developed this attention grabber - by letting go gigantic farts just when I got to an important point in my lesson, or when I had just settled the rest of the class. The first time he did his trick in my class, the fart immediately caused mayhem. Kids moved because of the stench and some started to gag. I made a humorous comment about him eating beans for dinner and "beans, beans good for your heart, the more you eat the more you fart". This got the class laughing and gave me enough time to open the windows and door to let the gas escape. I quickly moved back to the point I was about to make and the lesson went on without a major disruption. Fifteen minutes later, Tom had built up enough gas to trump again. At this point, I asked him to take his gas outside and stay there until he was sure he could come back in without farting. After a cool off period, Tom realised I wasn't going to take any more disrupting from his overactive bottom and rejoined the class - fart free - for the rest of the lesson. As a footnote to the story, I heard that Tom had soiled himself while trying to disrupt his English lesson. What goes around, comes around!

If kids do not respond to your actions start to use the School Behaviour Policy.

If effective, warn and use detentions, a threat of parking or removal to 'time out'.